Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone. I will now call this meeting to order. I would like to welcome those in attendance at today's meeting. City Planning Commission is a nine member commission whose function is to make recommendations to the city commission regarding requests for land use classification changes subdivision plots conditional use permits zoning ordinance amendments and other matters. The commission makes a recommendation based upon the adopted comprehensive plan for the physical development of the city of Brookings and the surrounding area.

As a matter of policy, all motions are made in the positive. After a motion is moved and seconded, it is open for debate. Those supporting the motion shall, in turn, give their reasons. Those opposing the motion shall then offer their reasons. After everyone has been given a chance to be heard, the commission shall review the testimony and information presented, make finding of facts, and forward their recommendation to the city commission. First item on tonight's agenda is roll call.

Roll is noted with commissioner Schmeichel joining via the phone and commissioner Jameson absent.

Thanks Ryan. Now approve the agenda, is there a motion to do so?

Moved. Second.

All those in favor?

Aye. Motion

passes. Next item on the agenda approval of the minutes. Approval of September. So moved. Second. Those in favor. Aye. Minutes are approved. Item number four, open forum. At this time, any member of the public may make a brief announcement or invitation or request time on the agenda for an item listed.

Items to be added to the agenda will be scheduled at the end of the meeting and requested action items may be scheduled for future meeting dates. Individuals will state their name and city of residence for the record. Public comment is limited to a maximum of three minutes per person. The comments and views expressed by the public are those of the speaker and do not necessarily reflect views or positions of the city of brookings or the city planning commission. Is there anyone here that would like to?

Seeing none, we will move on. We will now convene as the board of adjustment. The board of adjustment is a seven member board which has the power to hear requests for variances and special exceptions. The concurring vote of two thirds of all the full membership is necessary for approval of any action by the board. In accordance with Robert's rule of order, we require a motion to approve a request before the request can be debated.

As a matter of policy, all motions are made in the positive. The board under specific powers granted it by the state shall authorize variances from the zoning requirements for special conditions existing on the land will result in unnecessary hardship for the applicant. Financial disadvantage to property owners shall not constitute proof of unnecessary hardship. The first item five a variance through for 31006 Street sign size. Sorry.

Brian,

would you introduce the topic?

Thank you Mr. Chair. The first item on the agenda is a variance for a sign at 3106th Street. The request is for a two forty square foot size according to section 94, four seventy three, table three, the maximum size for a sign in the zoning district B3 Heavy District is 160 square feet. The applicant does Stein sign display on the behalf of the property owner.

This item was brought to the planning of the Board of Adjustment at our previous meeting in September for a request for two sixty eight square feet. That variance was denied. The same applicant is now proposing the two forty square foot sign beyond the 160 square foot allowed. The staff recommendation for the variance is approve, and the Board of Adjustments action would be to approve or deny. 3106th Street is shown in the property outlined in blue with the red box being the approximate location for the sign.

This is located on the South Side Of 6th Street between LaFever Drive and 32nd Avenue, East of Interstate 29. The site plan shows where the sign would be located that would meet the setback requirements for a sign and the proposed renderings of the two forty square foot sign. Would be a 13 foot three inch by 18 foot and a rendering of how the sign would look on the property. Can staff recommend approval and staff at stand for any questions?

Thanks Ryan. Is there a motion to approve the variant?

Mr. Chair, I move to approve the two forty square foot sign.

I'll second. Second.

Thank you. We will now open up the public hearing. Is there anyone here that would like to speak?

Regarding. Please.

Go ahead. Come forward. State your name.

Yep. Thank you. My name is Jason Crow. I'm the general manager of SteinSign Display representing a company, third generation owned sign and advertising company out of Watertown. So yeah, appreciate your time and allowing me to come in and speak again. Yeah, we're just applying for a variance due to hardship using the U. S. Sign Council's sign recommendations for length of setback to overall square feet. I hope you'll approve. I think last time I think there were some comments made which I approve.

I mean, I know a lot of municipalities kind of open the flood gates to let signs then billboards kind of get out of control. I I should give you a little bit more background and kind of what how we work with other cities. Aside from Watertown, we're in like Aberdeen, Vermillion, Yankton, Mitchell. And all those areas, we've only ever had one billboard. Our goal is to kind of represent like a regional advertiser where if they come to us, can of fit their needs.

