Section 8 of the Land Use Partnership Act establishes a review process by which the Interagency Planning Board reviews the actions taken by a regional planning agency. Essentially this section provides an avenue for relief by a community if it feels that it has not been treated fairly by its regional planning agency. However, it also reads like "Big Brother" keeping tabs on what happens at the regional level due to the provision for the Interagency Planning Board to, at its own initiative, review actions of the regional planning agencies. Let's look at Section 8 piece by piece:
8) Review of certification by regional planning agency
Any certification or determination of non-certification by a regional planning agency with respect to a plan or implementing regulations or a material amendment of either is subject to review by the Interagency Planning Board. The Interagency Planning Board may, upon the request of the subject municipality or upon its own motion, review any such decision in an informal, non-adjudicatory proceeding, may request information from any third party and may modify or reverse such decision if the same does not comply with the provisions hereof.
Plain and simple, why do we need to give this Interagency Planning Board the ability to review an action by a regional planning agency without an appeal by a community. Giving the IPB the ability to initiate its own review, places it into a prosecutor, judge and jury wrapped into one.
If a municipality provides written notice to the Interagency Planning Board of the certification by a regional planning agency of a plan or implementing regulations or a material amendment of either (including a deemed certification resulting from a regional planning agency’s failure to act), then the board may only review such certification if it commences such review with 60 days of such certification.
Okay, I have searched the proposed legislation and have not found a requirement for a community to notify the IPB of an approval, so why would a community provide such a notification? On the flip side, if a community does not notify the IPB, does this mean that the restriction on the IPB review never expires? Seems like a step has been considered, notification to the IPB, but not actually included in the proposal. To be honest I do not believe there is a need for such a review authority.
The Interagency Planning Board may through regulation establish a procedure for reviewing and approving guidelines prepared by regional planning agencies to be used in the certification of plans, implementing regulations and material amendments. If a certification or determination of non-certification under review by the Interagency Planning Board has been issued by the regional planning agency based upon an approved guideline, then the board may only modify or reverse such decision for inconsistency with the approved guideline.
We need procedures, however, these procedures need to be established prior to any plans being reviewed. If they are not, then it leads to a suggestion that the procedures are being created to keep cities, towns and regional planning agencies in check.
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