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Bill would require grocery and pharmacy closure notice, let cities use zoning and vacancy fees to prevent 'food deserts'
Summary
House Bill 2,573 would require full-service grocery stores and pharmacies to provide at least six months' notice before closure (one year in designated overburdened communities), allow cities to zone for grocery uses and impose excise or nuisance fees on properties that remain vacant, and authorize the attorney general to seek injunctions for failures to comply.
House Bill 2,573, introduced to the House Committee on Local Government, would require full-service grocery stores and pharmacies relied on by local comprehensive plans to provide at least six months' notice of reduced service or proposed closure and one year of notice if the store is in an "overburdened community." The bill also authorizes cities and counties to zone properties to require ongoing grocery uses, to impose an excise tax of up to $500,000 per acre (or a portion thereof) for each year the property does not house a grocery, and to levy a nuisance fee of up to $250,000 per acre; the attorney general could seek a court injunction for noncompliance.
Representative Pollet, the bill sponsor, said the measure responds to a wave of supermarket and pharmacy closures that left some neighborhoods without nearby food or…
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