June 2003

The Statehouse

By James Lawlor

Texas: Bad Bills Defeated. The legislature adjourned its regular session June 2 without enacting several bills that had concerned the Texas APA chapter and the Texas Municipal League. However, Gov. Rick Perry called the legislature back into special session June 30, so the potential for mischief still exists. The principal business of the special session is supposed to be congressional redistricting, but the governor added 28 other items to his call, including transferring oversight of regional planning commissions to the state auditor's office and streamlining environmental regulation and permitting. Also, individual legislators have the opportunity to introduce bills.

Among the "bad bills" that failed to pass in the regular session were two restricting municipalities' annexation powers, a bill that would have limited the time for reviewing building permit applications, and a bill that would have required landowners to be compensated if their property was downzoned.

The legislature also turned down bills that would have prohibited cities from regulating churches' use of their land, exempted churches from platting and historic district regulations, and eased development regulations applicable to churches. A bill that would have established strict standards for development exactions also failed to pass.

The legislature did pass a bill to streamline city and county review of subdivision plats in cities' extraterritorial jurisdiction and one addressing development agreements in the extraterritorial jurisdiction. A bill giving municipalities authority to regulate exterior appearance and landscaping of residential properties passed with a proviso that any such regulations shall not apply to an approved subdivision plat until two years after approval.

The legislature also passed a bill barring cities from prohibiting placement of political signs on private property, requiring a permit or fee for such signs, or imposing charges for removal of the signs that is more than the amount charged for removal of other regulated signs.

The legislature enacted a measure concerning industrialized or manufactured housing. It authorizes cities to require such housing to have all the local permits applicable to other residential property; to adopt regulations requiring industrialized housing to have a value equal to or greater than the median value of conventional single-family dwellings within 500 feet; to have an exterior appearance compatible with single-family dwellings within 500 feet; to comply with municipal aesthetic standards, setbacks, landscaping and other site requirements for conventional housing; and to be securely attached to a permanent foundation.

California: Many Bills on Hold. The deadlock over the state's budget crisis has put a number of planning-related bills on the back burner, but the legislature has not been entirely paralyzed.

Bills that may see final action before the legislature takes its summer recess include A.B. 1426, a measure designed to encourage construction of affordable housing in the greater Sacramento region; A.B. 51, that would make child care facilities a required elements of general plans; and S.B. 114, which would bar local agencies from offering financial assistance to "big box" retailers or motor vehicle dealers to relocate from one community to another in the same market area. In return for losing the relocation carrot, local governments would no longer have to share sales tax revenue resulting from the relocation with the local agency whose territory the retailer is leaving.

Among proposed measures converted to "two-year bills," meaning they can be taken up again in 2004, the second year of the session, are A.B. 406, requiring public agencies to hire independent consultants to prepare environmental impact reports rather than depending on project applicants; A.B. 600, a bill incorporating language similar to the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, barring government regulations that "unduly burden" religious exercise; A.B. 470, barring localities from requiring religious facilities to apply for conditional use permits; A.B. 721, requiring general plans to incorporate an urban growth boundary and directing the state Office of Planning and Research to develop a model smart growth ordinance; and A.B. 1160, easing requirements for adding second units to existing residential structures.

Massachusetts: Zoning Law Reform; Smart Growth Coalition. The Land Use Reform Act, a proposal to rewrite and update the state's planning and the zoning and enabling law, will have its first legislative committee hearing July 24, before the Joint Committee on Natural Resources and Agriculture. The January 2003 Statehouse report has more details on this significant legislation.

In related news, six Massachusetts organizations concerned with planning and the environment announced formation of the Massachusetts Smart Growth Alliance on June 10. The alliance says one of its tasks will be to hold Gov. Mitt Romney's "feet to the fire" to adhere to his campaign promise to make smart growth a priority of his administration.

Earlier this year, the governor appointed Douglas Foy, former president of the Conservation Law Foundation, to head a new Office of Commonwealth Development. The office oversees housing, the environment, transportation, and energy issues. Although the state legislature has not yet approved the administrative restructuring, the office has circulated a set of draft principles to guide future development.

Members of the new coalition say they will support policies to create more affordable housing, while respecting the state's tradition of home rule. Among its first projects will be drafting a white paper to present to the Romney administration. It will suggest taking steps to encourage cities and towns to plan together, encouraging construction of affordable housing that is compact and located near public transit, and overhauling the planning and zoning and enabling law. Members of the group include the Conservation Law Foundation, the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, the Citizens Housing and Planning Association, the Fair Housing Center of Greater Boston, the Boston Society of Architects, and the Environmental League of Massachusetts.

Massachusetts's affordable housing law, Chapter 40B of the General Laws, has come under increasingly heavy fire from local governments and regional planning organizations, who claim the law burdens towns unreasonably and has not produced significant quantities of affordable housing in places where is likely to be used.

Chapter 40B, enacted in 1969, was one of the first state laws to mandate that cities and towns accept their "fair share" of low- and moderate-income housing. A task force appointed by Gov. Romney is recommending several changes to the law, including moving the affordable housing approval process from town boards of appeals to the planning boards, and creating a "growth fund" to help towns handle additional costs associated with constructing affordable housing. Meanwhile, the legislature is examining some 70 bills aimed at modifying or abolishing chapter 40B.