9-500.54. Malicious delay; attorney general; violation; civil penalty; definitions

A. Notwithstanding any other law, a city or town in this state may not maliciously delay adopted licensing time frames pursuant to section 9-835 for single-family residential construction or a response to an application for single-family residential construction.

B. The attorney general, based on a written complaint by a property owner with an application before a city or town, may enforce this section.

C. Following an investigation and findings by the attorney general, a city or town in this state that is found to have violated this section by clear and convincing evidence is subject to a civil penalty of $5,000 per violation regardless of the duration of the delay.

D. This section does not modify the authority of a building code official to withhold a certificate of occupancy in accordance with a city's or town's adopted codes and ordinances.

E. If the attorney general finds that a city or town violated this section, the city or town may bring an action in a court with appropriate jurisdiction to challenge the finding of a malicious delay.

F. For the purposes of this section:

1. "Application" means a site plan, development plan, land division, lot line adjustment, lot tie, preliminary plat, final plat, plat amendment or building permit for single-family residential construction.

2. "Malicious":

(a) Means acting with specific intent to obstruct approval of an application by imposing requirements not specifically authorized by code, ordinance, standard or other legal requirements, repeated unexplained delays of more than twice the city's or town's adopted licensing time frame pursuant to section 9-835 for single-family residential construction or delays resulting from other pending applications by the same applicant.

(b) Does not include any delays due to resource constraints, delays caused by the applicant or a third party, good faith errors or enforcement of adopted technical codes, including fire, building, transportation and traffic, utilities facilities and public nuisance codes, ordinances or standards.