And we've had a lot of requests from advertisers to be able to advertise with us in this town. So we want to be able to accommodate those marketing agencies and advertisers that wish to advertise our services and products here. So we're not looking to kind of flood the market. We're just kind of looking to at least be competitive.

Thank you. Are there any questions for the applicant?

I'm curious. Hi there.

Hi.

You had said that there is a hardship. What is the hardship? Can you explain that?

The hardship is, being that it's a 140 feet setback from that based on the the feet away from the the highway, the smaller that copy is. So the smaller display that you have, it takes more attention away from the drivers. It's just from a safety, a public standpoint of the longer they have to kind of look and and be able to see that that message that whatever is coming across, I believe that's reasonable thing for hardship, you know, just public safety.

So for the already approved maximum sign which is what, 180? Is that correct one sixty.

160 square feet would be the maximum allowed in this location according to the zoning district.

Great. And so what is the difference you're citing safety what would be the difference?

Difference is that 80 square feet per side just allows better readability and that overall less time a person has to spend gazing at the image. You know, there's only a limited amount of time of them driving by at 35 miles per hour in that zone. So that'll give them again less time to or more time to to pay attention to what they're doing driving, which they should be just it gives them a better opportunity to view that that message.

Other questions? Thanks for coming up, appreciate it.

Thank you.

Is there anyone else that would like to speak for or against the matter? Seeing none, we'll close the public hearing and open for board discussion. Any questions, comments for staff? Mr. Chair, question for staff.

The 140 foot setback that we're looking at here, is this distinctly different than a lot of other areas in Brookings?

This would be distinctly different. That's quite a large right of way here. The right of way dimensions north and south along 6th Street there are quite a bit larger than you would see, like, west of interstate. There is in front of the car wash, the Hardee's, those are areas the right of way is much narrower there. So there is quite a bit wider of a right of way between the road and the property line in this case.

Thank you.

Any other questions, comments? Seeing none, we'll call the vote Ryan.

Schmeichel?

Yes.

Limmer? Yes. Speer?

Yes.

Heinrich?

Yes. Braun? Yes. Solem?

Yes. Aiken? Yes. Motion passes.

Thanks Ryan. Item number six on the agenda is we will now reconvene as the planning commission. Next item, six a, rezone of Outlet 19. Notice this hereby given that Todd Voss has submitted a petition to rezone the following described real estate in the city of Brookings, County Brookings, South Dakota. Out Lot 19 in the Northwest Corner of Section 23 excluding Lot H 1 Thereof Township 110 North Range 50 West of the 5th PM in the city of Brookings Brookings County South Dakota also known as 213 West Highway 14 bypass the request is to rezone the above described real estate from a residential r three apartment district to a business B 3 Heavy District.

Notice is further given that said request will be acted on by the planning commission 05:30 Tuesday 10/07/2025 in the chamber room on the 3rd Floor Brookings County City Government Center. Any action taken by the Planning Commission is a recommendation made to the city council. Any person interested may appear and be heard on this matter. Ryan, would you introduce the topic please?

Thank you, mister chair. The next item is a rezone petition at 213 US Highway 14 Bypass. The applicant co applicants Delta Chi Housing Corp petitioned by Todd Voss. The current zoning of the property is residence R 3 Apartment District and the petitioner is requesting Business B 3 Heavy District. The future land use map for the property shows this as business park.

The business park future land use category would support zoning districts such as the B3 Heavy Business, the B5 Research District, I-one light industrial and I-1R restricted industrial. So the B3 Heavy District would be supported with the business park future land use category. The staff recommendation of the rezone is to approve and the Planning Commission's action would be to approve or deny any action taken by the Planning Commission as a recommendation made to the City Council. The property being petitioned for rezone 213 Highway 14 Bypass is shown in the yellow outlined box on this map. It's just east of the intersection of Highway 14 and Western Avenue.

