Week 2 of the legislative session started out with a summary of what is happening on various land use bills by the League at their Legislative Policy Committee meeting today.  Nothing really new to report, just waiting for the bills to pop out so we can see the actual language.  Lots of issues will likely be incorporated in those bills.

Two new bills did appear late this afternoon, however.  They are similar to a couple of bills that were introduced in last year’s session but that did not go anywhere.  Rep. Phil Lyman is sponsor of both bills, and he has not been much engaged in the land use discussions on-going during the past year, at least that I’m aware of.

The first is HB276 – Water Supply Amendments.  This bill has a lot to say about how water is to be provided by municipalities to contract customers and others, including subdivisions and residential developments.  In our hyper-sensitive water availability environment we are now working in on growth issues, this bill if it were to pass would have considerable impact.  Not sure that it will go anywhere, but one never knows.

The other bill is HB277 – Homeowners Association Revisions.  Like last year’s bill, it seeks to make the Office of the Property Rights Ombudsman the clearinghouse for information and legal opinions on issues dealing with homeowners associations.  This was strongly resisted by the OPRO and most of the players in legislative land use issues last year (these are, after all, private associations and agreements, not public laws and ordinances).  This year’s bill goes a step further, in that would require that all attorneys employed by the OPRO must have a background in homeowner association law.  Whew!