AB 736

Under current law, a county board may enact a zoning ordinance that applies

to towns that are located within the county. This bill specifies that a county board

may enact a zoning ordinance that applies in all or part of a town's territory, and may

apply in all of the territory of some towns, and in only part of the territory of other

towns. Such an ordinance, however, is not effective in a town until the ordinance is

approved by that town board.

The bill also contains a curative provision stating that any county zoning

ordinance that was enacted by a county before the effective date of the bill and that

applied to some towns in the county but not all towns within the county, and which

remains in effect, is declared to be legal and binding.

Under current law, each county must zone by ordinance all shorelands in its

unincorporated area in order to promote the public health, safety, and general

welfare and to effect the following purposes: to further the maintenance of safe and

healthful conditions; prevent and control water pollution; protect spawning grounds,

fish, and aquatic life; control building sites, placement of structures, and land uses;

and reserve shore cover and natural beauty. This bill adds that the requirements in

a county shoreland zoning ordinance must relate to these purposes.

Current law allows a town to enact a zoning ordinance that applies in

shorelands. This bill specifies that a town may enact a zoning ordinance affecting

the same shorelands as a county shoreland zoning ordinance. Both the current law

authorization and the bill's authorization are subject to a restriction that, generally,

such a town ordinance may not impose restrictions or requirements in shorelands

with respect to matters regulated by a county shoreland zoning ordinance affecting

the same shorelands, regardless of whether the county shoreland zoning ordinance

was enacted separately from, or together with, a zoning ordinance.