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Developers, resorts and conservation groups debate raising AOT threshold to ease small housing projects
Summary
Senate Bill 110 prompted testimony on whether raising the state’s alteration of terrain threshold or changing fee treatment can speed small housing projects without harming water resources.
Sen. Cindy Rosenwald introduced Senate Bill 110, which witnesses described as an attempt to ease permitting burdens for smaller development projects by raising or modifying the statutory alteration of terrain (AOT) threshold and/or changing fee treatment for certain disturbance levels.
Why it matters: The AOT threshold determines when state-level stormwater and land-disturbance reviews apply. Testimony focused on whether raising the threshold from 100,000 square feet (about 2.3 acres) to roughly 200,000 square feet (about 4.6 acres) would speed housing construction and reduce engineering costs, or whether it would create risks to water quality, infrastructure and habitat.
Construction and development witnesses said the current threshold and the multi-step permitting process add time and cost that can make small multifamily or workforce housing projects economically infeasible. John Warzoka, chief executive of Horizons Engineering, described typical engineering…
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