This legislation, another attempt at limiting home rule, prohibits counties and cities from adopting zoning ordinances which prohibit residential property owners from raising any crops, milk goats, chickens or rabbits so long as these are for personal consumption -- despite its impact on neighboring property values. A similar bill passed through the House Agriculture Committee last year.

This bill re-writes Georgia's law on ownership of dangerous and vicious dogs. If a dog bites, attacks or attempts to bite or attack a person or domestic animal, then the owner of the dog or the person providing care to the dog will be liable for any damages, including consequential damages.  

HB 146 does not allow anyone in a residentially zoned area to train dogs to attack humans (or house dogs that have been trained to attack humans) unless such a use is specifically allowed in the county's zoning regulations.

HB 146 does not allow a person convicted of a serious felony, felony dogfighting or animal cruelty, felony trafficking of illegal drugs to own or reside with a dog that has not been spayed or neutered or a dog that has been classified as dangerous or vicious until ten years after the felon has completed his or her sentence.

HB 146 allows any judge to order the euthanasia of a dog if the court finds, after notice and an opportunity to be heard, that the dog has killed or seriously injured a person or presents a danger to people.

HB 146 also rewrites the Dangerous Dog Control Law as the Responsible Dog Ownership Law.

HB 164 prevents counties from prohibiting the use of coin operated amusement machines or limiting the number of coin operated amusement machines to less than nine per business. Counties may provide limited regulation of these machines, including requiring business owners to inform all employees of the state prohibitions against disbursing certain types of prizes. Counties may provide that an alcoholic beverage license may be suspended or revoked for failure of a business owner to comply with the state law regarding the use of coin operated amusement machines. Counties may also regulate the distance required between the coin operated amusement machines and other structures, so long as the distance requirements are no more stringent than those provided for the sale of alcoholic beverages. Businesses may be required by the county to keep the coin operated amusement machines in plain view.

This bill would prevent homeowners' association from prohibiting solar energy devices from being mounted on homes except under limited circumstances such as when such a device would be in conflict with county or city historic preservation ordinances.

HB 728 specifies that covenants that restrict property to certain uses that were created before zoning laws were adopted in a county or city will continue to be effective until the covenant expires according to its terms notwithstanding contrary provisions of the zoning ordinance so long as the zoning ordinance, upon its initial enactment, expressly  the continuing application of the covenant restricting lands to certain uses. This bill, which is effective July 1, 2012, is pending signature by the Governor.

HB 802 allows owners of property located within historic districts to subdivide their property so long as it is consistent with county subdivision regulations even if the subdivision would be contrary to the requirements of the county's historic preservation ordinance.

HB 830 would require any legislation introduced to create a new city be introduced in the first year of the two-year legislative calendar.  Such bills could not be considered for passage until the second year.  During the interim between sessions, the viability of the proposed new city and the impact of the new city on  other cities within the county and on the county itself would have to be studied.

This bill prohibits cities and counties from enacting any zoning ordinances that either prohibit or require a permit from any residential property owner to grow food crops, chickens, honey bees or rabbits so long as they are raised for human consumption by members of the household. No limits are set on minimum property size or the number of critters raised. 

This bill allows retail establishments to open packages of wine for the purpose of conducting a wine tasting so long as it is permitted pursuant to local ordinance. Currently, state law prohibits the breaking of any package(s) containing alcoholic beverages.

SB 54 grants a 5% weight limit variance for poultry waste. It expands the current 100-mile limit for exceeding the variance in place for other industries to 250-miles for poultry waste. The bill also allows GDOT to issue multi-trip permits for overweight vehicles.

Under SB 86, counties would have had the option of submitting "basic" plans in order to keep their qualified local government status under DCA's comprehensive planning requirements. If the local government elected, their Regional Commission would have completed the basic plan at no cost to the county or city. If the local government wanted to stick with the current comprehensive planning process, it may have done so. This bill also would have modified the notice requirement for Developments of Regional Impact.

ACCG feels that planning is extremely important and that this bill would have allowed counties, if they chose, to free up local resources to develop and implement plans more individualized to a community's interest and goals rather than having to follow a prescriptive state checklist.  

For ACCG's talking points on SB 86, please click here. 

This bill repeals the Local Government Cable Fair Competition Act of 1999 and replaces it with the Broadband Investment Equity Act. This bill is being redrafted with several amendments. ACCG will notify you when the new version is available.

If your county provides any telecommunication services to the public, please contact ACCG Legislative Director, Clint Mueller at cmueller@accg.org.

This bill specifies that covenants created before zoning laws were adopted in a city or county that restrict property to certain uses will continue to be effective until the covenant expires. Current law states that such covenants do not run more more than 20 years in cities or counties that have enacted zoning ordinances. An amendment to narrowly limit the application of this bill has been proposed and accepted on a similar bill in the House (HB 728).