Murphy’s Law 2023 | #10
Architects, Bioscience, Drainage, Zoning

Good afternoon. The title of the blog shows a few of the topics and bills of yesterday and today. Architects and engineers need to look at and sign off on public buildings that are built in North Dakota. This includes buildings built for NDSU Research and Extension such as machine sheds and the like at their stations. SB 2347 is the number and had a hearing today. Proponents of raising the design threshold from $200,000 to a million dollars generally draw support from public entities such as parks and recreation, schools, etc. Architects, engineers and others will oppose because they want buildings to be safe from wind, snow loads and other factors. 

Testified in favor of a sales tax exemption for the bioscience industry as in the last session when it was defeated. This session is HB 1455 and soybeans are part of it because science is finding potential medicinal uses with them. 
Water drainage is discussing SB 2037 after-hours for the second week. Zoning in this week’s discussions is on trying to reach an agreement on HB 1423 and we meet up in the Agriculture Department again tomorrow. Both are going to take some time.