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Council hears overview of House Bill 368 changes for building permits, bonding and land-use appeals
Summary
Planning staff summarized recent state legislative changes affecting municipal review timelines, public improvement bonding and appeals. Key points included a three-day completeness check, a 14-day residential plan-review clock, new bonding release timelines and limits on public hearings for variances and appeals.
City planning staff gave the council an overview of provisions in House Bill 368 that change local land-use procedures, public-improvement bonding timelines and certain appeal and maintenance rules.
Staff said the bill requires a three-day screening period for new applications to determine whether the submission is complete; that determination starts the 14-day plan-review period for residential building permits. The planner explained that if a municipality accepts an application as complete within the three days, the 14-day review period starts then; if the municipality waits until day three, the 14 days start on day three. Those timelines are counted in business days.
Staff warned that municipalities cannot pause review: if reviewers find missing items after beginning the review, the municipality must notify the applicant of deficiencies but continue to review items that can be reviewed. The speaker said the municipality gets extra time only if the applicant returns information late in the 10-to-14 business day window; for example, if requested information comes in on day 10 the city gets one extra day, on day 11 two extra days, and so on.
On public-improvement bonding, staff summarized changes that require separate treatment by infrastructure category and that prohibit withholding bond money in one category because of problems in another. For cities in Midway's class (discussants agreed Midway is fifth class), staff said the statute generally requires acceptance or rejection of warranty work within 30 days and, if the municipality rejects work, a comprehensive and specific list of deficiencies within the same period. If the city fails to provide required reasons, the law can require reimbursement to the applicant equal to 20% of the improvement-completion assurance for the relevant category.
Staff also said the law reduces the municipality's ability to require multiple resubmittals of plan materials and restricts when a municipality can demand bonds for certain items; there is an exception for development agreements. On appeals and variances, staff said the statute removes a public-hearing requirement for variances and land-use appeals; municipalities may still hold public meetings but not a formal hearing in those cases.
Staff framed the bill as a significant change for the processing timeline and municipal obligations, and urged councilors to review the specifics with city staff as Midway's codes and procedures are updated for compliance. The presentation was informational; no code change was adopted at the meeting.
