Is the Home Builders’ Association on Crack?
Okay. This is blatantly political. Unfortunately, it may be too late. But it is worth a Hail Mary pass.
The Home Builders’ Association of Central Arizona is trying to destroy Arizona before climate change can do its own number on us. And the Legislature appears to be going along with it.
The HBACA has convinced Senator Burns to attach an amendment to SB 1035 that would put a TOTAL MORATORIUM on development impact fees until July 1, 2012. In other words, when a developer decides to build another Anthem, all the other taxpayers have to foot the bills for roads, water lines, sewers, wastewater treatment, etc. to service it. Aren’t we in a big enough budget disaster as it is? And that’s just the part of it.
The other kicker is that they want to prohibit cities and towns from adopting any new versions of building codes for the same time period. So, even though nationally, consensus-developed energy codes have recently made strong strides toward addressing our national energy issues, Arizona cities and towns couldn’t use them.
Part of this is really an end run not just around having to build higher quality homes, but an effort to stop any city or town from adopting the new green building code that THEIR OWN NATIONAL ORGANIZATION developed. While most people think of the NAHB as a fairly conservative organization, the HBACA apparently views it as a group of radicals.
Here’s the Amendment and here’s a response from the League of Cities and Towns.
We run a business and don’t have time to camp out at the Legislature to track the latest shenanigans (and the HBACA is betting that most people with common sense also don’t), but it appears that this bill has passed the Committee of the Whole! We don’t know if that is the final hurdle before the Governor, but it sure sounds like it. Our suggestion is to contact the Governor and make sure that she cans this (non-) Improvised Explosive Device.
a.k.a. Green Services' Blog 
This bill was part of the budget package and has passed both houses. The Governor can veto it, but the Legislature has not sent it to her yet. She is suing them to try and force them to send it to her prior to June 30 which is the end of the fiscal year. They are holding it, assuming she will go ahead and sign rather than veto at the last minute and shut down government. People should still contact the governor and ask her to veto it for all of the reasons stated above, and more. She can be reached at Call her at (602) 542-4331 or toll free at 1-(800) 253-0883. You can email here by clicking on Governor Brewer and then filling in the online form. You can also paste this website into your browser http://azgovernor.gov/Contact.asp.
Sandy –
Thanks for the great info. You are an invaluable resource to the community. We all owe you our gratitude.
Since it has not been sent to the Governor yet, I am told that it could still be stripped out by the Legislature with a groundswell of support and that it needs a third read anyway. Also, if the Governor vetoes the budget, the Legislature will need a do-over, in which case it is best to let your legislators know how ridiculous this is.
Contact your legislators in addition to the Governor. Visit http://www.azleg.state.az.us/alisStaticPages/HowToContactMember.asp.
Update! We received an email from Sandy Barr that the Governor vetoed SB 1035 when she received the Legislature’s budget. Hooray! Thanks to those of you who wrote to the Governor and your legislators and thanks to the USGBC – Arizona Chapter board for taking a formal stance on this and communicating it to the Governor.