Last week the Legislative Management Committee met and, among other things, set the calendar for interim committee meetings for the coming year. Another thing the committee did was assign study items to each of the committees for the interim. The list includes some interesting topics of interest to planning and land use junkies. They include:
Economic Development and Workforce Services Committee:
Housing Affordability. Follow-up to previous housing affordability bills and opportunities for improvement. Relevant 2022 GS bill: HB 462.
Aligning Economic Development Efforts Between the State and Cities. Review ways to work with local governments to set aside areas for economic growth. How do we encourage job centers to be established throughout the state, rather than concentrated in one or two areas?
Government Operations Committee:
Open and Public Meetings Act (OPMA). Review potential amendments to OPMA, including the public comment portion of public meetings.
Regional Land Use Planning. Study the current land use regulatory framework and whether land use planning should be coordinated at a larger, regional scale. (This will be interesting to see where this one goes, especially now that Rep. Steve Waldrip, who had been doing a lot of research about this, will still be in the legislature for this interim, but not for next year’s session).
Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment Committee:
Potential New State Park. Study the feasibility of creating a state park along the Oquirrh Mountains.
Wildfire Issues. Study wildfire ignitions and fire suppression efforts, including how to assist communities in the wildland-urban interface to reduce wildfire risks and lessons learns from the Marshall fire in Colorado.
Regional Water Strategy. Study creating a regionalized plan for water use and how to measure the effect/progress of legislative efforts to improve water use efficiency and increase flows into the Great Salt Lake.
Political Subdivisions Committee:
Study of Continuing Care Retirement Facilities. Determine what amendments to the Continuing Care Provider Act (Title 31A, Chapter 44) can improve operation of these facilities, which may only exist where municipalities or counties have zoned for continuing care facilities. For example, a facility in Taylorsville wants to be able to borrow money and give a payout to their shareholders. The committee will study how to approach bonding and debt.
Challenges for Political Subdivisions Related to Short-term Rentals. Study the proliferation of short-term rental properties and related challenges, including crime, noise ordinance violations, and decreased affordability. HB 462 – Utah Housing Affordability Amendments originally included a repeal of the language prohibiting local governments from using Airbnb or similar sites to punish individuals for listing or offering a short-term rental. The repeal was taken out of the substitute with the understanding that the stakeholders would continue working on this issue. (This issue continues to grow. The recent shooting deaths of two people at an STR in Draper just add lots of fuel to this fire.)
Use of Eminent Domain by Local Governments and the Role of the Property Rights Ombudsman. Study how often local governments use eminent domain and for what purposes. Several bills during the 2021 and 2022 General Session sought to make changes to eminent domain, and HB 416 – Property Rights Ombudsman Amendments would have added responsibilities to the ombudsman’s office. This study would include an evaluation of the relationship between annexation and eminent domain.
Supreme Court Case Review. Review recent and pending Supreme Court cases that will impact political subdivisions in Utah. Currently, a case that may impact statute and/or municipal code related to billboard advertising is before the Supreme Court (City of Austin, Texas v. Reagan National Advertising of Texas Inc.).
Transportation Committee:
Capital Planning. 2022 General Session HB 322 moved capital planning and development for all fixed guideway projects that use state funds under the authority of the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT). The committee will study the structure of UDOT’s oversight on Utah Transit Authority’s projects, especially the bus rapid transit projects planned throughout the state.
Statewide Transportation Improvement Program. UDOT’s Statewide Transportation Improvement Program (STIP) is a six-year plan of highway and transit projects for Utah and the legislature has allocated more than $1 billion toward the STIP over the last two sessions. The committee will study the project list and prioritization and how transit projects moved under UDOT’s authority will impact the project list.
In addition to these interim study items, there will be the activity generated by the funding provided for the statewide conversation about growth to be conducted by the Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget (through state planning coordinator Laura Hanson’s office), and the funding for two non-profit-led initiatives on land use law and on housing affordability (these efforts will be fleshed out in the coming months through RFP processes by the Dept. of Workforce Services). And of course the continued work of the Unified Economic Opportunity Commission and its subcommittee that used to be the Commission on Housing Affordability.
It’s going to be a busy summer and fall!