House Bill No. 1555 proposes to amend the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code (MPC) by mandating that additional requirements are met before a plan can receive final approval.
Representative Dan Truitt, who represents residents of a portion of Chester County from the 156th District of Pennsylvania and is one of the sponsors of House Bill No. 1555, wrote that the proposed legislation would "require that before a municipality can issue final approval for a development plan, it must receive confirmation from the design firm that the design firm has been properly compensated and the plans have been released for construction."
Specifically, House Bill No. 1555 proposes to add the following language to the MPC: "No plat may be finally approved unless the plat contains a notice from the design consultant stating that: (1) the design consultant has been properly compensated for the creation of the development plan; and (2) the provisions of the development plan have been released for use by the municipality and any applicable regulatory agency."
The MPC does not define the term "design consultant" as used in House Bill No. 1555, but the MPC defines "professional consultants" as "[p]ersons who provide expert or professional advice, including, but not limited to, architects, attorneys, certified public accountants, engineers, geologists, land surveyors, landscape architects or planners."
As for the status of House Bill No. 1555, it was referred to the local government committee where it remains.
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