Supervisors discuss draft legislative priorities: impact‑fee authority and designated‑agent site‑plan changes
Get AI-powered insights, summaries, and transcripts
Subscribe
Summary
Madison County supervisors reviewed draft legislative proposals to pursue through VACO and the General Assembly, including impact‑fee authority and expanding designated‑agent site‑plan authority for smaller localities.
Board members discussed recent draft legislative items prepared for review by VACO and state legislators. Two proposals received detailed attention:
• Impact fees: Staff presented a draft amendment modeled on a 2020 bill that would allow localities to assess impact fees to defray capital costs of public facilities related to residential development (schools, roads, public safety). The draft shared with the Board does not fix a dollar cap and would require additional work to identify permissible amounts and administrative processes. Supervisor Jewett said he would share materials with Delegate Karen Hamilton and Senator Reeves to open discussions.
• Designated‑agent/site‑plan authority: The Board reviewed a draft revision to the code provision that would restore designated‑agent authority for site‑plan review to localities up to a higher population threshold than the present statutory limit (the draft would permit localities with populations up to 20,000 to be designated agents; current code limits eligibility to localities of 5,000 or fewer in some provisions). Supervisors encouraged participation in VACO steering committees to shape the legislative platform in the coming weeks.
Supervisors instructed staff to forward the draft proposals to state legislators and requested that members attending the upcoming VACO conference gather input from peer localities and steering committees. Board members stressed the importance of sustaining local control in state legislation.