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Planning staff outlines major changes from HB 368 affecting local land-use practice
Summary
Staff summarized five main changes in a 225-page state land-use package (referred to as HB 368): identical-plan approvals, new plan-review timelines, staged bond releases, revised noticing rules and altered appeals. The commission logged the changes as information and asked staff to follow up where local ordinances must be adjusted.
City staff briefed the planning commission on an expansive state land-use package referenced during the meeting as HB 368, describing it as a lengthy (about 225-page) set of amendments that take effect this spring.
Staff condensed the bill into five items the city may need to act on or monitor: (1) identical floor-plan/plan-set allowances that enable repeated-use approvals for subdivisions, (2) new building-permit plan-review timelines — including a 3-day screening and a 14-day review with immediate notification of failures — intended to speed processing, (3) allowance for partial or staged releases of bonds tied to public improvements instead of holding bonds until final acceptance, (4) changes to land-use noticing that will, in some cases, downgrade notices from more burdensome Class B to Class A, and (5) clarified land-use appeals language that may alter when public hearings are required.
Staff said the city’s reliance on Emory County for building plan review means some operational responsibilities and deadlines will shift to intergovernmental coordination and warned that the 14-day statutory review window could create penalties if county reviews do not align. Staff recommended re-reading specific sections and said most of the changes are administrative; the commission treated the briefing as discussion only and did not take final action.
Next steps: staff will circulate highlighted notes and suggested local code edits where necessary and bring questions back to the commission for follow-up prior to any required public hearings or ordinance amendments.
