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Funds Help Associations Battle Hot Issues
At last month’s NAHB board meeting in Washington, D.C., four home builders associations received assistance from the association’s State & Local Issues Fund to fight battles over legislative, regulatory or ballot issues that hold significance for the housing industry across the nation.
Applications from associations and individuals are reviewed three times a year during NAHB’s board meetings.
Funding was approved for the following:
- Environmental Management System. The Wisconsin Builders Association (WBA) received support for a regulatory compliance database. Utilizing a new law, Green Tier, the association is working in partnership with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to alleviate regulatory burdens that limit the housing industry’s ability to meet the state’s growing demand for housing. For a related NBN story, click here.
- Impact Fee Collaboration. The Florida HBA received support to work in conjunction with the Texas Association of Builders to develop a universally applicable impact fee technical assistance program geared to providing information to the associations’ executive officers that will help them dispute the calculations and assumptions used by governments to justify impact fees. At the center of the program is a “reference tool” that streamlines, condenses and organizes complex information on impact fees into a computerized database.
- Land-Use Study. The North Carolina HBA received funding to commission a study on the effects of land-use policies on minority and low-income groups. In December of 2003, the City of Monroe updated its land development plan and unified development ordinance. Reviewing those, the association found that a number of provisions would increase the cost of housing, possibly to the extent that members of certain socio-economic groups could no longer afford to purchase a home.
- GCP Analysis. The California Building Industry Association received funding to perform comprehensive research into the possibly negative impacts of moving from a General Construction Permit focused on complying with Best Management Practices to one based on numeric limits for sediment discharges and non-visible pollutants at construction sites. Numeric limitations would require mandatory water quality sampling and analysis for all storms and the cost of compliance could reach $125,000 per construction site.
For more information on the State & Local Issues Fund, NAHB members can click here.
Or e-mail Alex Strong in NAHB’s State & Local Government Affairs department at 800-368-5242 x8279.
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