It's historically been used as a fraternity, therefore the R3 zoning for the historical use of a fraternity house. This is the future land use map, as noted. It is a business park, so the gray area the gray colored area on our future land use map is the business park. And that does end the staff report. The recommendation is approval, and staff will stand for any questions.

Thanks, Ryan. Is there a motion to approve the petition? So moved. Second. Thank you. We will now open the public hearing. Is there anyone here that would like to speak regarding the petition?

My name is Todd Voss and I'm the petitioner on the say other than just being available for any questions.

Thanks, Todd. Any questions? Anyone has this time?

Sir.

Todd, I I I'm seeing a structure or multiple structures on that property. Were you going to use those or are you going to take those out, replace them?

We will use all the structures that are on the property and will not

be adding anything to it.

Just be used as is.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Is

there anyone else that would like to speak regarding this matter? Seeing none, we'll close the public hearing and open for board discussion. Anyone?

A question for staff. Can you do you have easy access to allowable uses in B3 Heavy District?

Just about there. Just about there. So here's the list of allowable uses in the business B3 Heavy District, starting with the permitted uses. There's also a list of permitted special uses and conditional uses. It's quite an extensive list.

The B3 Heavy District, it's almost a hybrid zoning district between the business and the industrial uses. We have a lot of business uses and lighter industrial uses that fit into the B3 as well, such as contractor shops, auto service type uses. And lastly, the conditional uses here. So all those permitted uses, permanent special uses and conditional uses, those are all potential uses that you'd want to keep in mind if this does get zoned to that B3. All of those would then be in play for a potential use.

Obviously, a conditional use, they would need to come back to the planning commission and city council for any approval for a conditional use. The permitted and permitted special uses could be allowed by permit, by right, as long as they meet the requirements.

Any other questions or comments? Seeing none we will call the vote ryan.

Liber?

Yes. Speer?

Yes.

Einrich?

Yes.

Braun?

Yes.

Solem? Yes. Aiken? Yes. Schmeichel? Yes. Letty? Yes. Motion passes. As a recommendation, this item will now advance to upcoming city council meeting for a first reading and then subsequently a second reading and public hearing.

Thanks Ryan. Next item on the agenda six b, conditional use permit office at 717 And 719 Main Avenue. Notice is hereby given that Bam Bam Properties LLC has submitted an application for a conditional use permit on the following described real estate in the city of Brookings East 67 feet of Lot 4 and the West, 98 feet in Lot 4, all in Block 2 Of Henry's Addition, also known as 717 And 719 Main Avenue. The request is for an office use in the residence R 22 Family District. Notice is further given that said request will be acted on by the Planning Commission at 05:30 Tuesday, 10/07/2025 in the chamber room in the Brookings City County Government Center.

Any persons interested may appear and be heard on this matter. Ryan, would you please introduce the topic?

Thank you, mister chair. The next item is a conditional use permit request for an office at 717 And 719 Main Avenue. The applicant is Beau McLeod representing Bam Bam Properties LLC. The property is zoned as residents R 22 Family District requested use as an office which is a conditional use in the R 2 Zoning District. The staff recommendation is to approve with the following condition.

The conditional use permit is non transferable. The planning commission's action would be to approve or deny any action taken as a recommendation made to the city council. Section ninety four two ninety of our zoning ordinance establishes that offices can be approved as a conditional use following using the following standards for approval. The use shall be located on a collector or arterial street. In this case, Main Avenue is a collector street.

Special attention shall be given to the architectural compatibility with the surrounding residential properties. Consideration shall be given to the traffic generated by such use. Consideration shall be given to the type of sign, the hours of operation, and the character of the use. And parking shall be screened from adjacent residential areas. 717 And 719 Main Avenue are essentially one parcel, but two lots, so two addresses tied together.

Shown in the yellow box on this map, the property has historically been used as a dental office. It had been a dental office for quite some time, but has not been used for a while for that dentist office. The applicant has submitted a site plan here showing that the building will be reused for an office setting. They do show the required parking spaces in the rear. The parking lot would be accessed from the alleyway in the rear.

They do show providing a six foot fence to the north and south of the parking lot for the required screening. And that does end staff's presentation on the item staff's recommendation is approval, and we would stand for any questions.

