02/11/2002 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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• COUNCIL MINUTES JANUARY 14, 2002 City Planner Smyser felt that this would eliminate a number of purposes of the proposed ordinance. He indicated allowing the recently received plats to be exempted from the ordinance would distract staff from efficiently working on the necessary ordinances to implement the Comprehensive Plan. Additionally, the current ordinances will not implement the new Comprehensive Plan and, in order to do so, staff must revise the official controls. Therefore, he believed staff's view would be that exempting these plat applications would be defeating the purpose of the moratorium. He noted many other developers had recently questioned whether they should submit preliminary plat applications and were told, while they could summit their applications, their plats would not receive approval prior to the effective date of the moratorium. He felt it would be unfair to those developers to allow the recently submitted plats to be exempt from the moratorium. Mayor Bergeson noted over the next couple of years there will be a number of new homes constructed within the City, some under the old rules and some under the new rules. He felt it will take at least one to two years before all new construction will be under the new rules. He felt the issue at hand was interpreting where the old rules end and where the new ones begin. Councilmember Carlson suggested that the Council address the concern that there is currently not enough housing inventory in the City. City Planner Shyser believed Mr. Robinson was referring to the goal of the new Comprehensive Plan to maintain 4n inventory of three years at approximately 147 new lots per year. He indicated the City currently has approximately 400 lots in inventory at this time. He noted in order to implement this goal, controls must be in place. He noted one primary reason for the moratorium was the concern over wheher or not the new Comprehensive Plan is in effect and can be used as a guide. He believed the Ci 'currently has enough inventory for nearly three years of residential development an d the new ordinances will be in effect well before that time. Councilmember Carlson asked whether the Council would have any basis to allow the applications received prior to this evening to rove forward. She no t Mr. Vaughn's development project was also under consideration at this time, having been reviewed by the Planning and Zoning Board at their last meeting. However, she stated there may be difficulty if other developers feel they did not have this opportunity. Community Development Director Grochala clarified that staff did not tell any developers to not make application at this time; rather they had been informed of the process, the proposed moratorium and its purpose. Community Development Director Grochala stated he could foresee problems with pursuing the exemption of the recently submitted plat applications. He questioned whether the City Council would be willing to approve two plats consisting of approximately 260 lots for development based on the existing rules. He indicated if the plats were consistent with the existing rules, Staff would have no basis to recommend denial. Additionally, the City does not have MUSA available at this time to allocate to the two subject plats. Community Development Director Grochala stated the City has worked a number of years on the new Comprehensive Plan and the 20 -20 vision process and a new Plan has been developed. He stated 13