SMART GROWTH 'OPT OUT' BILL GETS HEARING
Tuesday, October 11th, 2011 -- 1:25 PM
A bill that would remove a state requirement that local municipalities have a comprehensive plan had a public hearing Tuesday morning.Representatives Mary Williams, Medford and Scott Suder, Abbotsford introduced AB 303, the ?Smart Growth Opt Out Bill,? to the Assembly Committee on Local and Urban Affairs.
According to the Legislative Reference Bureau, current law requires local land use ordinances be consistent with that local governmental unit?s comprehensive plan, which must contain a number of different Smart Growth elements. This bill would remove that requirement.
Clark County is one of only a handful of counties that hasn?t come into compliance with the law. The third and final reading of a proposed county plan was defeated at a meeting last week, just days after AB 303 was introduced.
Plan opponents say Smart Growth is an off-shoot of the United Nations? ?Agenda 21.? A series of environmental initiatives that they say threaten local property rights.
"We don't work for you. We don't live for you. It seems to be that's the way you think it is. This has to stop," said Jack Leeder, Janesville, who spoke in favor of the bill. "It's all about government control."
But, a number of planning supporters also spoke.
Gary Peterson, representing the American Association of Planning, said the law prevents wasteful spending.
"It's unbelievable the things communities have done in the past that they had to pay double for later," Peterson cautioned.
Peterson said plans were also favored by developers, because it offered ?predictability.?
The hearing is the first stop for the bill that needs to pass both houses of the state legislature and be signed by the Governor before it becomes law.
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