Nothing much to report with the major land use bills, they are awaiting action in the respective chambers.  No big changes to them, though apparently there are some changes to the housing bill that have been talked about but nothing major.  We’ll keep an eye out.

For some of the “minor” bills (they’re not minor really, just in comparison to the biggie bills), here’s some updates

A story in the Trib tells of a last minute amendment to HB146 – Local Licensing Amendments, which is mainly about food trucks.  The amendment would prohibit local regulation of ATVs, side-by-sides and other off-road vehicles.  An odd addition, and interesting reasons for it, and rather disturbing that it comes so late in the process when the normal comment process is pretty much over.  At this point, it looks like only the amendment that would prohibit local noise regulations against ATVs has been included in the bill, but it ain’t over till its over.

Here’s another Trib story, this one about the animals bill, HB476 – Local Agricultural Regulations.  It still says this does not apply to local land use regulations, so this is an odd mixture of prohibitions and status quo.

And here’s a piece from KUTV about the unanimous passage of HB410 – Great Salt Lake Watershed Enhancement.  Unanimous! Wow!  But then, it is the Speaker’s bill…  Lots of planning work in this bill.

Finally, I just want to take a minute again and shine a light on the top-down vs. cooperative approach to zoning reform that I’ve harped on in several posts previously.  Here’s a recent piece by Planetizen writer Diana Ionescu titled How Cities are Resisting State Efforts to Increase Density.  As far as I’m concerned, this is preaching to the choir about how top-down efforts breed resentment, non-cooperation and ultimate failure.  A couple of excerpts to make the point:

Cities are attempting to wrest back local control over land use and zoning via some ingenious—and sometimes disingenuous—strategies. … (they) are finding creative (or, from another perspective, misleading) ways to skirt housing requirements and challenge rezoning efforts.

The growing revolt against blanket upzoning may reflect simple NIMBYism—but if states want to make headway in easing the housing crisis, they may need to both boost enforcement of zoning reform and consider more flexible housing policies sensitive to local concerns.

Diana gives several examples of ways in which state-level mandates are being circumvented by locals.  Take look, it’s most telling. We at least have a legislator who has become the lead on all things land use reform who recognizes the need for a cooperative approach.

Okay, only two days left and then we can talk about other things, as well as about what just happened to us in the legislative session.