|
Builders Receive Aid for Litigation on Housing Issues
Six legal cases on a wide range of issues with significant implications for the nation’s home building industry received support from NAHB during the association’s fall board of directors meeting last month in San Diego.
The NAHB Legal Action Committee meets three times a year in conjunction with board meetings to consider applications for funding or friend-of-the-court assistance from members and home builders associations embroiled in litigation that can be expensive and time-consuming.
Among the issues raised in the cases that were approved by the NAHB Executive Board to receive assistance from the NAHB Legal Action Fund (this link is for NAHB members only):
- The Wisconsin Builders Association is challenging a state transportation rule that requires significant setbacks for new development along public highways. Although developers can request an exception to build improvements within these setbacks, they must give up the right to just compensation if the state later condemns the property.
- The Michigan Association of Home Builders has challenged the state’s attempt to implement new code requirements on energy efficiency. After being bogged down for many years in procedural wrangling, the case is now set to be heard in a state trial court. The association will argue that the proposed code violates state law by not taking cost-effectiveness into account.
- A member of the Faulkner County Home Builders in Arkansas has been engaged in protracted litigation over the improper denial of his rezoning request for a sliver of agriculturally zoned land in a sea of residential neighborhoods. When he asked that his land be rezoned so that he could build starter homes on it, matching the uses of the surrounding area, the city council denied the request. NAHB has agreed to provide an amicus brief in support of the developer when this classic NIMBY case is appealed to the Arkansas Supreme Court.
- A member of the Home Builders Association of Connecticut is challenging the closure of municipal roadways that provide access to his proposed development. After receiving development approvals from the appropriate municipality, a neighboring municipality decided to stop the development by barricading the primary road to the new subdivision. Although public safety was claimed as the purpose of the barricade, the municipality admitted that it wanted to stop the new development with the only power it had at its disposal. NAHB will provide an amicus brief in support of the developer.
- The Home Builders Association of Greater Dallas is challenging a municipality for recently enacting a fire department impact fee without having been granted the authority it needed to do so under Texas law. This is a common case of a municipality overstepping its bounds in an attempt to raise revenue by exacting it from builders rather than raising taxes.
- The Home Builders Association of Central Arizona is challenging a dust control ordinance. A state appellate court determined that the HBA did not have standing to request that the ordinance be declared illegal. The HBA has appealed this decision to the Arizona Supreme Court, and NAHB will provide an amicus brief in support of the appeal.
The deadline for Legal Action Fund applications for the International Builders’ Show meeting in Las Vegas is Dec. 5.
To download applications and guidelines, NAHB members can click here.
For more information on these grants, e-mail Mary Lynn Huett at NAHB, or call her at 800-368-5242 x8485. For information on filing an application to the fund, e-mail Christopher Whitcomb, x8329.
|
