Thursday night the Planning Commission discussed: The CIP Capital Improvement Plan (a re-look), New Town Staff, Parking Ordinance (Article 13), FAR Floor Area Ratio and Housing Density Discussion.
I want to start off by saying in a prior meeting I said that I felt that Town Council needed to provide better direction to the Planning Commission when asking them to review and address items. I also believe staff could do a better job relaying our requests to the Commission.
The Agenda – To start there was some confusion on how the agenda was laid out, e.g. all items were listed on one line under new business but most were previously addressed by the Planning Commission. The PC Chair requested the CIP discussion be separated out and the vote was 6-0 in favor.
Public Comment –
Citizen – Regarding the PUD regulations we were originally told that there were no infrastructure limitations but today we know that is no longer the case. Suggested we re-examine and he gave example of flood plain management and mobile homes.
Write-in – Builder in favor of increasing the FAR, garage impacts and prior FAR survey was flawed.
New Hires - New Assistant town manager and planning technician in zoning department.
Resilience Committee Report - Draft report will be out mid-October and stormwater management part delayed until end of this year or beginning of next year.
Economic Development Committee Report – A lot of interest in the parking ordinance and will be providing input.
Capital Improvement Plan CIP – We’ve been told numerous times that the CIP is an “aspirational” document also referred to as a “wish list” of capital projects for the town to achieve. During our June 5th meeting Town Council voted to send the CIP back to the PC due to some concerns raised around figures not adding up, formatting issues and lack of funding sources. Council also asked me as PC Liaison to gather additional Council feedback and bring it to the PC. I request additional feedback from council on 3 occasions with none provided. For some reason staff did not add to the PC agenda until 3 months later so there was an obvious disconnect. Mrs. Luna the PC Chair assumed Council wanted edits so she proposed removing the $9.5M Town Center for example. After further discussion it was questioned if the PC should do any edits since they already passed their version back in May. Member Mack said he did not support any changes other than ensuring the math was correct. I asked if it was even necessary to send back for math and format and was told no. A few days prior the Mayor suggested we have a joint planning Commission and Town Council meeting to discuss the CIP and other items listed on this agenda. Some PC member seemed to support this for October 2nd but no vote was taken to do so. There did seem to be consensus on asking staff to make the edits council originally suggested but no vote was taken.
Council Discussion of the Recent Planning Items-Parking (Article 13) – Council sent this back to PC to re-address but no direction has been provided at this point. It is hopeful if we have a joint meeting that Council will provide clearer direction.
Floor Area Ratio (FAR) – FAR is basically the calculation used to determine the size of house allowed on a building lot. The PC Chair stated that the FAR was previously addressed and after a lot of public input the PC voted not to increase. The Mayor asked this to be addressed again because builders asked her. Council wanted more info before agreeing to address so this was not ready for PC.
Higher Density Residential use and Inclusionary Housing – Zoning including apartments, town houses and affordable housing. Caryn Self Sullivan asked for this to be addressed by the PC but again Council wanted more info before agreeing to address so this was not ready for PC.
Conclusion - In the end some of the confusion was cleared up and it seemed there was consensus on a joint meeting but no actual vote took place. I will say I agree that direction to the Planning Commission needs to be clearer in the future because town council sending items back with little feedback or direction is not productive.
Comments