HUD secretary Turner to scrap costly federal zoning rule Trump warned would ‘destroy’ suburbs

WASHINGTON — Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Scott Turner announced the elimination Wednesday of a costly Obama- and Biden-era federal zoning rule that President Trump warned would “destroy” suburban neighborhoods nationwide.

The Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) rule had conditioned millions of dollars’ worth of community development block grants from HUD on the completion of lengthy demographic analyses.

To get the money, localities had to certify that there were no disparities — either by race, religion, sex, nationality or disability — in access to parks, transportation hubs, schools, and business districts, among other stipulations.

“Local and state governments understand the needs of their communities much better than bureaucrats in Washington, DC,” Turner said in a statement first shared with The Post.

“Terminating this rule restores trust in local communities and property owners, while protecting America’s suburbs and neighborhood integrity.”

A HUD official told reporters on a conference call Wednesday that a new rule put forward by the department will still prohibit discrimination under the Fair Housing Act of 1968, without the need for the analyses.

“By terminating the AFFH rule, localities will no longer be required to complete onerous paperwork and drain their budgets to comply with the extreme and restrictive demands made up by the federal government,” Turner added.

“As HUD returns to the original understanding and enforcement of the law without onerous compliance requirements, we can better serve rural, urban and tribal communities that need access to fair and affordable housing.”

Proponents of the AFFH rule, instituted in 2015 under President Barack Obama, have said it would increase opportunities for low-income minorities to live in suburban residential areas.

But critics have faulted it as a federal takeover of local zoning by mandating the building of high-density, affordable housing units and imposing de facto racial quotas.

Economic experts at the libertarian Cato Institute have claimed that the rule did little to reduce racial or income segregation in neighborhoods, while costing US taxpayers up to $55 million per year.

Westchester County repeatedly butted heads with the Obama administration over the rule after the 44th president’s HUD sided with civil rights organizations suing county officials for not complying with it.

In a June 2020 Rose Garden speech, Trump said the regulation, which his HUD Secretary Ben Carson had scrapped, empowered “far-left Washington bureaucrats” to “eliminate single-family zoning to destroy the value of houses.”

Former President Joe Biden revived AFFH during the latter part of his term — only to delay its implementation when it became a political vulnerability during his ill-fated re-election campaign.

The Biden administration ultimately withdrew the rule shortly before the 46th president left office Jan. 20.

HUD officials said they submitted their own interim finalized rule on Wednesday, reversing what Trump’s predecessor had intended.

“Returning to the law as written,” said Turner, “will advance market-driven development and allow American neighborhoods to flourish.”