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Government Affairs Committee Update
◊ Representatives of the LVBA offered testimony against proposed legislation that would permit municipalities to enact building moratoria for up to 20 months per land use document (comprehensive plan, zoning ordinance, SALDO).  The LVBA also spoke out against levying educational impact fees on new home buyers as a harmful new tax that will discourage home ownership in Pennsylvania.

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Municipal Ordinances
◊ The LVBA Government Affairs Committee is maintaining a registry of proposed municipal ordinances over the last month.  Click here to view the current month's list of advertised ordinances.  If you are aware of a municipality that is discussing, developing, or actively proposing an ordinance that may impact the housing industry in the Lehigh Valley, please forward any information to Mark.

 ◊ The Lehigh Valley Planning Commission has drafted & approved a model ordinance for area municipalities dealing with flood plain management issues.  The model regulations are aimed at restricting additional building in floodways or helping guide redevelopment in those communities already in the floodway.

◊ The City of Easton has introduced its proposed new zoning & land development ordinances which seeks to promote more uniform development in the city.  The new ordinances also seek to protect environmental resources by limiting building in floodplains and on steep slopes.

◊ The Commonwealth Court of PA ruled in favor of the residential building industry by ruling against Schuylkill Township, Chester County's mandatory fire sprinkler ordinance as inconsistent with the Uniform Construction Code.  The ordinance would have required the installation of fire sprinklers in all new construction and in all structural alterations of 1,000 square feet or more.

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State Legislation & Regulation
◊ The PA DEP is in the process of revision Chapter 102 regulations -- those rules that govern erosion & sediment pollution control.  The proposed changes look to incorporate many aspects of the stormwater management program as well as extend earth disturbance management requirements to agriculture.  One concern is the proposal to mandate a no-disturb, no-build buffer 50 or more feet from all watercourses.

◊ PA DEP is also well into rewriting the state regulations governing onlot sewage management -- Chapters 71-73.  The new Chapters 72a & 73a are available in a working draft form on the Sewage Advisory Committee's website.  Chapter 71a is expected to be available in several months -- upon which time, all three chapters will be promulgated together as new regulation.

◊ In an effort to reduce the backlog of NPDES permits at the regional offices, it is rumored that DEP has instructed the regional offices to return to the applicant any application that has become "inactive".  In order to be classified as "inactive", the application must be waiting for action by the applicant for anywhere between 6-12 months.  So, if the application has been waiting on, for example, sewage planning approvals, PNDI resolutions and/or if the applicant has not responded to other Department request for information, its possible the NPDES permit will be sent back.  Those applications that have not even begun the review process (as is the case for many in NERO) may see some relief as it is also rumored that the Department will be assigned extra resources to address those applications in an expedited fashion.

◊ PA DOT is in the process of revising & updating its guidelines for conducting an HOP Traffic Impact Study.  Those revision should be ready for implementation by the end of 2007.

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Housing Newsroom & Resources
◊ Lehigh County & Northampton County continue to explore the possibility of creating a joint-county health department.  One aspect that is under the radar in creating a regional health department is that will become the health department's responsibility under Act 537 to permit & enforce onlot septic systems.  While municipalities can opt-out, the likely result of a bi-county health department will be the centralized administration of the sewage program.

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