Nothing major overnight, just some updating to report.

First, the land use task force bill, HB474 – Municipal and County Land Use and Development Revisions, which came out yesterday and we posted about, has been subsumed into HB303 – Downzoning Notice Amendments and renamed.  It is now HB303 – Local Land Use Amendments.  This was done probably for a couple of reasons (I’m guessing now, don’t know this for sure): first, the sponsor of HB474, Rep. Steve Waldrip, is carrying all three of the major land use bills this session, as well as some other bills that are pretty big, and he’s getting pretty loaded up.  So this would hand off one of those bills to another legislator (Rep. Val Peterson) and lighten his load.  Second, as noted in the last couple of posts, time is getting really short in this legislative session and getting these major bills through in the few days remaining is going to be tough.  HB303 had already passed the House, been heard and favored in Senate committee and is on the Senate floor awaiting a vote.  Substituting the bill means it just needs to complete this last step (pass on the floor of the Senate) and then be concurred to by the House, which it likely will.  The downside is that the provisions in HB474 are not going to get a hearing in committee.  Hmmm.  But anyway, the provisions of HB474 are pretty much intact in the new (substitute) HB303, with a couple of things to note: first, the provisions of HB303 (dealing with notices for changes to text of land use ordinances, which the League got the sponsor to agree to change to much more acceptable language) are still included.  And second, a provision regarding inclusionary zoning (IZ) has been added.  In yesterday’s post, I noted that the housing bill (HB462) added to the moderate income housing element’s list of affordability-promoting options an explicit provision for a local government being able to require inclusionary housing.  The new provision that has been added in HB303 is in the land use regulations section, adding a new Section 535 – Moderate Income Housing, which would allow a municipality to require a certain number of moderate income housing units in a new development if agreed to by the applicant, or if incentives are provided.  If the applicant does not agree, the municipality cannot use that as a basis to deny the application.  The section also allows resort communities to retain IZ requirements they may have adopted by January 1, 2022.  So.  IZ would now authorized by our state code, sort of, if this bill passes.

Another sort of odd bill popped up yesterdays as well, HB476 – Local Agricultural Regulations.  It would prohibit a local jurisdiction from adopting any ordinance or regulation that effectively prohibits the operation of an animal enterprise or working animal.  Animal enterprise is defined in the bill as “an animal competition, aquarium, circus, exposition, fair, farm, feedlot, furrier, retail pet store, ranch, rodeo, zoo, or an event intended to exhibit or advance agricultural arts and sciences.”  Wow, that’s pretty restrictive on all kinds of things normally handled in zoning codes!  But then the bill goes on to say that this “does not apply to an ordinance or other regulation adopted or enforced by a political subdivision if the ordinance or other regulation is… a land use regulation.”  So…. What’s the point of this?  🤷‍♂️

Last thing, the station areas planning bill is still not out, and as we noted earlier, it is getting really late in the session for a new bill to pop out now and have much chance of getting all the way through the process.  So I wouldn’t be surprised to see the station area planning provisions rolled into maybe the housing bill (HB462) and get a jump on the process that way.  We will keep our eyes open.