Wow, there are some really interesting (I’m using that word a lot, aren’t I?) bills that have been unveiled just in the last 24 hours that would have an impact on how development occurs in our fair state. Just imagine if all these various bills pass (they probably all won’t), planners are going to be very challenged to keep up with all these things and how they can and must be used.
First, here’s HB492 – Transportation, Infrastructure, and Housing Amendments. During the past year, there has been a lot of discussion about how there are a lot of entitled (there’s a debate about just what that means, it seems to vary from entity to entity) housing units, but there is not sufficient infrastructure to allow them to be built. So state focus has, in part, been on finding ways to build more infrastructure for housing. This bill is one of those ways. Luckily for me, there was a story in today’s DesNews about the bill, so I’ll just direct you to that story. It talks at first about the general housing issue, the state housing plan, and then says this about the bill:
… the bill would help build infrastructure that would unlock thousands of planned houses around the state and allow them to be built.
This includes regional infrastructure such as sewer lift stations, water treatment facilities, water tanks and big regional roads.
(The bill) would allow the state to partner with cities and help invest in the big capacity regional infrastructure, “to support the growth that cities have already planned.”
It would create the State Housing Infrastructure Partnership Fund, which is a revolving loan fund meant to finance these infrastructure projects that support new housing. The funding would come from money that already exists within the state government.
This infrastructure investment plan is one of the key tactics in the strategic housing plan. The governor said he thinks this “will have a greater effect than just about anything else that we can do right now.”
Rep. Cal Roberts is also sponsoring newly unveiled HB507 – State Coordination of Regional and Local Economic Development Projects Amendments. I literally have just seen this bill, and it is huge and complicated. I’m going to need some help to figure out just what it does, but it appears to do away with all those acronymic zones we just have been getting used to (HTRZ, FHIZ, and so on) and create an umbrella entity that can be created by local governments, state agencies, state special purpose districts (like the Inland Port Authority or MIDA) for a variety of purposes, including provision of affordable housing. I’ll have more on this bill later once I have a better understanding of it.
A couple of other planning-related bills:
HB489 – Water Infrastructure Amendments – for communities in the Great Salt Lake basin, this bill would pretty much eliminate the use of retention and detention basins for storm water in development projects unless it can be shown that they are absolutely necessary. If they are, they must release the water as quickly as practical. I think this bill is intended for getting more water to the Great Salt Lake quicker, but not really sure how this accomplishes that, because it seems to me that water will get there anyway.
And finally, HB509 – Wetlands Protection Modifications – this bill would require the state Dept. of Natural Resources to conduct a study of wetlands in the state, and make recommendations for legislative and administrative action on improving wetland health and mitigating wetland loss.
Whew! This really is turning into quite the legislative session, with some big things rattling around. Stay tuned!