From City of Chewelah
Regular Meeting Minutes: November 16, 2006
By Gaylea Nolander
Dec 6, 2006, 13:24
· Call to Order/Roll Call – The regular meeting of the Chewelah Planning Commission was called to order by Chairman Tom Bristol on November 16, 2006 at 7:00 P.M. The following planning commission members were present: Chairman Tom Bristol, Kadya Hugus, Bill Davies, Kevin Herda, Alice Crowley, and Doug Sassman. Excused absences: Irv Schick and Daniel Voltz. Also present: Curt Kelling, City Administrator; Chaz Bates, Planner; and Gaylea Nolander, Executive Secretary.
· Agenda Additions, Deletions, and/or Changes – None.
· Minutes – Bill Davies moved with seconds from Doug Sassman and Alice Crowley to approve the October 19, 2006 minutes. All in favor.
· Public Comments – None.
· Communications and Announcements
Chaz Bates announced that on March 9, 2007 there will be a one day conference in Spokane on active communities.
· Reports from Members and Committees – None.
· Reports from City Administrator and Staff – None.
· OLD BUSINESS
Shoreline Master Program – Verbal Status Report by Chaz Bates – Chaz suggested having a workshop at the next planning commission meeting to review what the Shoreline Master Program will look like after the removal of Paye and Thomason Creeks from the Plan. Paye and Thomason Creeks will be addressed in the critical areas ordinance during the update process of the development regulations and the comprehensive plan updates.
The next planning commission meeting is scheduled for December 21, 2006. Several planning commission members were not available on that date due to the Christmas holidays. After discussion, planning commission agreed to cancel the December 21, 2006 planning commission meeting and hold a special planning commission meeting including a workshop on the Shoreline Master Program on Thursday, December 7, 2006 beginning at 6:30 P.M.
Bill Davies wanted an update in regard to Paye and Thomason Creeks and the critical areas ordinance. He emphasized he does not want it to get lost.
Comprehensive Land Use Plan Updates
Curt Kelling, City Administrator, reported that on October 30th we had to provide a report to the Eastern Washington Growth Management Hearings Board on the ongoing process of updating the comp plan. Unfortunately, at that time all we could report to them is that we weren’t actually meeting the schedule that was delivered to them. Chaz has prepared a handout, which you have in front of you showing the current changes in law that have happened since the original comp plan was put in place. You also have a draft calendar process that shows the schedule to update the current plan. I have talked to the finance committee and will be going to the whole council in negotiating a separate contract with Studio Cascade to do the comprehensive plan update. We have been put on a 60 day update schedule with the Growth Management Hearings Board, so until they actually see progress coming out of here that is significant to them, we are going to continue to go back every 60 days and have to report to them about where we are at…We are looking at trying to put a schedule together that really enhances the public participation outreach in trying to develop that plan and get a draft plan together by the end of June 2007. I am asking the planning commission to consider going to a twice a month meeting schedule after the first of the year. I just don’t know how you are going to make progress on that plan with one meeting a month. I spoke with the CAT Committee this morning on using them as part of the sounding board on three parts of that plan, and the planning commission will get the same thing. Basically we are looking at the visioning on the front end on what the view of the community is and what it can become, and the Transportation Element particularly in the downtown. We will also be discussing and coming up with a sub area plan for the central business district. I did see in 2004 where you did establish the boundaries, at least at the point, of the central business district. The extension of that is getting more detailed in the downtown area and including that as a sub element of the overall comprehensive plan. We will also be talking about including a sub element in the comprehensive plan for Chewelah North. We are presently working on the airport plan as part of the state mandates and that will also need to be rolled into the comprehensive plan process and ultimately be included in the sub element plan for Chewelah North.
Chairman Bristol – I am a little surprised that we are noncompliant. How did that happen?
CA Kelling – Essentially when the City responded to the Growth Management Hearings Board Order we gave them a calendar that the City presented…that said you were going to start on your comprehensive plan early in 2006, and as far as I could tell in May 2006 Chaz presented a calendar to the planning commission to start that process, but I didn’t see any activity on that plan between May and when I got here.
