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The House of Representatives and the Senate took action this week on legislation that would set forth a plan to reopen schools. SB 37 In-Person Learning Choice for Families would allow school districts two weeks to create a plan for safe reopening. The Governor has not indicated what he intends to do with the legislation, if the bill passes both the House and Senate. However, he has indicated that he believes that the local school districts should make the decision to open or remain virtual.

This bill and other COVID-19 related bills have drawn the vast majority of legislator’s attention over the last two weeks. This is not expected to change over the course of the session. Your legislative team will work hard to get our issues front and center before legislators, despite the challenges brought forth by COVID-19.

Your legislative team spent the week with bill sponsors and members of the General Assembly central staff constructing NCHBA’s legislative priorities. The team has identified the issues that will be addressed and the potential bill sponsors. Again, NCHBA’s team is expected to pass another omnibus building code regulatory relief measure that will provide relief from obsolete regulations that are imposed on the building community. Representative Brody is expected to sponsor and run this legislation.

As previously discussed, another priority will put tighter guidelines around capacity fee calculations. The added restrictions could provide downward pressure on the next calculation, which in turn could lead to lower capacity fees in the future. Over the coming weeks, we expect to file our bills and have them assigned to committees.

Next week the team will continue to work crafting the proactive bills of our agenda. We will also monitor newly introduced bills that impact housing affordability. For example, we have met with legislators to discuss the negative effect of impact fees and the challenge of NC Department of Transportation accepting subdivision roads. The frequency of committee meetings should continue to increase next week and beyond.

If you have any questions, please email Steven Webb at swebb@nchba.org.

This post was written by NC HBA.