Government Affairs Committee Updates

Local

Town of Amherst has put in place a temporary CO for new builds. This will only be given if the ground is graded. Other Certificates of Occupancy will be granted for porches and add ons.

Statewide

Condo Bill was Veto ’ed. The suggestion is to offer a compromising bill. Joe is going to recircle the letter that was drawn up by Mark Longo.
Friday, 1/13 there will be state Government Affairs meeting via zoom.
Thursday, 1/12 there is a virtual town meeting with NAHB and Mike Fazio.

New Business

Erie County Water Authority has raised fees unknown to the builder community. There was article published back in October that mentioned the budget and raising prices, but it was not specific to what was going to be raised. Joe is going to research this to find out if there is a detailed list of fees that were raised. The cost increase per house is $700. There is an issue that the contracts that were made with customers prior does not reflect this new price increase. Joe is also going to reach out to senior management at ECWA to meet with us.

Local

A meeting with Orchard Park Supervisor Majchrzak is in the process of being scheduled to discuss lot sizes, increasing density, affordability and public vs private road infrastructure. This will be a zoom meeting.
A meeting with the Town of Amherst will be set up to discuss communication between the BNBA members and them.

Statewide

An electrification task force has been formed and are meeting around September or October. This will include CNU of New York, NYSBA and NAHB.

Local

The ECWA is rescheduled for Tuesday, March 21^st at 1:30pm.
Town of Amherst meeting was Monday, March 6^th. Several concerns were discussed. A few suggestions were that the temporary C of O will be pushed back from the May 1^st The new date will depend on the weather, it could be June or a July date. Another point was to make sure the contacts are up to date when status emails go to the home builders. There can be several emails submitted. Home builders can sign up for electronic submittals, this is a separate sign on then just being able to see the status of your permits that you are able to see now. One last option is that if there are any new project managers that need to be trained on the submittal process, Rich Chudy, Asst. Code Enforcement Officer can do that.

Statewide

Mike Fazio, Executive Vice President of NYSBA will be joining the Board of Directors meeting on 3/14 and will be discussing a few topics.