Kadya Hugus – The draft revised schedule says we will start in December 2006?
CA Kelling – Yes, and you have the first piece of it in front of you which is the technical review piece.
Kadya Hugus – We are supposed to finish it by June 2007?
CA Kelling – A draft by June 2007 is the goal.
Kadya Hugus – So if we do two meetings for those periods of time you feel that we would be able to get that done?
CA Kelling – That is a great question. Being honest, I doubt it. I think the part that the Growth Management Hearings Board is the most concerned with is the public participation process and I think certainly during that time we should have quite a bit of opportunity to communicate with the public and bring them on board. We are still talking about other ideas that we can use. What they are going to want to see is that we had substantial progress by then and that we are including the public in the process… I am guessing if it has been on the table this long, to come up with a completed draft plan is probably a little unrealistic, but I think we can do the public outreach and communication pieces and that is the piece the hearings board wants to see. I think they just want to see progress, which I wasn’t able to demonstrate to them when we talked to them on October 30th.
Kadya Hugus – In December we are going to do a workshop, are we going to have time in that meeting to cover what is needed for December 7th?
CA Kelling – Part of it we are doing right now. What you will probably be seeing in December is us coming back to you with a revised version of that draft…We will talk about the CAT Committee’s participation, but we will start filling the gaps. We will start having some dialog with the school in a couple of different ways. One is looking at some questionnaires and getting some younger people involved in what their vision of the City is in the future. We will be talking to them about some of the kids using this in their community service projects. An idea is they could hand out a mini survey at the home basketball games. That is where you are going to find them in the winter time. You will see that draft plan updated with a little more detail. We are going to be having some open houses and workshops.
Chairman Bristol – We have to do this update process to the comp plan approximately what, every 3 years?
Chaz Bates – Theoretically we should be amending the comp plan every year, at least the capital facilities element. The capital facilities element should include a 6 year capital improvement program which is adopted by city council, and as those projects get finished over the course of the year, other projects in the capital improvement plan, which is a 20 year plan, move up the list. Not only that, but other elements, and goals and policies, as we move through the year and discover maybe things aren’t working as we expected them to, could also be amended.
CA Kelling – And certainly the public also has the opportunity to submit annual comp plan amendments that can be considered. I haven’t looked at your update process, but they also have the opportunity for the public to initiate comp plan amendments.
Chairman Bristol – And that is the one I guess I was considering. I think that we have some public out there that have some issues with the comp plan. They can’t move forward on some land processes until the comp plan is updated. I am just wondering about the time process for those if we are having to pull all of those other things together. I guess I just don’t understand, do we do an update every year to accommodate those? Do we always update when we find there are conflicts in our maps or amendments, do we do amendments to the maps every year just to keep making sure land use is aligned with the comp plan maps or is that a four or five year process?
Chaz Bates – After this update I think we are going to see a lot less inconsistencies, but certainly as Curt mentioned, people can submit an application to change land use designation, or if there is something that comes up in the year where maybe we need a different land use designation, different zoning to match that or implement that to carry out something. That can happen every year. Then there is the UGA Boundary, which needs to be reviewed every 5 years, and the comprehensive plan itself just needs to be evaluated with consistency with the state law every seven years. We should amend the comprehensive plan at least once a year in regard to the capital facilities plan at a minimum, and then people also have the opportunity to suggest amendments that we should be evaluating all at once including any city amendments.
CA Kelling – Ultimately the goal is to actually use the tool of the comprehensive plan for what it was originally intended for, to really be the comprehensive plan for the City. What I have now is plans hanging all over my shelf that were done after 1997 and before now that were never included in the City’s Comprehensive Plan at all. They are stand alone plans and they were never joined together into that process. The downtown revitalization is a great example of something that really when it went through its process should have been rolled into the comprehensive plan process. I don’t know the history of how it was, the impression I had is it got passed in 1997, it has been hanging around on the shelf ever since, and trying to reframe that with council, with staff, and with public, so when they are coming in to see what the City is up to, and what we are about, and where we are planning on going, that is the master plan…I haven’t looked to see what your annual amendment process was, does it have a calendar on it? We will look at that.