Thanks Ryan. Is there a motion to approve the conditional use permit?

Motion to approve.

Second.

Thank you. We will now open the public hearing. Is there anyone present that would like to speak in regards to the matter?

Hi, I'm Beau McCloud, the applicant. I'm just here to answer any questions you guys may have.

Thanks Beau. Anyone have any questions?

Mister chair,

one The

six foot fence that is referenced in the staff report, is that a new fence or is that existing?

It'll be new. Right now there's nothing. And

then I have a question. So, what will be the use?

Yes, so it would just be your general office basis. So I'll be officing out of it and I do real estate, so I'm a realtor and a property manager.

Okay, so one office? Yeah. One office, okay thank you.

Any others? Thank you.

Thank you.

Is there anyone else that would like to speak regarding this matter?

Good evening. I'm Christy Tornquist. I live at 727 Main, just down the block from this property. And I had the opportunity to meet mister McLeod earlier, maybe a week or two ago and he's doing really nice work on the building. I just had a couple questions.

One was raised by the Ryan's presentation. Is there a plan for signage on this building? I was interested in in what that might be. And then because it's in an r two zone with this, if this approved as being an office, does that mean part of it could be still an apartment and part of it could be an office or is this saying both properties are now approved to be offices? And then I have a question more for the the panel.

There's another house that's being purchased right next door, right down the street from it. And the rumor is that's gonna be an office as well. So is there a long term plan for this r two zoned area to suddenly become office intention? So I should say this has been a dental office for as long as I've lived there and I'm thrilled that Bam Bam is improving the property and they've done a really nice job and gonna continue it in in the office capacity.

Thank you. Brian? I'll address a

couple of those questions there. The first one is signage. This site plan does not indicate any planned signage on it. It would be in the R2 Zoning District. There are sign allowances for any approved use, so that'd be restricted to smaller signs that would be allowed in this district as opposed to a commercial setting.

So, there can be signage allowed by our ordinance in the R2 Zoning District. The site plan does not show any plans for signage. If the applicant wants to elaborate further on that, they can. The second question was regarding the apartments. An apartment would be a separate conditional use in the R2 Zoning District. So if there were a request to use this for office and apartments they would need to submit a separate conditional use permit for apartments.

Bo would you like to come up and address the sign question?

I guess as far as the signs question goes, if we, as of now, we don't currently plan to do anything. But if we were, it would be with the, Ryan and I have spoken in-depth about the what's allowed and what's not allowed as far as sign size. If we were to do anything it would fall in alignment with that.

Okay. Great. Thank you.

Thank you.

Question one, it can it be either freestanding or attached to the building or?

In the r two districts, you can have a freestanding sign up to eight square feet and a total of five feet in height. And for wall signs, you can have up to 16 square feet of wall sign. So quite a bit less than you would be allowed in

able do

that. That.

And then then, I think that you had a final question about And potential long term plans with a potential rumor of another residential house that could be potentially bought for office space.

This conditional use permit is the only item on the agenda tonight. There are no broader discussions planned around the R2 district and conditional use permits at this time? So, the answer would be no further discussion on that at the moment. That's something that if there's a concern, the Planning Commission can certainly discuss that as topic in the future for discussion if there's any sort of an ordinance revision needed in this particular zoning district regarding these uses. That concern hasn't been raised as a broader concern at the time. So, tonight we're just discussing this application that's been received.

Seems like we kind of bled over into some questions amongst ourselves. I have a question for staff. Would we have seen this application had there been continuous use of the property?

Had the previous use continued on, that would have been allowed. It was a nonconforming use, and that nonconforming use can continue to occur. Because the use did cease operations and it was no longer a dental office for over a year, at that point, any use reestablished, there has to be a use that's allowed in the zoning district. In this case, an office is a conditional use. They have to apply for a conditional use.

I'm not sure when the dentist office was originally opened. Now, we do add the condition that it's non transferable. So if dental office was a conditional use, which I don't our records don't have it as a conditional use previously, that would have could have been non transferable had we added some condition like that in the past. In this case, the use was, you know, vacant for over a year, so now they have to reuse it as a permitted, special permit or conditional use.

