ATLANTA — With home costs rising beyond the reach of many Georgians, builders and developers are pushing for new limits on local control over construction permitting.
State lawmakers heard Tuesday about legislation that would impose strict deadlines on local governments to issue permits. House Bill 812 would also empower the state to override local building requirements that go above the “minimum standard” in Georgia law.
“I’ve heard horror stories of the length of time it takes for contractors to get a building permit,” said Rep. Mike Cheokas, R-Americus, the chief co-sponsor of the legislation. The delays cost builders and developers money, driving up the price of their product, he said. “This is one of the many things we can do to address affordable housing.”
City and county building departments already have a 45-day deadline to issue permits, but questions that arise during the plan review process can reset the timer.
HB 812 would prevent that, setting a hard deadline. It would also empower the Georgia Department of Community Affairs to reject changes to local building standards that exceed what the state requires.
Currently, the agency only lodge objections to such changes.
“There’s no teeth to it,” said Austin Hackney, executive vice president of the Home Builders Association of Georgia. “If the department says, ‘don’t adopt that amendment,’ the locals can do it anyway.”
Jerry Parrish, chief economist for the Metro Atlanta Chamber, said the number of residential building permits issued statewide peaked at 70,000 a couple years ago. That is how many were issued annually in metro Atlanta alone before the 2008 Great Recession, he said.
Parrish said higher interest rates and materials costs combined with a shortage of construction workers had contributed to the slowdown and to accelerating costs.
But several industry advocates blamed local government, with one complaining about the number of plan reviews required, including for mosquito prevention in one jurisdiction.
Local government advocates pushed back, saying the industry itself was to blame for its permitting woes.
Many smaller homebuilders have gone out of business, said Noah Roenitz, with the Georgia Municipal Association. In their place have come “large nationwide syndicates” that build big and complicated developments. Too often, he said, they file inadequate plans that require numerous, time-consuming revisions.
“The permitting process is not being used or weaponized,” he said.
Katie Parker, a development approval administrator for Cherokee County government, gave an example of one applicant who submitted plans to her department that bore the name of Gwinnett County.
Environmental advocates said loose soil from dirt roads and unregulated construction were a top river pollutant. They advised caution with any new restrictions on local oversight, with one calling the tighter approval deadlines mandated in HB 812 “crazy low” given current staffing levels in plan review agencies.