Legislative Update – 1/23/23

We’ve been plenty busy over the past week, and there is lots to track, so let’s get right to it.

Recap of the last week.

SB 158: Revise family transfer law – Opposed

This bill would allow family transfers in subdivisions and allow them to preempt zoning in large lot zoning districts, as well as a few other items. We were able to get an amendment so existing conditions of approval would apply to family transfer lots, but we were not able to get the zoning preemption removed.

SB 152: Revise minor subdivision laws – Support

This bill would drop the July 1, 1973 date in the minor subdivision statutes. There would be more first minors as a result. We were fine with that, MACO not so much. It passed with an amendment to change July 1, 1973 to October 1, 2003.

SB 142: Provide oversight of local impact fee laws – Opposed

This bill would create even more bureaucracy to adopt and administer impact fees. There is an amendment in the works to make it a little less bureaucratic.

HB 211: Revise the local subdivision review process – Support

We are in general support of this bill, which amends three parts of the MSPA. There was some discussion about details at the hearing, and there may be a few minor amendments coming.

SB 170: Allow for administrative minor subdivision process – Support

This is the MAP bill to create an administrative minor review process for simple subdivisions. The hearing went well, there was good discussion around some details. Expect some amendments.

Some of you may wonder what position we took on SB 143: Allow a referendum to terminate citizen initiated zoning district. We are not concerned about this bill as it addresses a constitutional issue. We decided not to expand capacity testifying and are going to watch the bill as it progresses.

On Deck:

HB 246: Allow for the zoning of tiny dwelling units – Watch

Hearing-01/26/23 (H)Local Gov. 3pm. Rm 472

We don’t really think this bill does much as most jurisdictions that got back to us said they already allow tiny homes on foundations. We elected to not weigh in.

SB 178: Generally revise cryptocurrency laws – No position yet

Why do we care about cryptocurrency? We don’t. We care about some language that says you can’t change the zoning in an area if there is a cryptocurrency business operation. Look at it, it is a really big deal the way it is written. We have a connection to the sponsor, and we are reaching out to discuss an amendment.

Heads Up:

LC0590: Revise zoning laws

The kill county zoning bill. This bill will prevent counties from adopting minimum lot sizes and repeal all existing minimum lot sizes in counties. This bill got killed last session, it’s going to be a lot hard this session. If you have Part II zoning, make sure your county commissioners are aware of this bill.

LC1454: Revise municipal zoning laws to prohibit certain minimum lot sizes

Big preemption bill to municipal zoning.