Two home builders associations have received grant approval from the NAHB Executive Board to pursue litigation challenging unreasonable connection fees and farmland mitigation requirements, respectively.

The grants from the NAHB Legal Action Fund were awarded based on recommendations from the NAHB Legal Action Committee, which met on Jan. 11 during the NAHB Board of Directors meeting at the NAHB International Builders’ Show in Orlando to consider several applications for funding and friend-of-the-court assistance.

NAHB created the fund to ease the burden on members and HBAs that want to pursue expensive and time-consuming cases involving nationally significant issues or legal matters commonly faced by builders and developers.

The cases approved by the executive board last month indicate that HBAs still face onerous state and local regulations that create unnecessary roadblocks to housing in already challenging times.

The cases approved include:

• An HBA in the West, which had not filed suit at the time of publication, is challenging a local municipality’s unreasonable connection fees for new residential construction and how it is using the fees to expand existing infrastructure capacity without having the proper authority to do so. NAHB has agreed to provide financial assistance for this challenge.
  
  
• The Building Industry Association of Central California, which successfully challenged a municipality’s farmland mitigation program that requires developers to replace agricultural land on a one-to-one basis when it is rezoned for residential use, sought financial assistance and amicus support to preserve its trial court victory after an appellate court ruled in the municipality’s favor. The BIA is appealing the appellate court’s ruling to the Supreme Court of California and NAHB has agreed to provide funding and to support the BIA in court through an amicus brief.

Spring Fund Applications Now Available

The committee reviews Legal Action Fund applications three times a year in conjunction with NAHB board of directors meetings.

Applications for consideration at the spring board of directors meeting in Washington, D.C., on May 18-21 are now available and due by Friday, April 19. Click here to download applications and guidelines from the members-only pages of the NAHB website.

For more information on the grant program, e-mail Christopher Whitcomb at NAHB, or call him at 800 368 5242 x8329.