Quick Reference Sheet of Significant Changes in 2009 IRC

The 2009 International Residential Code (IRC) took effect last Thursday. The Master Builders Association has put together a good Quick Reference Sheet of Significant Changes to be aware of.

http://www.mbaks.com/library/issues/2009IRCSummaryMatrix_GH.pdf

Court orders $1.15M paid in property rights case

Dorothy English wanted to develop 20 acres she and her late husband bought in 1953, and divide it into eight home sites.

PORTLAND (AP) — The Oregon Supreme Court has ordered Multnomah County to pay the estate of property rights pioneer Dorothy English $1.15 million in a dispute over development restrictions.

The ruling last week ended a long legal battle over whether the county owed English compensation for initially denying permission to develop home sites on her property northwest of Portland.

English died in April 2008 at 95. She wanted to develop 20 acres she and her late husband bought in 1953, and divide it into eight home sites for her family.
She became the spokeswoman for Measure 37, which voters approved in 2004 to give property owners the right to develop their land.
When it passed, she filed the state's first Measure 37 claim. She was joined by 6,500
Oregonians who demanded either compensation for diminished property values or for the right to build, in many cases, extensive subdivisions.
Voters later scaled back development rights by passing Measure 49 in 2007. Most of the original claimants settled for a process that would allow them to build one to three homes.

English continued her battle in the courts.

In December 2006, she won a compensation judgment for $1.15 million. The county agreed to let her develop eight lots instead of paying her the compensation. But English rejected conditions the county attached.

In 2009, the Oregon Court of Appeals ruled in her favor and later scolded the county for engaging in what it called a “war of attrition” against English, who had died the year before.

New Legislation Extends Time Period for Final Plat Approval

Finally, a little good news for builders and developers who are trying to plat properties. The legislature has granted a temporary extension to save preliminary plats that could expire during this economic downturn.

The Municipal Research and Service Center of Washington (MRSC) has issued an opinion on the Washington State Legislature’s recent adoption of Substitute Senate Bill 6544. The legislation, signed by the Governor, extends preliminary plats for two years, from five to seven years until 2014.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Opinion:
In SSB 6544 (Ch. 79, Laws of 2010), the 2010 legislature extended the statutory time period for submitting final plats for city or county approval from five years after preliminary plat approval to seven years after that approval. It also extended the vesting period for approved final plats from five to seven years. This legislation, which is effective June 10, sunsets on December 31, 2014.

It appears that the purpose of this temporary extension is to save preliminary plats that are in jeopardy of lapsing because of the economic downturn. This purpose should help explain which preliminary plats this legislation applies to. The original bill included an intent section that, although deleted in the substitute bill that was adopted, sheds light on legislative intent:

(1) The legislature finds that active land use permits are expiring due to a downturn on the state economy. Considerable cost has been expended by applicants and local jurisdictions to approve projects. Allowing these projects to expire would make it difficult for the state to meet its housing needs in the future and impose considerable staff costs on local governments to perform work that has already been completed.

(2) The legislature further finds that, in the current period of economic challenge, an extension for plat approvals will contribute to the overall employment of the state by employing citizens of Washington as soon as is practicable in the family wage jobs of the land development and home building industries.

The public testimony in favor of the bill, as summarized in the various bill reports, also focused on the current economic climate and its effect on development activity.

To read the full opinion, please go to: http://www.mrsc.org/Subjects/planning/ssb6544.aspx

Can you spare 70 hours for EPA?

Got an extra 70 hours to donate? Are you willing to disclose sensitive financial information? If so, you’re invited to take part in EPA’s upcoming survey?

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is asking for your input as it considers five new regulations. One of these regulations would require existing developments to retrofit inadequate storm water management controls and another that would require developers to create long-term controls designed to better manage storm water discharges well past the construction phase.

The EPA plans to distribute the survey to 2,400 builders and developers in July. Some people have objections to questions, which require respondents to detail sensitive financial information. The surveys are burdensome as well, with the longer version expected to take about 70 hours to complete, according to the EPA’s own estimates.

The agency is accepting comments from the development community through June 9. The draft is available at the EPA storm water Web site.

To submit comments to the docket — Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OW-2009-0817 — click here or go to http://www.regulations.gov/search/Regs/home.html#home

Are you going to take the survey?

All in a day's work

During the final days of their feasibility period to purchase a property, a client requested that I go the Seller’s office to review some documents.

It seems that the Seller had located some additional material that had not previously been disclosed. I was asked to run down and make a quick review of the materials and report back on my findings.

(Note the 21 banker’s boxes of new material)

Lot Shortage

Even as foreclosures continue to flood some of the worst-hit housing markets in the country, economists are beginning to sound the warning that today’s extremely low levels of new residential production could lead to significant housing shortages, especially among market-rate rental apartments, as household formation rates return to normal.

The housing downturn and economic recession have kept household formation rates at below-normal levels for roughly three years, said NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe. As the economy moves to higher ground, the housing market will begin to feel the pressure from new households, he said, and there will be a surge of demand from echo boomers, who comprise an even larger group than their baby-boomer parents.

NAHB economists project that the industry will need to deliver 16 million homes over the next 10 years to keep pace with demand. As the excess inventory is worked off, which is likely by the end of 2012, the long-run demand for new housing — based on population growth, immigration and the replacement of losses from the housing stock — will average approximately 1.5 million single-family and 300,000 multifamily units annually, or about 1.8 to 1.9 million total starts.

Coming off extremely low levels of construction, starts last month were running at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 591,000, a level that is far below what will be needed.

When housing starts bottomed out in the first quarter of 2009, they were running at only 27% of average starts during the “normal” production period of 2000 to 2003, according to analysis by NAHB. This year, production is expected to rise to 45% of normal, with a further increase to 67% of normal next year.

The road back to normal levels of residential construction will be longer for some states than others. By the end of 2011, the top 20% of the states will see their production levels back to normal. Those states include Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, New Mexico, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

So, how long will it take to bring new Lots on-line in the Puget Sound to meet our coming demand? The average nunber of years (from plat application to recording) in King County for single family lots has been 4.75 years!

Average processing time (in years): (Source, New Home Trends)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
King County: 4.75 years
Other Cities in King County: 3.26
Pierce County: 5.44
Other Cities in Pierce County: 3.25
Snohomish County: 3.09
Other Cities in Snohomish: 3.09
Thurston County: 3.09
Other Cities in Thurston County: 2.85

Permit & Plat Extension Ordinance

The Economic Stimulus Tracker is a matrix of all the permit and plat extension ordinances and other economic stimulus measures being pursued by the King & Snohomish County Master Builder's Association. The matrix is broke down by jurisdiction and is a good tool to follow how cities and counties are working with builders during this down economy. http://www.mba-ks.com/library/issues/esp_matrix.pdf