I just wanted to be clear that I'm not asking for it to be changed. I like that it's r two. So, I didn't want you to think I wanted it to be adjusted. And I believe that's what it is in the comprehensive plan is r two. So, that's great.

I just wanted to say appreciate the questions and comments.

Yep. Absolutely. Is there anyone else that would like to speak in regards to this matter? Seeing none, we'll close the public hearing And now, have board discussion to continue, if it will. Any other questions, comments?

I had one, Mr. Chair.

Yeah.

So

back to Christy's question about, I think, dual or split use on the two properties. I know apartments would require a conditional use, but if one of the other parcels was just a like single residence home, that would be okay even with the conditional use granted for offices?

A mixed use is not a use described in the R2 zoning district.

This is more for my curiosity.

Yeah, when I'm looking at the uses in the R2, there's single family, two family, and family day care are permitted uses. Permitted special uses are like a duplex, a funeral home, a park, conditional uses, a retirement home, group home, major home occupation, public recreation facility, apartment or condominium. But I don't see a mixed use as an allowance. So this conditional use would be authorizing the use of the full structure as an office. Any changes to that we'd have to determine if that meets a different definition for a conditional use.

Apartments would. How we'd handle a mixed use, I'm not sure. But this action tonight would be establishing this entire building as used, being used as an office. Awesome, thank you.

Any others? We will call to vote Ryan. Spear?

Yes.

Heinrich?

Yes. Braun? Yes.

Solem? Yes. Aiken? Yes. Schmeichel?

Yes.

Lemmer? Yes. Levy? Yes. Motion passes. This again is a recommendation to the city council. This item will advance to upcoming city council meetings for a first reading and a second reading and public hearing.

Thanks Ryan. Next item on the agenda six C review of South Dakota open meeting laws.

Hello. Thank you for having me. I am Bonnie Foster. I'm the city clerk for the city of Brookings. And I am here as a new senate bill was passed this last legislative session requiring that governing bodies and their boards conduct a South Dakota open meeting laws review.

So tonight we're gonna go through this brochure but I will incur I will encourage you to go out and look at it. My presentation to you tonight is pulling out the information that is important to you as a volunteer board member. But like I said, this is out on the city website, this is out on the South Dakota attorney general's website as well as this is a resource that they put together for all of us. So what are South Dakota open meeting laws? These are all intended to encourage public participation in our government processes.

So state statute is one dash 25. It identifies official meetings are open to the public and advance notice of those meetings must be given. So as a first class city, we publish all of our agendas for our volunteer boards on our city website. And then your staff of course, they are responsible for making sure that you're informed of what your agenda is for your meeting. So an official meeting as you'll see on here is one where quorum of the public body is present.

So quorum, I just wanna point out to you a quick example is one more than half of the members that have been appointed to serve on that board. If you have a vacant seat on that board, that seat is not considered in your quorum count for your meetings. I know with planning commission you have two thirds votes and things that you have to worry about on certain items and that is up to staff to remind you but on a simple majority vote item, that is how we take the definition of quorum. You will see on the bottom of the slide in front of you, state law has now defined the word teleconference. So that is an exchange of information by any audio, video, electronic medium including the internet.

So that could be your text messages, it could be your emails, it could be a Zoom conference call or even tonight we have an individual participating via phone instead of a Zoom. So as you are communicating with your fellow board members, say you're going to use an email, please use the BCC, that blind copy carbon copy line. Because what that does if you put everybody in the BCC line and somebody responds back to you or tries to do a reply all, that will only go to the sender. It will not go to the rest of the individuals listed in the BCC line. Now for example, if you were to put everybody in the to line and somebody hits reply all, that's going to everybody and all of a sudden we could have a violation of open meeting laws, we would have an undocumented meeting, conversation, potential decisions being made.

So encourage you as you're sending texts, group texts or emails or those sort of things, just be aware of how you're sending and how many people you have on that text exchange. The only exception with email usage is if like say Ryan is sending out an email or a staff and they're doing a hey does this meeting date and time work for you? That is perfectly acceptable to use the two line but if you forget, just throw everybody in the BCC and we don't need to worry about it. In this guidebook from the attorney general, there's they do call out three examples where not considered an open meeting. The first one you'll see here is if members are attending a press conference called by a representative of the public body.

