This legislation requires local governments which impose regulatory fees or requirements to establish and make available a list of such fees/requirements and all of the documentation required of an applicant.   The local government has five business days to notify the applicant whether an application is complete.  Once the application is complete, the city or county must inform the applicant whether the regulatory function can be completed within 30 days (that includes the 5 days above) for plan review, or within two business days for inspection of receiving a valid written request for inspection.  If the city or county determines they cannot provide said actions within the above time frames, the applicant may then retain, at its own expense, a private professional provider to perform the plan review or inspection (so long as they don't have a financial interest nor are affiliated in the project under review).  If that option is selected by the applicant, the local government regulatory fees will be reduced by 50 percent.  Even if the local government determines that they can perform the plan review or inspection within the above time frames, the applicant may nonetheless select a private professional to conduct the services, but will pay the city or county 100 percent of its "convenience" fees.  In addition, HB 493: 

• Allows local governments to pre-qualify companies that choose to handle permit reviews;
• Requires a local government finding a deficiency in a permit review to provide a written notice of the deficiency within 30 days to allow the private plan review professional to either correct the deficiency or dispute it;
• Requires a local government finding a deficiency in any inspection to provide a written notice of the deficiency within 2 days to allow the private plan review professional to either correct the deficiency or dispute it;
• Retains the ability of local governments to issue stop-work orders when problems arise; and 
• Keeps the granting of a certificate of occupancy with the local government.

Lastly, under the state's soil erosion and sedimentation (E&S) law, the bill now authorizes counties and cities to become local permit issuing authorities if they can demonstrate that they "contract" with qualified personnel to implement local E&S ordinances.  Current law requires the local government to "employ" said personnel. This allows another option from having to rely on the local soil and water conservation district to issue permits.