Local governing bodies, such as county commissions and city councils, routinely place special conditions and restrictions on development when considering rezoning requests and other matters.

  Their ability to do much of that could go away if legislation now being considered under the Gold Dome is passed.

  At the end of the February 19 regular meeting of the Henry County Board of Commissioners, county attorney Patrick Jaugstetter gave a summary of House Bill 302 at the request of Commissioner Gary Barham. He called the bill “a bit troubling” and said he expects it to “get a lot of attention at the Capitol.”

  In its summary on the Georgia House of Representatives website, it is referred to as “relating to buildings and housing and local government, respectively, so as to prohibit local governments from adopting or enforcing ordinances or regulations relating to or regulating building design elements as applied to one or two-family dwellings … to revise the term ‘zoning’ as it relates to zoning procedures; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.”

  In other words, according to Jaugstetter, it would limit the county’s zoning authority, depriving the commissioners of the ability to dictate certain things like the exterior construction of a home.

  “Frequently, when we approve residential zonings – and even commercial zonings at times – we prohibit certain types of things on a house. We require brick, stone, stucco, etc. We may require a roof of a certain pitch, or, like today, limitations on the number of bedrooms,” he said, in the last example referring to a rezoning that was considered earlier in the same meeting. “This law would strip local governments of the authority to use their zoning powers for those things.”

  Jaugstetter called the bill’s constitutionality “questionable” but acknowledged that such a discussion was still far into the future. He said he called the general counsel’s office at the ACCG, which is the state association for county commissions, and was told that organization would oppose the bill.   “It would be an erosion of your traditional zoning powers, and those powers are delegated to the counties and cities. I suspect most every county and city will be opposed to it,” said Jaugstetter. “If you find it objectionable, call your legislators.”