This page is a snapshot, cut 13 September 2026, of a topic that moves. Below is the shape of the movement, read from the towns' own meeting records, and the way to get a view of it that stays current.
Rules setting how many units can be built on a lot and where: dimensional and lot-size standards, multifamily allowances, inclusionary requirements, and the comprehensive-plan work behind them.Our definition of the class.
Snapshot taken 13 September 2026, based on 485 dated municipal records flagged as housing density, spanning 250 municipalities across 32 states. The topic moves; a later cut supersedes this page.
What this page is for one topic at state or national scope, told as a story: how it arrived, the shape of its movement, a dated snapshot of a moving record, and the door to a view of it that stays current. If it does not, write to us; that is what changes the next edition.
Source documents 3 of 4 on this page link straight to the town's own record. The rest are available on request. Ask for access.
The record starts in Maine, 4 January 2010. Since then 250 municipalities in 32 states have put the topic on a meeting record, at very different speeds: Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts hold 62% of the dated events between them.
The last 90 days put 32 meetings on the record, down from 95 in the 90 days before.
It runs through the rooms where budgets and ordinances are made: Planning Board, City Council and Town Council.
| Quarter | Meetings | Towns | States |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 2025 to Nov 2025 | 37 | 21 | 10 |
| Dec 2025 to Feb 2026 | 136 | 91 | 23 |
| Mar 2026 to May 2026 | 105 | 77 | 16 |
| Jun 2026 to Sep 2026 (current) | 32 | 26 | 13 |
a rolling 90-day total, so the right-hand point is that same 90-day count. The busiest stretch was Dec 2025 to Feb 2026, with 136 meetings.
| State | Towns on the record | Meetings, 90 days | Latest |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maine | 52 | 12 ▼ -52.0% | 2026-09-02 |
| New Hampshire | 41 | 4 | 2026-08-10 |
| Massachusetts | 31 | 1 | 2026-06-22 |
| Vermont | 17 | 3 ▼ -57.1% | 2026-08-04 |
| Connecticut | 15 | 3 ▼ -40.0% | 2026-08-03 |
| California | 12 | 2 ▼ -60.0% | 2026-07-27 |
| New Jersey | 8 | 1 | 2026-06-16 |
| Washington | 8 | 1 | 2026-06-22 |
| Kentucky | 8 | 0 | 2026-05-12 |
| Utah | 5 | 1 ▬ +0.0% | 2026-07-07 |
| Arizona | 5 | 0 | 2026-01-28 |
| New York | 5 | 0 | 2026-03-11 |
| Illinois lighter read | 4 | 0 | 2026-05-04 |
| Pennsylvania lighter read | 4 | 0 | 2026-02-05 |
| Missouri lighter read | 3 | 1 new on the record | 2026-06-23 |
And 17 more states on the record, in an account view.
2 September 2026 · Falmouth, Maine Community Development Committee
the minutes, on the town's own site CDC_Minutes_05.12.2026_DRAFT.pdf
1 September 2026 · Westbrook, Maine Document Center / Planning / Planning Board
the posted document, on the town's own site Staff Memo 09.01.2026
28 August 2026 · Hermon, Maine
the public notice, on the town's own site Hermon Public Hearing Notice, BDN, Sept. 1
24 August 2026 · Portland, Maine City Council
the agenda, on the town's own site Special City Council Meeting 2 - August 24, 2026 at 5:30 PM 2026-08-24 — Special City Council Meeting Agenda - August 24
And 1185 more companies.
The documents naming each, and the threads they sit in, are the account view. If one of these is you, those are your projects on the record. Ask and we will show you every one, and the towns around them, as they move.
Everything above is frozen at 13 September 2026; the topic is not. 89 more events on this topic carry no usable date and are counted, never dated. The counts follow where we read most: a town or a state absent here was not read at depth, and absence is not evidence the topic is absent there. A lighter-read state is not a ceiling; where you care about a region, pointing the system there is the first thing an account changes. How coverage is built, and its known limits: municipalalpha.com/methodology.
We track this topic continuously; this page is one cut of it, taken 13 September 2026. An account turns the snapshot into a working view: every town and every document behind these counts, the thread on each matter as it develops, word of new meetings as they land on the record, your own states and topics side by side, and the data itself when you want it in a table. The towns above are the taste; what each is actually deciding, funding or stalling is the read an account carries.
Each state's name above opens its own page. The site's story on this topic: The Housing Density Wave Is Rewriting Municipal Zoning in Real Time. Counts and dates are computed from the documents on the record; the topic and its definition are ours. This page carries no subscriber content.
Scope
Across the country
Towns on the record
250
States on the record
32
Earliest
4 January 2010
Meetings, last 90 days
32 against 95 before
Snapshot cut
13 September 2026
A view that stays current