The Evaluation and Appraisal Report (EAR) as you have known it is dead. In its place is a requirement that local governments evaluate, every seven years, whether changes to the comprehensive plan are necessary to reflect changes in state law, and notify the state land planning agency of its determination. Instead of the detailed and prescriptive requirements that used to apply to EARs, local governments need only provide a simple letter indicating whether or not changes are necessary, as determined in the judgment of the local government.
If changes to the comprehensive plan are determined to be necessary, then the local government must make them within a year of the notification. If this deadline is not met, then the local government will not be able to amend its plan until it does meet the requirement. The statute encourages the updating of comprehensive plans to meet changed conditions. While there is no enforceable requirement to do so, local governments should be cautious about letting their comprehensive plans become too stale, because they may reach a point at which their ability to make a decision on a development application is compromised or subject to challenge for not being based on adequate, up-to-date data and analysis.
A new schedule has been promulgated, substantially lengthening the EAR cycle for many local governments. Local government planners have expressed at least two schools of thought on this change. The first is “great, I don’t have to think about EAR for several years.” The second is “Gee, if I amend the plan BEFORE my deadline, I can write a clean letter to the state, and not have to deal with the one-year deadline and the potential to be barred from amending my plan if I am late.” It will be interesting to see what strategy most local governments will take on comprehensive plan updates.
Author(s): Susan L. Trevarthen
