Development Plans Granted Amnesty

In an effort to make it easier to reactivate development plans that were shelved during the recession, the City of Georgetown has enacted an amnesty program for applications approved after January 1, 2007. The amnesty applies to approved, but expired permits for site plans, subdivision plats, construction plans, and storm water drainage plans. The amnesty program to reinstate these plans extends to December 31 this year.

The idea of an amnesty program for expired development permits was proposed by Council Member Pat Berryman in January. The city council approved an amnesty resolution at their February 14 meeting.

Most types of development permits expire in two years and new applications must be made to reactivate development plans. Under the amnesty program, expired development permits can be reinstated at a cost of half the regular fee without going through the entire review process. If a project meets the criteria, it may be reactivated for up to two years. The Planning and Development Department estimates that 72 expired permits may be eligible for amnesty.

“A number of projects for which developers submitted plans in 2007 and 2008 went dormant due to the downturn in the economy,” says City Manager Paul Brandenburg. “Now we are seeing some of those projects restarting. As an attempt to stimulate the local economy and jump-start these projects, we are implementing this amnesty program. This initiative will hopefully incentivize some of these projects and accelerate others.”

In addition to this amnesty for development plans, expiration deadlines may be extended in two other ways.

First, for those development plans that have not yet expired, the expiration deadline was automatically extended by council action to May 1 of this year. This extension is for the application types that would be eligible for the amnesty program, but have not yet expired, and is at no cost to the applicant.

Second, the first round of the annual amendment process for the Unified Development Code is scheduled for council action in March. Proposed UDC amendments would create site plan and preliminary plat extension and reinstatement processes, as well as increase the expiration period for some other development related applications.

Anyone with an application that may meet the requirements noted above should contact Valerie Kreger, principal planner with the Planning and Development Department at (512) 930-3575, or by email at valerie.kreger@georgetown.org.