Latest news with #SF40
Yahoo
06-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Zoning protest bill flounders before conference committee deadline
CHEYENNE — There is little hope a measure to change zoning protest requirements at the state level will pass in the final hours of the current legislative session, after an amendment was added in the House of Representatives to restrict mitigation fees on development. 'It is going to be harder and harder for us to build necessary housing that our folks need, so I was really hopeful that the bill would pass,' Cheyenne Mayor Patrick Collins said. 'I am very disappointed this amendment ended up killing the bill.' Mayor Patrick Collins portrait Mayor Patrick Collins Senate File 40, 'Zoning protest petition-amendments,' passed in both the House and Senate, but stalled after a joint conference committee could not agree on the amended bill. As it left the House, SF 40 addressed the petition process for protesting local developments, and how such protests affect zoning changes in Wyoming cities and towns. The bill said that 33% of resident neighbors in an area near a planned development must sign a protest petition and demonstrate harm to a planned project to be considered by a local body. Zoning changes to allow for development would have to be approved by a simple majority of a local body like a city council. Current state law says that only 20% of owners in the area need to sign a protest petition, and that any changes must be approved by a supermajority vote. In Cheyenne, that means a vote of 8-2 by the City Council. In the House, Rep. John Bear, R-Gillette, proposed an amendment to SF 40 that he originally proposed in the House Appropriations Committee, to prohibit governing bodies from imposing a monetary fee or non-monetary condition on residential or commercial development related to workforce housing. The House debated at length whether SF 40 was the correct place for that amendment, and ultimately voted in favor of it. Rep. John Bear, R-Gillette (2025) Rep. John Bear, R-Gillette The House and the Senate could not come to an agreement in a joint conference committee over the amendment, which officials have said largely targets a practice in Jackson. Sen. Mike Gierau, D-Jackson, said the members of his joint conference committee were willing to accept any other changes made in the House, except for the mitigation fees amendment, which 'significantly amended' the bill beyond its scope. Bear's amendment, which was adopted as a standing committee amendment on the House floor, 'had nothing to do with zoning protest petitions, (and was) totally not a part of the bill,' Gierau said. Passing the bill with the amendment, Gierau said, would subvert the public process because there was no time for public comment on it. Another piece of legislation related to mitigation fees failed in the House earlier in the session. House Bill 197, 'Limits on property development exaction and mitigation fees,' dealt with the exact issue addressed in the amendment to SF 40. The House Judiciary Committee voted against that bill 6-3 on Feb. 10. Majority Floor Leader Sen. Tara Nethercott, R-Cheyenne, said the ability to pass SF 40 lies 'squarely in the House's hands.' 'They have the choice to allow that good piece of legislation that was worked through the interim, fully supported by all the stakeholders, to pass, if they remove that non-germane amendment,' she said. Sen. Bill Landen, R-Casper, said on the House floor that he went down the hall to the House to ask if an agreement could be made. 'There was no desire on the part of (the joint conference) committee to even sit down and talk about the language,' Landen said. 'The other side refused.' Senate President Bo Biteman, R-Ranchester, ultimately ruled that the mitigation fees amendment was not germane, and the Senate did not concur on the bill. Collins said he is reluctant to criticize the city of Jackson for using mitigation fees to create affordable housing for its residents, but added that it was unfortunate a bill that was vetted through the Regulatory Reduction Task Force and the Appropriations Committee and received widespread public support would fail because of the amendment. 'I can't go against those folks. It is so difficult for us to understand the complexity of the (housing) issue they face,' Collins said. 'But I was disappointed that the amendment, which seems to be targeting one community of 10,000 in a state of 580,000, killed the bill for the rest of us.' SF 40 was just one in a long list of housing-related bills that did not pass this legislative session. Some were killed in committee, and others were never introduced by House Speaker Chip Neiman, R-Hulett. Renny McKay with the Wyoming Business Alliance said he is now part of a group recommending the Joint Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee take up housing as an interim topic. Collins said SF 40 had support from the task force, a Harvard working group focused on housing in Wyoming and developers, as well as others who spoke during the session. 'Everybody who studied housing has said that it is OK to have a protest process, but you can't make it so onerous that you can't get it through a governing body,' Collins said. 'In Cheyenne, if we get a protest, we have to get eight of our 10 members to vote yes — present and voting yes. That is a pretty high bar.' Collins said he's afraid that with a real need for housing in Cheyenne, more zoning protests will pop up, and without SF 40, a few vocal opponents may stall good projects. 'Hopefully we can come back next year, run the same bill and have a clean bill go through,' Collins said.
