Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Building Permits Transparency topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Bill to publish building‑permit timelines stalled and tabled after divided committee vote
Summary
HB 335 would require the Regulation and Licensing Department and local agencies to publish time-to-decision metrics for building permits. The committee failed a do-pass vote and later tabled the bill after debate over scope, administrative cost, and whether local problems should be addressed locally.
House Bill 335, a departmental bill proposing a licensing-and-permitting transparency dashboard, drew sharp questions from local government representatives and committee members and was ultimately tabled after a failed do-pass vote.
Sponsor Representative Borrego and witnesses from the Economic Development Department said the bill’s aim is to publish quarterly metrics—application-to-decision timeframes and total residential units permitted—to give managers and developers tools to identify bottlenecks and drive improvements. Rob Black, Economic Development Department, said the measure is not punitive by design but is an information tool that can reveal whether technology, staffing or process issues are delaying permits.
The Municipal League opposed the bill, represented by John Anderson, arguing it would be an unfunded mandate that punishes all 106 municipalities for a subset that may have permitting delays, and that municipalities should focus on processing rather than reporting. The New Mexico Home Builders Association backed the bill, offering anecdotal examples of delays caused by procedural minutiae.
Committee members debated scope and measurement. Leader Armstrong and Representative Matthews warned that permit delays may be driven by factors outside permit offices—supply-chain slowdowns, inspection backlogs or material shortages—and that statewide reporting could be misleading and costly for small jurisdictions. Sponsor and agency witnesses said the proposal focuses on CID-related building permits and could be implemented with simple, low‑cost reporting from existing tracking processes; they noted the measurement would be from completed application to final occupancy determination for a given permit type.
On roll call, a do-pass motion failed 4-7. Members then voted to table the bill; the clerk announced the table motion passed 8-3 and HB 335 was placed on the committee’s table pending further work on implementation and scope.
