The Casa Grande City Council may soon take action to cut costs for developers and homebuyers.

It will mean a change in regulation.

Before Case Grande signs off on new subdivisions, developers have to guarantee to build things like roads and sidewalks. They use bonds or a letter of credit to do so. But if construction doesn’t start quickly, the developer pays an annual price to renew the guarantee, and that cost gets passed on to the eventual homebuyer.

Paul Tice, Casa Grande Planning and Development director, said a new proposal would release the developer from carrying the cost. But the city would not sign off on lot sales or issue building permits “until such time as the financial assurance is re-established, at some point in the future, when building activity is gearing up to occur again in that subdivision."

The proposal is expected to go before the Casa Grande City Council in May, Tice said.