On the heels of the budget announcement, activity picked up this week for the chambers' negotiations regarding HB 44 Local Government Regulatory Reform 2015 -- wide-ranging legislation that affects local government environmental, zoning, and other land-use regulations. A greatly improved version of the bill was adopted by both the House and the Senate yesterday, after conferees worked tirelessly to make many positive changes from what the Senate first proposed. The League thanks all the conferees, especially Reps. Chuck McGrady, Stephen Ross, and Paul Stam, for their hard work improving many of the provisions that were of concern to cities.
A few of the provisions of interest to cities include the following:
Riparian buffer reform. The language in the adopted conference report was a significant improvement from the complicated and limiting buffer provisions that were first seen in HB 760. It will now allow for local governments to require buffers to comply with and implement other state and federal requirements.
Construction notice. This provision still requires local governments to notify property owners and adjacent property owners prior to the commencement of any construction project without clarifying what is considered "construction." However, a beneficial exception was added to allow for notice of a project to be given in any open meeting of the city or county.
Permits for wells. This provision not only allows for permits for wells for irrigation and non-potable water uses within service areas of a public water system, but also allows drinking water wells if (1) the well is to serve any undeveloped or unimproved property, or (2) the public water system cannot provide water service to the property.
A possible risk to the public water system's financial stability and impediment to its capital needs was the inclusion of a provision that prevents a public water supplier from then later requiring that the owner of the drinking water well connect to the system. However, the adopted conference report improved this provision by adding the following reasons for when the public water supplier could mandate connection, helping to address those financial concerns:
-
the entity operating the public water system is being assisted by the Local Government Commission, or
-
the entity operating the public water system is in the process of expanding or repairing the public water system, and is actively making progress to having water lines installed directly available to provide water service to that property within the 24 months of the time the property owner applies for the private drinking water well permit.
Preaudit certification. The final version of the bill also retained a League supported provision that modernizes and clarifies the preaudit certification statute to ease compliance with the requirement without weakening financial controls. Specifically, the provision reflects advances in technology to accommodate credit cards, gas cards, procurement cards, and other electronic means of remitting payment for obligations.
Many other provisions affecting cities and towns were included, and we encourage you to contact League staff with any questions. An additional omnibus regulatory reform proposal, HB 765 Regulatory Reform Act of 2015 has also been the subject of negotiations and a conference report is expected next week. Contact: Sarah Collins