Georgia House Creates Study Committee On Local Housing Design

Georgia Rep. Vance Smith, a Republican Pine Mountain, north of Columbus, has not given up his efforts to prohibit cities and counties from regulating design standards for one and two-family residential properties.

House Bill 302, which Smith authored, did not make it out of the House Rules Committee during the just-completed session of the General Assembly.

On March 21, however, Smith introduced House Resolution 591, which states that local residential design requirements “infringe on an individual's private property rights and consumer's choice of building products” and “add an unnecessary burden of higher costs to the individual homeowner.”

The resolution, which passed the full House on March 29, creates a House Study Committee to examine the “problems” of local design standards and "recommend any action or legislation which the Committee deems necessary or appropriate.”

Oconee County’s two representatives, Houston Gaines from the 117th House District and Marcus Wiedower from the 119th, voted in favor of the resolution, as did Spencer Frye from the 118th in Clarke County.

The Oconee County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved a resolution opposing House Bill 302 and the identical Senate Bill 172 in February, and commissioners were outspoken in opposition to them, saying they violated home rule.

For more on the story, please go to Oconee County Observations.