Section 1

Amends GS 14-234, which prohibits specified public officials from benefiting from public contracts, with exceptions. Amends the exception provided in subsection (d1) to allow a municipality or specified type of board or hospital to undertake or contract with one of its officials if approved by specific resolution of the appropriate governing body and the undertaking or contract amount does not exceed $60,000, rather than $40,000, for goods or services within a 12-month period. Maintains the $20,000 cap for medically related services. Requires compliance with other existing conditions for the exception to apply. Applies to contracts executed on or after the date the act becomes law. 

Section 2

Requires the Division of Childhood Development and Early Education of the Department of Health and Human Services to post the following on its website: (1) education opportunities for kindergarten offered by local school administrative units, (2) educational opportunities for kindergarten offered by charter schools, and (3) scholarships for enrollment in non-public schools provided under Part 2A of Article 39 of GS Chapter 115C. Requires participating facilities to furnish this information upon request, and provide all families with the website. Effective January 1, 2022.

Section 3

Requires the Department of Environmental Quality to study and report on the need for additional positions and funding, and possible changes to laws, that would be necessary to expand the Department’s express permitting programs to encompass additional types of permits typically required for job creation, real estate development, and redevelopment activities. Requires a report to the specified NCGA committees and division by March 1, 2022.

Section 4

Amends GS 159G-23 to modify and add to the considerations the Division of Water Infrastructure (Division) is required to examine when evaluating applications for loans and grants from the Wastewater Reserve or the Drinking Water Reserve. Concerning priority for a project that improves designated impaired waters of the state, adds that greater priority is to be given to projects that improve designated impaired waters of the state that serve a public water supply for a large public water system, defined as serving more than 175,000 service connections. Adds that consideration for priority is to be given to projects improving regional coordination (previously, priority for local water supply plans that are better coordinated with respect to the State water supply plan). Lastly, adds that consideration for priority is to be given for wastewater system improvements made by a local government unit in order to protect or preserve the water supply of a neighboring local unit that has a lower poverty rate, lower utility bills, higher population growth, higher median household incomes, and lower unemployment. Applies to applications for loans or grants from the Wastewater Reserve or the Drinking Water Reserve received by the Division on or after July 1, 2021.

Section 5

Requires the Department of Revenue to provide the Revenue Laws Study Committee with information on the property taxation of outdoor advertising signs. Requires that the review include the specified topics, including reviewing the practices in other states. Requires that the information be provided to the Committee by March 31, 2022.

Section 6

Enacts GS 160D-910(g) to authorize cities to require by ordinance that manufactured homes be installed in compliance with the Set-Up and Installation Standards adopted by the Commissioner of Insurance, so long as the city does not require a masonry curtain wall or skirting for manufactured homes located on land leased to the homeowner. Effective October 1, 2021.

Section 7

Directs the Division of Emergency Management to consult with specified entities and study the needs of law enforcement, emergency medical and emergency management personnel, and firefighters to improve access to or within the interstate system in the state for the benefit of public safety. Details six required steps of the study, including determining potential sites of interest for construction or improvement and establishing criteria for prioritization of those sites. Requires the Division to report to the specified NCGA committees by March 1, 2022.

Section 8

Amends GS 58-41-15, concerning insurance cancellation, to make a clarifying and organizational change. Explicitly provides that proof of mailing is sufficient proof of notice of cancellation under the statute (rather than under subsection (b), which provides for notice requirements). Effective October 1, 2021.

Section 9

Amends GS 42-46 concerning fees, costs, and expenses in summary ejectment proceedings. Clarifies that the fees a landlord is authorized to charge pursuant to a written lease for filing a complaint, a court appearance, or trial following an appeal from a magistrate's judgment are administrative fees, defined to exclude out-of-pocket expenses, litigation costs, or other fees. Makes conforming changes. Adds a new provision stating it is against public policy for a landlord to claim or for a lease to provide for the payment of any out-of-pocket expenses or litigation costs for filing a complaint for summary ejectment and/or money owed rather than those expressly authorized in subsection (i). Modifies subsection (i) to provide for recovery of reasonable attorneys' fees actually paid or owed, rather than incurred, subject to existing caps. Specifies that the out-of-pocket expenses and litigation costs listed in subsection (i) can be included by the landlord in the amount required to cure a default. Makes further clarifying changes. 

States intent for the above provisions to apply retroactively to all pending controversies as of the date the act becomes law, as the changes are intended to clarify legislative intent under previous amendments to the statute. 

