Opinion ID: 2615617
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: How Much Delay Requires Reconsultation

Text: How much delay between an initial referral for agency comments and actual final approval of a subdivision plan will constitute delay sufficient to require reconsultation with the agencies? No hard and fast rule would be workable here; instead, as courts often do, we must decide whether the Board's failure to obtain relatively current review by the agencies constituted an abuse of discretion under the circumstances. When there is evidence that significant new information is available, or that significant changes have taken place in the community, or when the Board itself (as here) decides to re-refer the matter of subdivision approval to its Planning Commission because of delay, the statutory agency consultation requirement should be triggered. Because it does not account for the importance of how growth impacts increase over time, the majority's position would in effect allow speculation at the expense of the resources the General Assembly sought to protect through the subdivision statutes. A person with an initial approval may delay final approval without being held to conditions or mitigation requirements that new applicants in the same geographical area must take into account. This result is quite clearly inconsistent with the familiar concept that development pay all or part of its way. Bainbridge, 929 P.2d at 698. And because the referral agencies cannot be expected to track every development proposal independently, [5] it would be unrealistic to expect these agencies to submit comments without notification from the Board that action was impending. Here, the subdivider patently caused the delaynot any of the reviewing agencies, not the Planning Commission, and not the Board. The Board recognized that the delay necessitated obtaining updated review by the Planning Commission. Under these circumstances, the Board should have required the Planning Commission to reconsult with all of the reviewing agencies and, in particular, obtain current information from the local school district. I would hold that its failure to do so was an abuse of its discretion. II. Accordingly, I respectfully dissent from Part II.B. of the court's opinion.