Here’s a summary of the land use bills we were following in this year’s session. There were a lot, actually, when you look at the bills that were both passed and those that were not. I’ve included a brief summary of what each passed bill addresses, but not given the details. We’ll save that for the post-session briefings. Right now we have three briefing sessions scheduled:
April 5 – joint APA Utah/Utah League sponsored in North Salt Lake (details coming)
April 7 – Utah Land Use Institute first-ever SPRING CONFERENCE in St. George
May 12 – APA Utah SPRING CONFERENCE in Vernal
At the request of several to get a jump on all the new provisions, I may be scheduling a small bring-your-own-lunch roundtable, probably next week, to just talk and answer questions about the bills. Let me know if you’re interested in this.
There are other bills and appropriations that happened in the legislature that affect local planning that were well-tracked by others. Notably, transportation funding, which is well-summarised by the Wasatch Front Regional Council. https://wfrc.org/public-involvement/governmental-affairs-2/
Here’s my bills summary. You’ll notice at the end of some of the summaries I’ve noted the number of new lines the bill adds to LUDMA. For the last couple of years I’ve kind of been harping on the fact that we are making LUDMA more and more complicated and lengthy. This I think is a disservice because it’s becoming more difficult and incomprehensible to the average planning commissioner, local elected official and even planners. It’s getting more and more so that we need land use attorneys to help us figure out what we should be doing. For the many small communities out there, this becomes problematic. This year, some 388 lines of code were added to LUDMA overall (over 400 to the county LUDMA). That’s a lot! New rules to follow, new provisions to be adopted into local codes, and so on. We need to think about what we’re doing here.
BILLS PASSED
HB32 – Prove Canyon Resource Management Plan – authorizes the affected counties to prepare and adopt a recreational resources management plan for Provo Canyon; stipulates that the state Public Lands Policy Coordinating Office shall assist in the funding and preparation of the plan at the request of the counties.
HB169 – Urban Farming Assessment Act Amendments – allows counties to determine activities allowed for urban farming.
HB206 – Airport Land Use Amendments – requires cities and counties with land area within 5,000 ft of an airport runway to adopt airport zoning and land use regulations by December 31, 2024; lots of new provisions. 3 new lines in LUDMA, a whole new section in 72-10-400 Airport Zoning Act
HB224 – Outdoor Recreation Initiative – creates new initiative for planning, coordination, and funding of outdoor recreation infrastructure between state and local governments
HB265 – Sentinel Landscape Amendments – requires cities and counties within 5,000 ft of military facilities to prepare and adopt a compatible use plan in coordination with state department of Veteran and military affairs; requires those entities to submit land use applications (not, however, individual building permit applications) within those areas to the state DVMA for review and approval within 90 days. 34 new lines in LUDMA.
HB364 – Housing Affordability Amendments – makes a number of changes to the reporting provisions for MIHPs; makes a number of changes to provisions for state low-income housing tax credits. 86 new lines in LUDMA.
HB406 – LUDMA Modifications – modifies some provisions of the annexation code, particularly the definition of rural real property; clarifies applicability of “moratorium” provisions; clarifies use of development agreements; establishes uniform statewide standards for residential roadways; limits use of completion warranties and assurances for landscaping to only that on public land or to be turned over to the public. 85 new lines in LUDMA
HB408 – Mobile Business Licensing Amendments – establishes uniform standards for licensing and regulation of all types of mobile businesses, including food trucks and food vendor carts.
SB20 – MIDA Amendments – modifies provisions for MIDA.
SB27 – Transportation Revisions – requires cities and counties to submit newly adopted or amended general plans to their AOG; makes changes to the provisions for transit station area plans. 11 new lines in LUDMA
SB43 – Public Notice Requirements – creates three new standardized classes of requirements for notifications of public meetings/documents/actions; specifies the class of notification required for different land use actions. 7 fewer lines in LUDMA
SB76 – Water Amendments – requires cities and counties to consult with the state Division of Water Resources in preparing water element of the general plan; requires counties to consult additionally with other entities in preparation of the element; requires a number of other water resource and conservation studies by state agencies and water providers. 3 new lines in cities LUDMA; 17 new lines in county LUDMA
SB84 – HTRZ Amendments – makes a number of changes to provisions for HTRZs; provides certain vested development rights to a property owner at Kimball Junction in Summit County.
SB113 – Local Agricultural Amendments – establishes definitions of “animal enterprise” and “working animals,” and forbids local government prohibition of such; does not apply to an ordinance that is a land use regulation (for municipalities only).
SB158 – Local Government Water Amendments – modifies the requirements and standards for a local government to determine the size of exaction for water rights based on state adopted standards or on five years of historic water use data; authorizes smaller cities and counties to adopt drinking water source protection zones. 18 new lines in LUDMA
SB174 – Local Land Use and Development Revisions – modifies the prioritization and penalties for reporting on Moderate Income Housing Plan compliance, progress; modifies provisions for Internal Accessory Dwelling Units; stipulates a uniform process for review and approval of subdivision plats, and effective date; makes some modifications to lot line adjustment process. 155 new lines in LUDMA.
SB199 – Local Land Use Amendments – stipulates that any local land use law passed by unanimous vote of the local legislative body may not be subject to referendum; leaves provisions regarding transit station areas at a two-thirds vote threshold.
SB271 – Home Ownership Requirements – prohibits a county or municipal legislative body from adopting or enforcing a land use regulation that regulates co-owned homes differently from other residential units.
SB289 – Point of the Mountain State Land Authority Amendments – among other provisions specific to the PMSLA, specifies that local governments do not have zoning authority with respect to the point of the mountain state land.
SB260 – Transportation Funding Requirements – would allow (but not require) any county to impose the .20% local option sales tax, if and when the timing makes sense for their communities, with distribution of revenues dependent upon the class of county and presence of transit. SB260 would (1) eliminate the imposition deadline, (2) allow counties with transit service to impose the .20% to divide the funds between transit, cities, and counties, (3) allow counties without transit service to impose the .20% and divide the funds between cities and counties for transportation purposes.
BILLS NOT PASSED
HB196 – Eminent Domain Revisions
HB233 – County Land Use Amendments
HB276 – Water Supply Amendments
HB277 – Homeowners Association Revisions
HB291 – Short Term Rental Amendments (this bill was subject of a working group through the interim, the promise is this will be back in some form)
HB331 – Microenterprise Home Kitchen Amendments
HB446 – Housing and Transit Reinvestment Zone Modifications (provisions of this bill were passed as part of SB84)
HB496 – Short-term Rental Enforcement Revisions
HB527 – Mining Operations Amendments
HB564 – Limited-use Infrastructure District Amendments
HB565 – Municipal Land Use Amendments
HB567 – County Amendments
SB166 – Education Entity Amendments
SB181 – Campaign Sign Amendments
SB295 – Dedicated Infrastructure District Act (this bill was much discussed by the LUTF, but came out so late in the session there was no chance to negotiate it. It has strong support from leadership and will be back in some form)
SB298 – Local District Requirements