In October, Central Minnesota Builders Association (CMBA) participated in a virtual meeting dedicated to housing affordability challenges in Greater Minnesota. Other participants included the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities, Rep. Larry Kraft, Sen. Lindsey Port and Rep. Michael Howard.

“We’ve heard it from employers across our communities,” said Wanda Schroeder, executive director of CMBA. “There is both an affordability and inventory crisis in the St. Cloud region, and this makes it harder for employers to attract and retain talent.”

According to a report issued by “Up for Growth” last year, the slowdown in construction is harming housing affordability and access in the St. Cloud region. The area’s housing deficit is 1,652 units, raising costs on both existing homes and apartments, and leaving 49% of area renters cost burdened.

CMBA also sent a letter to legislators highlighting the need for statewide land use reform in the 2025 legislative session. The October meeting was the third in an ongoing series organized by legislators.

Identifying code impacts on homebuilding costs 

CMBA responded to a request from the city of Cokato and the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities (CGMC), seeking more information about how the state’s building code and energy code are impacting St. Cloud region homebuilding costs. CMBA gave them an extensive list of impacts and suggestions for changes that could help ease the cost of building.

The list included concerns about land use rules. 

“In the areas with the greatest need (our St. Cloud tri-county area, Duluth, Rochester and the Twin Cities), the system is not designed to approve new projects at the scale required,” CMBA stated in its response.

CMBA also highlighted the need for statewide building code enforcement, mitigating building permit fees by making them square footage-based, legislative review of any code change that adds $1,000 or more to the cost of a home, banning cosmetic design requirements in planning laws and putting all building-related codes on the same six-year cycle. CMBA also suggested a number of changes in code-specific and code-adjacent issues, including repealing the 2024 energy code, backing off new green energy mandates, easing requirements for electric vehicle (EV) chargers and moving plumbing code rulemaking to the Department of Labor and Industry (DLI).

“There are clearly regulatory impacts that state and local governments can help address and mitigate,” stated Steve Gottwalt, CMBA government affairs consultant, in the response. “Without action to significantly improve this situation, we will continue to fall behind in terms of both supply and affordability.”  

Seeking clarity on independent contractor rules under new law

CMBA recently hosted a meeting with top DLI officials regarding the implementation of the state’s new “Worker Misclassification” law which became effective July 1st.  CMBA members are concerned about the law’s new requirements for determining who is an independent contractor vs. employee.

“Our members want to comply,” said Wanda Schroeder, CMBA’s executive director. “But they need clear information about the law and how it will be enforced.”

Guest presenters included DLI Labor Standards Division director, Jessica Grosz, and DLI associate general counsel, Adam Case. They ran through a slide presentation outlining the new law, and more details of the new 14-point test determining an independent contractor.

“We certainly appreciated DLI joining our meeting to try and explain the lack of clarity in implementing this new independent contractor law,” said Gottwalt. “But they did not really settle the concerns our members have about how this new law works, how it will practically impact their businesses and how to comply.”