SB 23
A Quiet but Powerful Housing Reform in Michigan
In December 2025, Michigan passed Public Act 58 of 2025, originally SB 23 — a technical change to state land law that most people haven’t heard of, but that could meaningfully affect housing supply across the state by removing one of the most overlooked bottlenecks in housing production: how land can be divided in the first place.
Before this law, Michigan’s Land Division Act tightly limited how many lots a property owner could create before triggering a full subdivision plat. That process is slow, expensive, and often politically fraught.
As a result:
Small developers were locked out
Homeowners couldn’t easily create buildable lots for family or ADUs
Even places that wanted more housing often couldn’t deliver it
Public Act 58 dramatically expands how many parcels can be created by right, without going through an expensive, complicated platting process.
For a typical property:
Up to 10 parcels can be created from the first 10 acres
Larger properties can create even more parcels as acreage increases
Large remaining parcels (40 acres or more) don’t count against these limits
This makes it far easier to create buildable lots, especially for small-scale, incremental development.
This opens the door to:
Small-lot housing
Townhomes and cottage courts
Incremental infill in existing neighborhoods
Aligning land division rules with modern zoning reforms
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