The second one down, an event hosted by a non governmental entity. Say you were all invited to attend a service group meeting. We would not need to worry about posting a notice of quorum. The notice of quorum on the bottom is our last one is what we publish in lieu of an agenda. For example, an item coming up later this fall is the mayor's holiday party and awards celebration.

Of course, you will all be invited to attend. We will post a notice of quorum saying that a member of a quorum of this body will be present but no action will be taken. So we do cover those and that is a responsibility of staff to make sure that they're aware of those notice of quorums. Meeting notifications. As a board member, you don't need to worry about that.

You have very qualified and educated staff that make sure that all of those items are met. Occasionally, we do get a question regarding special meetings or meetings that have been rescheduled due to weather or unintended consequences. We don't need to a 100% follow the guidelines when we have a rescheduled meeting or a special meeting but we will do everything in the best of our abilities to post those agendas in enough time to notify the public to satisfy their desires. All of the material in your packets, so your your maps, the applications, those sorts of things, Those are also all part of a public record. Any member of the public can access those documents.

As you look at the planning commission online, you will see that those are all available to the public. Members of the public can come into our offices and also ask us to provide them copies of that material. News media was also a new definition that was advanced this year by the attorney general's office. State law requires us to only provide public notice to those members of the media that have requested notification. However, in Brookings, we like to go one step further.

We don't wait for them to tell us, we just automatically include them. So for example, our agendas for all of our volunteer boards, they are automatically sent to the SDSU Collegian, the Brookings Register, they're posted online and for a short time this year, we were also using the Volga Tribune. Your agendas must be posted a minimum of 24 ahead of

that

meeting. However, that proposed agenda that is posted is just that, it is a proposed agenda. That agenda can be modified, items can be added, they can be removed less than twenty four hours in advance of your agenda because that agenda is not finalized until your board chair calls for approval and a second and a vote is taken to approve that agenda as presented. We don't like it to be habit of amending those regularly but occasionally as that happens and the need arises, it is perfectly acceptable. Yes?

Question. So you said items had to be added twenty four hours in advance, but the day of the meeting we you can add or okay.

Yes. The day of the meeting if you have an item that is added due to urgency, time sensitivity, or an item needs to be removed because it's no longer complete, staff is perfectly fine to amend that agenda ahead of time because that agenda will be approved at the beginning of your meeting and then that will be your final agenda.

So nothing specific can be added like a new topic but if be but because of circumstances there has to be special circumstances per se?

Not necessarily. It's a good guideline to follow but if somebody comes through and there is room and staff has vetted that item and it's complete to come forward and the chair approves, they can add that item onto the agenda less than twenty four hours in advance.

So I think to clarify Scott, it doesn't typically happen with us because most of our items require legal publication of ten days in advance. We could certainly add something as a discussion item. It's difficult for us to add action items. I'm trying to think if maybe a preliminary plan is maybe one that publication notice may not be needed on. But for the most part, most of our action items require some sort of public notice because it's an ordinance change or it's by ordinance or it's an amendment to something that had previously been adopted. So to add things, they're probably more so for a discussion.

Right. Got it. Thanks.

Yeah. Great question. Public comment period. As you will know that is required at every regularly scheduled meeting so that should be a regular item on your agenda. And the city council has set precedents where they have limited public comment to three minutes per person per topic So that obviously floats down to our volunteer boards to use that same time allowed option.

Recording meetings, the city does record the planning commission meeting but a member of the public is certainly allowed to do the same. We just ask that the member of the public who wishes to record those meetings either video or audio that they are reasonable, they are obvious about what they're doing and they are not disruptive to the meeting itself but it is certainly allowed. The only time it would not be is if you have a closed portion of your meeting or an executive session. Obviously those portions of our meetings are not recording. State law does identify the top six or the these six reasons which we can enter into closed meetings and executive sessions.

I will not read these for you as if you would need to go in there, staff would need to be the one interpreting that and then having a consult with the city attorney or the city manager if it is acceptable. With planning commission you're probably very well aware that there is one more additional exception to closed meetings and that is just for the purpose of economic development. And with that, I will close my presentation and take any questions you may have.

