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Senate committee adopts substitute for bill asking municipalities to include housing in future comprehensive plans
Summary
The Senate Community and Regional Affairs Committee adopted a committee substitute for Senate Bill 50, which would add housing as a required element in future municipal comprehensive plans; the change is prospective and does not force immediate plan updates. The bill was moved out of committee with recommendations and an accompanying fiscal note.
Senator Merrick, chair of the Alaska Senate Community and Regional Affairs Committee, on Feb. 11 said the committee adopted a substitute and moved Senate Bill 50, which would add housing as an element to municipal comprehensive plans, out of committee.
Senator Dunbar, sponsor of Senate Bill 50, described the measure in the committee hearing: “This is a fairly simple bill that adds housing to comprehensive plans for municipal governments. This bill does not require new comprehensive plans. It's just prospective. So in future comprehensive plans, the state is asking that, that they include housing.”
The committee adopted a proposed committee substitute after Dunbar explained that legislative legal had restored language that had been deleted during earlier cleanup. Dunbar told the committee the deletion had “no legal effect” but that stakeholders had asked the deletion be undone; the substitute restores that text to avoid stakeholder confusion. After the substitute was adopted, Dunbar moved “Senate Bill 50 version 34 LS 0356” from committee with individual recommendations and an accompanying fiscal note, and authorized Legislative Legal Services to make conforming changes. There was no public testimony on the bill during the hearing.
The action in committee was procedural: the committee substitute was adopted by unanimous consent after a brief procedural objection for the purpose of discussion was withdrawn, and the bill was formally reported out of committee with the accompanying fiscal note. The committee did not take a roll-call vote in the transcript record.
The bill, as described in committee, would not require municipalities to rewrite existing comprehensive plans; instead it would require that future comprehensive plans include housing as an element. No statutes, code sections, or specific fiscal figures affecting the bill were named in the committee record beyond reference to an accompanying fiscal note.
Committee members did not take public testimony, and no amendments beyond reinstating the deleted language in the committee substitute were recorded in the hearing. The committee adjourned to other business after moving the bill out of committee.
Less critical details: Senator Olson was excused from the meeting; Senators Grama Jackson and Yundt were present but are not recorded speaking on this bill during the transcript excerpt.
