The funnel deadline for bills to keep moving (must be passed out of a committee) is Friday, March 4. SSB 1068, the study bill that carries many of the recommendations of the Smart Planning Taskforce, passed out of the State Government Committee on February 28 (the link is not to the current as-amended version). SSB 1068 will now receive a Senate File number.
SF 321 is the successor bill to SF 269, discussed below, concerning wastewater discharges by on-farm processing operations. It also passed out of committee yesterday.
Bills recently introduced, but not yet through committee:
SF 297 and SF 336 both deal with the notification requirements of meetings of the boards of condominium and homeowners associations.
HF 430 would protect agricultural operations from nuisance suits under certain circumstances (commonly referred to as a right-to-farm law. NOTE: the Iowa Supreme Court struck down Iowa’s previous right-to-farm law in a nationally-famous case, Bormann v. Kossuth County, in the 1990s).
HF 413 would provide a property tax exemption for commercial property in an urban revitalization area that has been vacant for more than six months and meets other criteria.
HF 388 would no longer allow cities to adopt ordinances providing for the use of a designated amount of the increased local sales and services tax revenues attributable to retail establishments in an urban renewal area to fund urban renewal projects located in that area. Existing ordinances could be amended or repealed only.
HF 357 would change the authority of city zoning boards of adjustment to grant variances, by allowing the granting of area variances upon a showing of ‘practical difficulties’ rather than unnecessary hardship.
