HB-2443 passed the House Final Read with a unanimous vote and was signed into law April 10th by the governor, effective 90-days after the end of the 2013 legislative session. The new law is significant for Tucson businesses because it makes it more difficult for the city to circumvent the Regulatory Bill of Rights (SB-1598) that was passed last year requiring municipalities to establish and adhere to reasonable time frames for decision-making on licensing permits.
The aim of SB-1598 was to create faster, more uniform, and more transparent processes for any new ordinance or code requiring a license. The City of Tucson has been using an “Agreement to Waive any Claims Against the City Pursuant to the Regulatory Bill of Rights” and a “Flexible Application Process”.
For instance, Tucson gave itself an 85 day time frame (more than double that of Pima County’s 40 days) to decide on a construction permit while telling applicants ‘that it should only take 20-days, but they will need to sign a waiver’ as part of the process. With HB-2443, all discussions with a person about waiving their rights or their refund are prohibited.
HB 2443 requires a municipality to have in place an overall time frame during which the municipality will either grant or deny each type of license that it issues. The overall time frame for each type of license shall state separately the administrative completeness from the review time frame and post the substantive review time frame on the municipality’s website for public viewing.
A process is also created in the new law to allow a city or town to consider an application withdrawn from consideration. Regulatory entities are authorized to make an additional request for corrections based on the response from applicants. Cities and towns may also seek to extend the overall time frame by 50% with mutual consent of both parties.
Denied applicants must be provided information about their right to resubmit the application, the fees associated with it and the method by which those fees were calculated. The right to receive a refund cannot be waived by an applicant. A process for reducing the reapplication fee for resubmitted applications is also created. Various municipal departments are exempted from statutory requirements and numerous technical changes were also made.
The bill exempts fire and life safety inspections from statutory inspection requirements and clarifies SB-1598 does not apply to tax licenses.
Representative Justin Olson of District 25 in Mesa was the Prime-Prime Sponsor of the Bill.