House Environment and Transportation Committee concurs with Senate on five bills; appoints conference committee for housing bill

The House Environment and Transportation Committee on its final day of the session voted to concur with Senate amendments on five bills and appointed members to a conference committee for the governor's housing bill.

Committee members voted to withhold concurrence on House Bill 503, the Housing Development Act, and appointed Chair Lewis, Delegate Stewart and Delegate Silberty to a conference committee to reconcile House and Senate differences, the committee chair said. The committee also concurred with Senate amendments on House Bill 1470 (Prince George's County Chesapeake and Atlantic Coastal Bays critical-area tree clearing), House Bill 128 (a study on greenhouse gas emissions costs and reporting), House Bill 489 (a Maryland Department of Labor study on single-staircase building code requirements) and House Bill 717 (Department of Natural Resources public lands acquisition, staffing, operations and funding).

The committee took up the housing bill first. "We are gonna take up as a concurrence House Bill 503, the Housing Development Act," the chair said, and later explained the Senate removed a substantive vesting provision and sought study of that topic by the Maryland Home Commission; the committee moved not to concur with those Senate changes. After the vote the chair announced the three appointees to the conference committee.

On House Bill 1470, the committee was told the Senate struck a requirement related to the Maryland-National Capital…