Bonnie, I've just got one question on the what was it? Public comment. Items added as a result of a topic brought up, items added to the agenda later on, that's okay to make Yes. Edits to the agenda even after we've approved the agenda for the evening?

Once the agenda for your meeting has been approved, an item that is added, I would not encourage you to entertain conversation on that item at that same meeting but schedule it for a future Okay,

thank you.

Have a

quick question. I'm sorry somebody else?

Go ahead.

If someone is going to record are they required to tell us that they're recording or can they do so privately?

They can just do so privately. We just ask that they are very obvious about what they're doing.

Okay so they could put their phone out. Yep. But they don't have to tell us why they have their phone out. Correct. Okay.

Yeah so my question was just maybe you could touch on what changed with this law. Was it mostly just clarification?

It was mostly clarification, better interpretation which provides a little bit more guidance to what the intended original state law was and then the state's attorney's office went a little bit further by adding some more definitions in there that we did not have prior. Well thank you very much for your time this evening and Ryan and Mike both know how to reach me if you guys ever have any future questions that come up on this topic.

Thank you.

I'm sorry, I do have an off topic question. So you talked about teleconference and I have joined a meeting via phone and it's a challenging scenario. So do we have the capability to do a Zoom link or to interact when we're having to do something remote besides just the telephone?

Right now in the chambers our best option is the telephone. If we were to use Zoom in these chambers it gets really sketchy. Sometimes the video will drop out or sometimes the audio will fail. So we have limited the chambers to using, the conference line only. But we can certainly entertain Zoom in any of the other rooms that are available for meetings in this facility.

Okay, thank you. And this is just a note, Mr. Chair, that it is challenging. I don't know if you've ever participated via phone but it is a little bit challenging. Thank you Bonnie.

You're welcome.

Thanks Bonnie.

Mr. Chair.

Nick.

I just have a quick question I was going to ask we don't have to the three minute we haven't done the three minute thing for comments have we Mike or Ryan we don't have that in our meetings.

We only recently added the open forum to our meetings. We've just been doing that the last, I don't know, three months or so. I don't think we've had anybody speak at our open forums. And we've never limited anybody to three minutes in the public hearings either. I think that's handled more often at the city council, the three minute thing. But we do in our open forum notifications state that it is limited to three minutes.

Member Schmeichel, is Bonnie Foster. You are not required to use three minutes but you have the option to use the three minutes.

I think we're

Okay, thank you.

With the Planning Commission we just introduced the public open forum portion within the last couple of months. That I think is the part that we were intending to keep to three minutes. With the Planning Commission, it's important that we have good discussion. And sometimes to present the topic, an applicant may need more than three minutes. And then also if there's people that want to support or oppose it, they maybe need a little bit more time to state their reasons.

So we haven't limited the public comment on a specific item. I think our intentions on the three minutes was if somebody wanted to bring up a topic, whatever it may be, luckily we haven't had much experience with it at the Planning Commission. But sometimes you get a topic that is completely not relevant to the Planning Commission. But it's an opportunity for them to get in front of an audience and voice a concern or question or whatnot. And that's the point that we're trying to keep our planning commission meetings relevant to planning commission items, topics, etcetera.

But we also need to provide that open forum period because it is a public meeting. And so that's where we're primarily focusing on, try and keep that open forum comment period to three minutes.

Thanks, Mike. Yeah.

And, well, if I can add on to some of Mike's comments, I think that three minutes or somewhere thereabouts is, at least in my experience, is largely up to the discretion of the chair of the committee, because he's sitting here looking out into the audience, and if there's a whole bunch of people wanting to testify, then you might even shrink that three minutes to two. But if there's only one or two people there the person giving testimony, well, if they have a lot of good information, then won't that run out to four minutes or five minutes or whatever the case may be? So I think the chair has a lot of latitude in that three minute window, you know, plus I would call it three minutes plus or minus. And it's kind of up the chair to make that decision.

Thanks. Anything else? Move to adjourn. Second. All in favor? Aye. Meeting adjourned. Thanks, everyone.