Chairman Bristol – I am a little surprised. I look at 600 hours and double meetings, and I somehow thought we were kind of moving towards updating, and I don’t know if anybody else is surprised about that, but I am.
CA Kelling – I haven’t actually seen a comp plan amendment application since I have been here, maybe one of the things we will do when we start talking about that is the actual cycle. As an example, in Medical Lake, the annual cycle to upgrade the comprehensive plan or to propose amendments to it…we can collect them all year long…starts August 1st and ran through the 15th of September. At that point they could be initiated by the City, the public, whoever it was, we collected them all together in a group somewhere in that 6 week period. Once the 15th of September hit and we cut off the amendment cycle for that year, and then started bringing those forward to the planning commission for consideration, deliberation, as to whether or not they were going to be included, changed, or whatever, so we actually had a very defined annual cycle. There are a couple of exceptions to that, sub area plans, they are an exception to the annual cycle in that you can actually adopt a sub area plan anytime during that, once it is adopted then it is subject to the annual review and update. For example, in the central business district, if you want to make a change, you only have to go back and change the sub area plan without messing with the whole rest of the comp plan.
Chairman Bristol – I think that defined schedule cycle would help me maybe understand the process a little better.
CA Kelling -…I was hoping with the other changes concerning nonconforming uses that a bunch of them that we currently have will dissipate…the council will be having that public hearing on Monday.
Chaz Bates – Some of you may remember during that initial working through the public participation policy, we actually had a proposed docketing process that dropped off. We had some discussions about that, I don’t know who remembers that, but I can’t remember why we dropped it off…
Chairman Bristol – One of my concerns is that if I am confused in this position, what do you think the general public is if they have land use issues and concerns and don’t understand the process. I would like to make it clear, here is the regular cycles, and if you want to initiate one on your own, there is a fee for that if you get out of the cycle, and here is how you do that.
CA Kelling – They still get rolled into the same cycle…and with that annual amendment cycle came all of the public notification with it, we literally sent it out on the utility bills that it was available, when it was open, posted it in the newspaper, all the regular posting places, and actually advertised that amendment cycle every year.
Kevin Herda – Did city council approve the extra 600 hours did you say?
CA Kelling – We are working on it. It has been reviewed by the finance committee; it hasn’t went to the full council yet. We were working on the…proposed contract to go with it, which would be where the council is going to weigh in on it. We did have this conversation at the last council meeting, same one that I just had with you on the notification and the hearings board. With you already being behind in the process I don’t know what other option they really have. It is going to take the time to do it. Somehow we have to make the time otherwise it just isn’t going to get done.
Kevin Herda – What do you want from us tonight? Do you want us to say yes, two meetings, or pick a day?
CA Kelling – Not necessarily if everyone is going to revolt and walk out if you have to go to two meetings a month, I would like to know that. I don’t know what people’s work schedules are, so that is something that I hadn’t talked about. Tom and I hadn’t sat down and talked about it, and I don’t know what would be practical for you. My observation was that once a month I don’t know how we would ever pull this off. Is there a schedule that works better for you or not? One of my questions is, in the past have you ever done that?
Chairman Bristol – We have speed balled it and done double meetings for short periods, but not really long extended ones. This being a volunteer group and somebody else getting paid for the 600 hours, we have been more of a guide for that group, our planners, than doing all of the hard work ourselves I guess.
CA Kelling – That should still be the case and I think you are back on the same conversation you were having with Chaz, keeping us on task. I think that is part of that commitment of bringing something back to you, letting you know where we are at through that process. It also gives you more opportunity to schedule open houses, workshops, those kinds of things within those meetings, and of course you are still going to have regular current planning issues that come to you also.
Chairman Bristol – I think that we could schedule it every other week and guide it as best we can. I think that the main thing is continually do the updates with the growth management hearings board so they know there is activity and pushing both with a volunteer group and a planner, and here is where we are. It has been my experience that once you take extra time if you need it, if you really show them that you are just not having it on the shelf.
