January 2002

By James Lawlor

Utah: Affordable housing. Chapter legislative chair Wilf Sommerkorn reports that the legislature's agenda for this year's session likely will include modifications to the requirement that general plans have a moderate income housing element, and application of the annexation principles enacted last year to Salt Lake County. He predicts state revenue shortfalls likely will make it hard to get money for planning grant programs and rapid transit.

Sommerkorn notes that while the moderate income housing element has been on the books for several years, several local government bodies have not paid much attention to the requirement, because there was no penalty for not including it in the general plan. Recently, however, some developers have seized on the requirement as a means to force local governments to consider their residential development proposals. The prospect of increased litigation moved the League of Cities and Towns to draft a bill that would deal with the current law's perceived limitations. The bill would clarify vagueness in the existing law's definitions of affordable housing and planning and would create a presumption that a city or town's general plan is valid.

The current draft of the bill would exempt towns with a population of 1,000 or fewer from the affordable housing requirement, but does not address the application of the requirement to counties. Sommerkorn says it has been proposed that counties which have an adopted policy of discouraging urban-type developments in unincorporated areas also be excused from the requirements. The draft was presented to the interim legislative Committee on Political Subdivisions November 14, 2001, and the committee was sufficiently impressed with the proposal that it voted to support the bill. Members of the League of Cities and Towns' Affordable Housing Committee will fine-tune the bill before its introduction, Sommerkorn said.

On the annexation front, Sommerkorn noted that the legislation passed last year to reform the annexation process did not apply to Salt Lake County. Instead, it required that a proposal on applying annexation principles to Salt Lake County be presented to the legislature's Legislative Management Committee before the session opens. Sommerkorn observed that Salt Lake County officials would like to keep unincorporated areas of the county in that status, and prevent further annexations or incorporations. Nevertheless, several groups in the county are working on annexation or incorporation petitions. How services to those areas would be funded has not been determined, he said.

The state's Quality Growth Committee will not be submitting any legislative proposals in 2002, Sommerkorn said. Instead, the committee will continue working on developing its concepts for quality growth areas and building support for changes to the way critical land conservation funds are allocated.

Virginia: Slow progress. A commission established by the 2001 legislature to study issues related to growth and economic development is behind schedule in producing its final report, chapter legislative chair David Kovacs, AICP, reports. The resolution establishing the eight-member commission directed it to have its recommendations ready by November 30, 2001, but, as of early December, the commission still had not had its final meeting nor instructed staff to prepare draft recommendations. The new cutoff date for producing a report is supposed to be December 20, 2001.

Kovacs said he is not optimistic that the commission, composed of six legislators and two citizen members, will produce much of value, even though the charge given to it was relatively limited in scope. The commission was directed to examine four matters of concern: the adequacy of revenues to meet existing and future infrastructure needs; revitalization of inner city areas and older suburbs; development of brownfields, and devising appropriate means to preserve both open space and individual property rights, as well as broad-based funding for preservation. The commission established three working groups, one to deal with economic development, infrastructure and revenue, one covering revitalization and brownfields, and the last discussing preservation of open space and property rights. While the resolution establishing the commission passed on February 24, the commission did not hold its first meeting until August. 1. The working groups have been playing catch-up ball ever since.

The chapter and the Virginia Society of the American Institute of architects submitted a joint position paper to the commission on August 29, 2001. In it, the groups took note of the limited scope of the commission's charge, and argued a more comprehensive assessment of the state's planning and zoning policies and that legislation is required. On the issue of funding infrastructure, the position paper suggests that rather than assuming a continuation of existing growth patterns and expanding need for infrastructure, planning to encourage revitalization of existing neighborhoods and the use of mixed-use and overlay zoning would produce measurable reductions in the need for infrastructure. Tax incentives and mixed-use zoning are two ways that revitalization of inner city neighborhoods could be accomplished.

To attract developers to brownfields, the paper says is essential to provide liability protection for innocent buyers and, in some cases, innocent owners. Further, tax incentives or financing help have proven to be effective tools in promoting brownfield reuse. Preservation of open space can be accomplished by a number of means, the paper points out, from outright purchases of land to zoning that encourages cluster development. Another advantage of zoning that encourages more intensive development is that it concentrates infrastructure requirements, making homes more affordable. It should be noted, the paper points out, that none of these methods involves any infringement on individuals' property rights.

One overarching question that Virginia has not yet asked itself is whether the legislature should be in the business of coordinating growth. It must decide whether there are growth-related problems that cannot be addressed locally. Lengthening commuter trips and requests by localities for infrastructure financing help suggest there is a statewide problem that needs to be addressed. So far, the legislature has not seen fit to address local governments pleas for help. The chapter and the AIA believe this is an issue state government needs to tackle, the paper concludes.