HB 5338 Summary

• Requires municipal planning commissions to prepare or amend local plans of conservation and development at least once every ten years, with regular review and maintenance between updates.

• Grants municipalities a two-year reprieve from the decennial update requirement, exempting all commissions from preparing or amending plans between July 1, 2010 and June 30, 2012.

• Requires the chief elected official to submit an explanatory letter to the Secretary of the Office of Policy and Management and state commissioners if a plan is not amended within the ten-year cycle, with the letter included in all discretionary state funding applications.

• Establishes that municipalities failing to comply with update requirements become ineligible for discretionary state funding unless expressly waived by the secretary, effective after adoption of the state Conservation and Development Policies Plan 2012-2017.

• Maintains existing requirements for plan content including housing opportunities, environmental protection, growth management principles, consistency with state and regional plans, and public notification and hearing procedures.