May 2001

By James Lawlor

Florida: Slow going. Almost halfway through the nine-week legislative session, no concrete proposals have been offered for reforming the state's growth management laws, chapter executive director Marcia Elder reports. A bill addressing full-cost accounting and school facilitiestwo of Gov. Jeb Bush's prioritieshas gone through several revisions while the governor's office considers input from various interest groups.

Meanwhile, the senate's Comprehensive Planning Committee has delayed releasing a bill of its own, Elder says. On the house side, the Local Government Committee has been working on a measure that will tackle a number of planning issues not addressed by the governor's proposal, raising the likelihood of horse trading later in the session.

The delay in releasing definitive proposals also seems to have delayed the chapter's formal response to the Growth Management Study Commission's report. As of late March, a promised position paper had not yet materialized. As noted here last month, the chapter supports some of the proposals that have been put forth, but is troubled by others, particularly the de-emphasis of the state comprehensive plan.

Utah: Beyond annexation. Although the chapter's big victory in the legislative session was annexation law reform, that's not all the good news, says legislative chair Wilf Sommerkorn, AICP. He recently sent along a list of 14 other successful bills of interest to planners.

The list includes H.B. 112, which is aimed at discouraging SLAPP suits (strategic lawsuits against public participation); H.B.71, which provides $100,000 to help rural counties prepare general plans; S.B. 98, which exempts telecommunications facilities from local subdivision regulations; and S.B. 158, which requires local governments to treat manufactured home subdivisions in the same way as conventional subdivisions.

New Mexico: Takings bill defeated. The chapter, working with the New Mexico Municipal League, the New Mexico Association of Counties, and environmental groups helped to defeat H.B. 618, which would have required landowners to be compensated if a regulatory program reduced the value of their property by 25 percent or more. According to chapter vice-president Lora Lucero, AICP, the bill specifically included land-use planning and zoning in the category of regulatory programs.

The chapter also fended off another attempt to weaken the state's subdivision law. H.B. 77 would have created a two-lot loophole and would have permitted the oil and gas industry to get around local regulations. At the same time, H.B. 464, which would have required municipalities that adopt comprehensive plans to ensure that their land-use regulations and decisions are consistent with the plan, died in the house Judiciary Committee.

Two joint house-senate "memorials" are also of interest. One such measure, H.J.M. 15, requests that state universities develop outreach programs to aid local governments with land-use planning and zoning. No money is appropriated for the project, however. Another memorial, H.J.M. 41, requests the state's Local Government Division to inventory municipal and county land-use planning procedures and enforcement capabilities. Lucero says the division plans to hire a summer intern to work on the inventory.

Colorado: Growth management advances. S.B. 148, the growth management bill favored by the chapter, passed the senate March 23 and has been introduced in the house, reports chapter legislative cochair Elizabeth Telford, AICP. The bill's sponsor, Sen. Ed Perlmutter, addressed a meeting of the Colorado Forum in mid-March, where he urged interest groups to support the measure. Telford says Perlmutter is concerned that some environmental groups do not think the bill is "green" enough.

Texas: Flurry of bills. Even the prospect of dealing with legislative redistricting has not reduced legislators' enthusiasm. By March 9, the deadline for filing, 5,539 bills had been introduced, reports the chapter's immediate past president, David Gattis, AICP.

According to Gattis, the chapter is tracking almost 150 bills. Among them: H.B. 25, which would remove the current municipal exemption from the state's property rights preservation law, and subject all municipal actions to takings assessments; H.B. 1030, which would require the state to establish a program to identify and preserve abandoned cemeteries; H.B. 2117, which would limit development moratoriums to 120 days; S.B. 243, a compromise impact fee bill worked out by the Texas Municipal League and the Texas Association of Builders; and H.B. 984, which would exempt religious organizations from subdivision planning requirements.