Section 10

Enacts GS 42-36.1B to provide for relief from a judgment for possession following a tenant's fulfillment of all terms of a post-judgment relief agreement with the landlord, defined to mean an agreement between a landlord and tenant that allows the tenant to retain or regain possession of the demised premises after a landlord has been granted a judgment for possession of the premises. Bars causing the issuance or participation in the execution of a writ of possession or any related monetary judgment following the tenant's fulfillment of the terms of the post-judgment relief agreement. Requires the landlord to file a motion for relief from the judgment, including a proposed order with specified provisions, within 30 days after the tenant has fulfilled the terms of the agreement. Requires the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) to develop and make available a form motion and order. Provides for service of the motion and entry of the order following ex parte review by the chief district court judge or the designee within 5 business days of filing. Requires the clerk to mail copies of the order to the parties in self-addressed, stamped envelopes provided by the landlord at filing. Allows for the tenant to file a motion to enforce the statute's provisions and hold the tenant liable after 30 days following a written demand and the landlord's failure to file a motion and proposed order. Allows recovery of attorneys' fees and costs, and monetary damages as specified based on whether the judgment was for unpaid rent. 

Section 11

Expands GS 72-1 to require innkeepers to provide suitable lodging accommodations for accepted guests in an inn, hotel, motel, or other similar transient occupancy (was, inn or hotel only). Adds a new provision defining transient occupancy to mean the rental of an accommodation by an inn, hotel, motel, or similar lodging facility to the same guest or occupant for fewer than 90 consecutive days. 

Enacts GS 42-14.5 to explicitly exclude transient occupancies from the scope of the landlord/tenant laws of GS Chapter 42. Explicitly bars agreements related to transient occupancies from being deemed to create a tenancy or a residential tenancy unless expressly provided in the agreement. 

Specifies that a person's rental period is calculated from the first day of consecutive occupancy, or right of occupancy, in the lodging facility regardless of whether the period began before or after the date the act becomes law. 

Section 12

Prohibits the following rules adopted by the Department of Transportation on August 28, 2020, from becoming effective: 19A NCAC 02E .0204 (Local Zoning Authorities), 19A NCAC 02E .0206 (Applications), and 19A NCAC 02E .0225 (Repair/Maintenance/Alteration/Reconstruction of Signs).

Section 13

Amends GS 130A-343(j) regarding approval of a wastewater system using expanded polystyrene synthetic aggregate particles as a septic effluent dispersal medium. Adds new provisions to specify that expanded polystyrene synthetic aggregate cylindrical units containing pipe and concentric media layers and approved by a nationally recognized certification body qualify as dispersal media for construction of prefabricated, permeable block panel systems, as that term is used in rules adopted by the Commission for Public Health (Commission). Bars the Commission, the Department of Health and Human Services, and local health departments from conditioning, delaying, or denying the permitting of such dispersal media as horizontal and vertical prefabricated, permeable block panel systems. Requires the minimum nitrification trench length to meet the manufacturer's installation specifications and not be less than the length defined in rules adopted by the Commission. 

Requires the Commission to adopt conforming rules.

Section 14

Expands GS 18B-800(c2), which allows local ABC boards to fulfill orders by a mixed beverage permittee for individual bottles or cases of spirituous liquor produced by an eligible distillery that are listed as a regular code item for sale in the state. Modifies the definition set forth for eligible distillery under the subsection to include a distillery permittee (or the like in another jurisdiction) that sells fewer than 10,000 proof gallons of in-house brand spiritous liquors produced and manufactured by it at the permit holder's distillery per year (currently limited to those liquors distilled and manufactured by the permittee at the distillery per year). Adds to the requirements for ABC stores to display NC distilled spirits in a designated area to include spirits produced in North Carolina. 

Expands GS 18B-1001(19), regarding spirituous liquor tasting permits, to allow those permittees to use the spirituous liquor produced at the distillery in addition to that distilled at the distillery where the event is being held.

Expands GS 18B-1105(a)(4) to further authorize distillery permittees to sell spirituous liquor produced at the distillery in closed containers to visitors who tour the distillery for consumption off the premises in the same manner as that distilled at the distillery. 

Expands GS 18B-1105(a)(2) to allow distillery permittees to sell, deliver, and ship spirituous liquor in closed containers at wholesale or retail to consumers of other states or nations, subject to the laws of those jurisdictions. 

Directs the ABC Commission to amend its rules consistent with the above provisions as specified. 

Effective July 1, 2021.