09/13/2000 P&Z Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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AGENDA ITEM VI A • STAFF ORIGINATOR: Jeff Smyser P & Z MEETING DATE: September 13, 2000 TOPIC: Discussion Item: Meeting Schedule, Project Review Process, Reports BACKGROUND It is a good idea to periodically revisit the City's process for reviewing development proposals. A member of the P & Z has asked about the schedule for staff reports and delivery to the P & Z. This is a good opportunity to review the whole process. I've attached the Application Deadline and Meeting Schedule. Several things influenced this schedule. It must accommodate the meetings of citizen advisory boards, each of which have different schedules. It also must accommodate the state law governing the timeframe allowed to the City for reviewing applications. The schedule also must allow enough time to research, negotiate changes, and write a complete report on the project. The deadlines are keyed to the P & Z meetings. Previous to 1999, the application deadlines were only three weeks before the P & Z meetings. We found that this often did not allow enough time to prepare even minimal information or analysis for the Environmental Board. We did two things to address this. One, we moved the deadline back to four weeks before the P & Z meeting. Two, we changed the Environmental Board meeting schedule from the fourth Wednesday to the last Wednesday of the month. We also decided to stretch the time between the P & Z recommendation meeting and the City Council meeting. Instead of going to the very next City Council meeting, we skip one. This allows the applicant the opportunity to resolve outstanding issues that P & Z may include as conditions of approval. Often, there are engineering issues that should be resolved before Council approval but can be addressed between the P & Z meeting and the Council meeting. This is particularly relevant to commercial /industrial site plans. In the interest of meeting economic development goals, we like to keep projects moving along if possible. However, you have seen that if there is a serious unresolved issue, staff will recommend delaying the P & Z approval. State law allows the City 60 days to approve a project. This means between the date of a complete application submittal and approval by City Council. With proper notice, we can extend this an additional 60 days. We automatically add this 60 -day extension to accommodate our meeting schedule. Our new application form notifies the applicant that we are doing so. •