CA Kelling – I would agree with that statement, and that is what I think we need to demonstrate to them.
Alice Crowley – I think it would be easier for us if we had continuity. I lose one subject while I am waiting for the next subject. It would really help to keep my mind on my business.
Chairman Bristol – I think it would be easier for most of us to help with the task, and keep them on course if we understood our role in what we are doing on the task. I guess that is not crystal clear in what I am reading here. So we have these regular meetings, how are those going to happen, what are we going to do?
CA Kelling – You would like us to provide a road map for the planning commission of what the expectation of your role through that process is?
Chairman Bristol – Take an example, January meeting we are going to do Goals and Policies Development and Public Outreach, what does that mean in that meeting? Those kinds of things so we can do a little preparation and understand more of what we are going to be talking about and helping with. An agenda in advance of those meetings so we can really stay on task and bring that agenda back into alignment if it doesn’t stay on task.
CA Kelling – I would agree with that, there isn’t anything easy about this, there is no doubt about that…Is there anybody here that was actually here when they worked on the first comp plan.
Chairman Bristol – How about the one before the 1997 one, I think it was 1991.
CA Kelling – It is a learning experience for me too. I have just been in a spot where we were much more organized on how this process really flowed and I have no problem with helping us with that, but I won’t know until we have had the conversation.
Chairman Bristol – So are you guys ready to do a little more work?
Kevin Herda – It is fine with me as long as there is new stuff every two weeks.
Chairman Bristol – I think that is where we burn out, it is like sucking Jell-O I guess, things don’t move, and this process isn’t moving and we are not feeling like we are making it happen or being a part of it. I think we need a set agenda, give us milestones that we are supposed to be hitting on those nights. I am willing to do that kind of work but not more public meetings where it doesn’t go as far, or I even know where it is supposed to go.
CA Kelling – Would you like me to also give you a proposed meeting schedule when we come back at the next meeting?
Chairman Bristol – I think that would be good and then people can personally plan, I do honor everyone’s personal commitment…Do those meetings have to be quorums?
CA Kelling – It depends on what it is. If it is an open house and we want to invite the council and the public and we don’t take any action, no, it is what it is, it is an open house to have discussion. Anything that we are going to take any action on, or move anything forward, we are going to have to have a quorum at that meeting…As many of you as we can have here all of the time is going to be good, but I do realize that everybody has other things to do.
Chairman Bristol – Even if there wasn’t a quorum we could turn it into a workshop, just not do any action.
CA Kelling – Right.
Chairman Bristol – Most people try to keep Thursdays open, because we have had to do special meetings in the past, where our regular meeting is the third Thursday and we have bumped it to the first.
Chaz Bates – Before we move on, does anyone have any questions about the packet…
CA Kelling – The good news is, although this looks like work, it is actually fun, if we back up to the reason that we need to do this, it is really setting the path for the future of the City. It is really the most important thing that you can do as a planning commission. I know that it hasn’t been used well here as a tool in the past and I think that is one of the things that we need to do to frame it. It is an extremely important tool for looking into the future and particularly with the growth and activity level that you are faced with around here, now is the time to do it. You need to be out ahead of it. It is not easy to do. It starts happening around you and if you don’t have a plan there is paramount chaos.
Kevin Herda – I am looking forward to some new ideas on how to get the community involved because I have been here for open houses when there have been six, and four of them were staff members, that is frustrating too when you try to get the public here and nobody shows.
Chaz Bates – There are ideas on the…handout. If you have ideas, throw it my way.
Chairman Bristol – So does the first Thursday work for adding those extra meetings?
CA Kelling – We will bring you back a proposed schedule on the 7th.
· NEW BUSINESS – None.
· Public Comments – None.
· Adjournment – Kevin Herda moved with a second from Doug Sassman to adjourn the meeting. All in favor. Meeting adjourned at 7:45 P.M.
Respectfully submitted by:
__________________________________ __________________________________
Gaylea Nolander, Executive Secretary Thomas Bristol, Chairman
Minutes approved on December 7, 2006
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