HB 110 sets forth procedures to which a county or city must adhere in developing registries for foreclosed and vacant real property. The intent of these registries is to identify responsible parties that can be held accountable for properly maintaining the properties so that surrounding neighborhoods are not adversely affected.  The bill defines foreclosed and vacant properties and imposes a cap on registration fees at $100 per registration and fines for noncompliance at no more than $1000. The bill also expressly allows local governments to require owners of the registered properties to update contact information for properties in the registry. While ACCG opposed earlier versions of the bill which were designed to make registries infeasible, HB 110 in its current form, with amendments adopted by the Senate, is acceptable.  The effective date is July 1, 2012 pending the Governor's signature.

This bill was amended in committee to create a new method of annexation that allows any newly created municipality to annex "unincorporated peninsulas" for a period of five years. Cities are permitted to annex "unincorporated peninsulas" defined as being less than 15 square miles in area and more than 75 percent surrounded by city territory, counties other than where the city is located, or both. Although the annexation must be approved by the voters of the area proposed to be annexed, this new method of annexation does not require any sort of plan or report on how the city will extend services to the area proposed to be annexed. Additionally, this new method does not require any notice to the county nor does it allow the county to object even if there are land use, service delivery or infrastructure conflicts.