The recent passage of Georgia Senate Bill 447 implements key timeframes and accountability measures for local government review of Land Disturbance Permits (“LDPs”). This is a huge victory for builders and developers. Delay in the permitting process is one of the biggest complaints we’ve seen in recent years from our clients, and SB 447 should result in real change in the process (and cost savings).

Key features of the Bill include:

Local governments are required to specify clearly and unambiguously the criteria for approval, thus prohibiting local governments from trying to impose subjective, unwritten rules on an applicant.

Local governments have 45 days to issue or deny the permit.

Local governments have 5 days to determine if the application is complete.

If the application is resubmitted to address comments, local governments must comply with the following deadlines in commenting on the resubmission: (1) twenty days after the first resubmission, and (2) fourteen days after any subsequent resubmission.

For a resubmission, local governments CANNOT issue any comments on the resubmission that are not related to the initial comments or to any changes made in the resubmission. This means that the local government must complete a full, comprehensive review and submit all comments to the initial application. They cannot make new comments on a resubmission that they could have made to the initial application.

If a local government does not comply with the deadlines, it must refund all fees.

Local governments cannot deny or not accept a permit for any reason not based on local, state, or federal law. They also must give a list of reasons for a denial and sufficient information/documentation to support the reasons. This requires denials to be based on objective, code-based requirements.

Any applicant aggrieved by a local issuing authority’s failure to comply with the requirements of SB 447 can petition the appropriate Georgia Superior Court for mandamus relief. This gives an express right of action for violations.