Yahoo
17-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Zoning bill expanded beyond its original scope in the House
CHEYENNE — A bill originally intended to address the zoning protest petition process has been expanded beyond its original scope to meet a former Wyoming Freedom Caucus leader's agenda. Rep. John Bear, R-Gillette, who stepped down as Freedom Caucus chairman last summer, brought a standing committee amendment Thursday night to Senate File 40, 'Zoning protest petition-amendments,' that would prohibit governing bodies from imposing a monetary fee or non-monetary condition on residential or commercial development related to workforce housing. Bear's amendment was immediately challenged on the grounds of germaneness to the bill during committee of the whole debate, but ultimately his fellow representatives voted to allow it. Friday morning, two more amendments brought by members of the minority party — also broader in scope than the original bill's intention — did not pass on second reading, but were not challenged for germaneness. SF 40 passed on second reading Friday and will be heard one more time in the House next week. The bill addresses the protest petition process to a local development, and how it may affect zoning changes in an area. A recommendation of the Regulatory Reduction Task Force, proponents have said the bill would give developers more certainty when planning housing projects, but wouldn't usurp the public's right to be involved in the process. Bear amendment allowed, adopted Thursday night, Bear proposed his amendment, changing SF 40 to include the stipulation that no governing body could impose a fee on residential or commercial development related to the provision of workforce housing, unless expressly allowed by the state Constitution. Essentially, Bear's amendment would make it impossible for cities and towns to require developers to pay into an affordable housing fund as a condition of project — a tool primarily used in the Jackson area. Rep. Karlee Provenza, D-Laramie (2025) Rep. Karlee Provenza, D-Laramie When called into question and sent to the House Rules Committee on Thursday, acting chair Rep. Karlee Provenza, D-Laramie, ruled that Bear's amendment would not be allowed. Bear challenged her ruling, and the House voted to hear, and ultimately adopt, the amendment after more than an hour of debate. Minority leader Rep. Mike Yin, D-Jackson, said before the vote on germaneness that SF 40 specifically addresses the zoning protest process, not governmentally imposed fees on development. Allowing Bear to add his amendment, Yin said, would mean the House is 'opening every bill up to any amendment that has to do within that entire title.' 'The language being inserted in the amendment has nothing to do with the zoning protest process,' Yin said. Rep. Lee Filer, R-Cheyenne, said that as a local developer, he supported the concept proposed by Bear's amendment, but as its own piece of legislation, not attached to SF 40. 'This has nothing to do with a petition protest,' Filer said Thursday night. 'This has to do with a totally other process.' The body ruled that Bear's amendment was germane, or could be considered in conjunction with the bill, overruling Provenza. While debating Bear's amendment, Rep. Liz Storer, D-Jackson, urged her fellow lawmakers to reject it. Storer said it would specifically affect her community, where local officials use the method with large-scale developers who plan to build hotels or other development that would have community-wide impacts. 'They create jobs. Those jobs need people to fill them, and those people need someplace to live,' Storer said. 'As a result, my county looks at those things and recognizes that there is a cost to building those things.' Bear argued that his amendment was necessary, as it would prevent a city government from forcing private property owners to develop their own property as the government saw fit. 'The (amendment) is an eminent domain issue. We have a taking here. We have a subdivision of this state … taking from property owners, and saying, 'We have a problem in our community, and you're going to help us fix it, because you want to do something with your property',' Bear said. Bear's amendment was adopted in a voice vote Thursday night. Filer pointed out that Bear's amendment was a last-minute addition to the bill that first appeared in the final moments of a House Appropriations Committee meeting Wednesday, meaning it did not have time for public comment. Sherwood, Yin amendments rejected On Friday, the House did not challenge amendments brought by Yin or Rep. Trey Sherwood, D-Laramie, on germaneness, but voted both of them down. Sherwood's amendment would have provided a property tax credit for expenditures to incentivize improvement of abandoned and nuisance properties, a concept she said had been debated for at least six years. Yin's amendment was similar to House Bill 68, 'Tax increment financing,' a measure that failed to meet a committee deadline last week, but was discussed in the interim. Rep. Trey Sherwood, D-Laramie (2025) Rep. Trey Sherwood, D-Laramie 'The concept here is that you have an abandoned property, and there is really nothing on the books that allows our local government to address something when someone has just walked away and this building is creating harm,' Sherwood said about her amendment. Bear argued against Sherwood's amendment, and it was voted down within minutes. Yin explained after Sherwood's amendment failed that his would add a 'tool' to the state's toolbox for addressing affordable housing issues in Wyoming by expanding the allowable uses for tax increment financing to be used for affordable housing purposes, in addition to blighted properties. Rep. Rob Geringer, R-Cheyenne, argued for the change, saying it would remove roadblocks for affordable housing where it is most necessary. 'At the end of the day, we do need to provide solutions for our housing (issues),' Geringer said. Bear told the House that the amendment was 'far, far too expansive, going far afield of where this body would be willing to go.' Rep. Jeremy Haroldson, R-Wheatland, said he could not support the amendment either. 'This creates a subsidized system for regenerating land, and, at the end of the day, we create a larger tax burden on those individuals in those areas,' he said. Yin's amendment also was voted down Friday morning.
