Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Okay. It's 07:00, so I would like to call the meeting to order. Faye, I'm hoping you would do a roll call for us, please.

Randy Rickert?

Here.

Jason Dale?

Here.

Kayla Maverick? Here. Elise Stefan? Absent. Chris Wright? Here. Linda Newton Curtis? Here. Matthew Mansfield?

Here.

Jose Valipando? Is not here as of yet.

Okay. So the first thing on the agenda is public comments. Faye, are there any public comments that we should take note of?

There is nothing on Zoom, and we don't have anything that came in, by writing or email.

Okay. Perfect. So moving on to the consent calendar. Are there any comments from anyone regarding the consent calendar?

I move to approve the planning commission meeting minutes as written for 08/1425.

Second.

Faye, do we need a roll call? So, all those in favor?

Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Any nays? Oh, I beg your pardon. Any nays? Hearing none, motions passed. So the next item on the agenda is the, planning commission to consider the removal of a member for nonperformance of duty. And, again, I'm wondering if the commissioners or does this go to the, yes, the planning commission, if there are any comments regarding this?

Commissioner Wright, I'll save my comments for, one commissioner to speak at the end of the evening. Did you have something else, commissioner Dell?

Oh, I was just going to say that, while disappointing, this is a fairly cut and dried case, and I'd see no reason to vote against it.

Yes. I appreciate the student standing up, and I I thank her for trying her time. But at this time, planning commissioner Wright, I now therefore hereby recommend to the city council the disqualification and removal of student commissioner Stefan and for nonperformance of duty under title two administration and personnel as reflected in the memo. Be it further resolved that the planning commission request that the city council initiate the process to the point to appoint or mayor, a new student commissioner to serve the remainder of the term and represent the student community. Thank you.

Any other comments?

Missed the motion part. I'll second the motion.

All those in favor?

Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye.

Oh. My apologies. Can you do a roll call, please, Faye?

Randy Rickert?

Yes.

Jason Dale?

Yes.

Katelyn Maverick? Here. Oh, it's a vote for the motion on the Yes. Sorry. Okay. That's okay. First time, guys. Yes. Okay. Chris Ray? Yes. Linda Newton Curtis?

Yes.

Matthew Mansfield?

Yes. Oh. Okay.

And Jose is just coming on.

It's okay. You miss

Yep. Yeah. It's yeah.

Okay. So motion passes. So next thing on the agenda is, number six, the legislative public hearing, the code maintenance package. Passing it on to you, if I may.

Thank you, madam chair. This is a legislative public hearing, and you'll want to call the hearing to order and ask for any abstentions or objections to jurisdiction, any conflicts of interest, and so forth.

I'm sorry. Yes. So I'd like to call the meeting to order and call for any

where am I? Top one.

One. Oh. And call for any abstentions, objections to jurisdiction. Okay. So hearing none.

Thank you, madam chair, members of the planning commission. Resolution twenty twenty five dash 400 is the city's package of annual development code maintenance amendments. The Planning Commission held two work sessions on this July 10 and August 14. The staff have incorporated the guidance, the requests that the commissioners have made in those two meetings. And the staff report describes sort of the content of the package and the changes that have been made to prepare this for your public hearing this evening.

The purpose of code maintenance is to ensure the code's accuracy, predictability, readability, and compliance with applicable law. Code maintenance may also include minor policy updates to improve customer service and operational efficiency consistent with city council goals and the comprehensive plan. This evening, as I said, you have a public hearing schedule. There are two, in addition to the package that is before you that's incorporated into the resolution, there are two corrections or supplemental amendments that we're asking the commission to consider. One amendment is in the supplemental staff report, which you should also have a copy of, a one page memo dated October 1.

And I'll describe what this is in a moment. And the second is really just a typographical correction, which we'll cover in a moment. I would, if it's acceptable to the Commission, just go to this amendment and we can answer any questions that you may have because this has not been before you previously. In section 15.100.020, Type one Procedure Administrative Decision, which you'll find on page four of attachment A1, that's the code maintenance amendments. The administrative decision, as you may recall from the previous round of code maintenance amendments that you reviewed last year, the city has been undertaking sort of a process improvement effort for these permits that are fairly routine, that are type one permits that do not require a public process.

And in going through the code, we've been identifying those type one permits that can be reviewed or are reviewed at the building permit or business license stage and removing what is sort of a redundant step, which is the land use review, because the city staff in reviewing building permits and business licenses already reviews those applications for compliance with zoning and development regulations. So the amendment that is before you identifies one category of type one permits signs that was already proposed for this process improvement, redirecting it to just a straight building permit review where building permits are required. And it's clarifying that there are certain types of signs that we are recommending continue to be reviewed through the land use process, a type one process. And those are the original art murals. And so the reason for that is, for example, if someone is proposing to install a building mounted sign for their commercial business and it meets all of the dimensional requirements and standards of the sign code, that would be reviewed through the building permit process.

The staff would make sure that the area of that sign and the dimensions meet city code. However, if they're proposing something that was a mural, you've seen murals on some buildings that are much larger than what the sign, a customary sign would involve, Those are processed through a different permit, and it's called original art murals. It is technically a signed permit, but it goes through a public process, and the Arts Council reviews those. There's a community involvement piece to that. And so because of that, we're recommending that while we're streamlining the process for conventional signs that we continue to identify these original art murals as a type one land use review.

And so that's really the gist of what's proposed here, and the renumbering of the subsections is intended to accommodate clarification. So if you had any questions about that one because you didn't previously workshop that and the staff are available to answer any questions that you might have. Yes. Speaker

three: I thank you very much for telling us about the community involvement piece. Is there any other questions from commissioners?

Speaker

Doesn't appear to be, so should we move on to the next piece?

Speaker I'm glad to do that. The second clarifying or correcting amendment, which is not in the memo, but I'll refer to page 16 or, excuse me, yes, page 16 of attachment A1. I'll give you a moment to scroll to that and you should be able to find section fifteen point four one zero point zero two zero front yard setback. And the correction there is in subsection three, and you'll see some underlined text in subsection three. And the sentence beginning with where a garage is placed less than 20 feet from an abutting street.

The correction there is that it should state where a garage is placed less than 20 feet from an abutting street property line under this standard, comma. So it would be the insertion of property line after street and comma after standard and just grammatically and for purposes of identifying what the basis of the measurement is from, we believe it should specify property line. So that's the second correction that we propose. And we don't need a motion or any decision around those two amendments. It's really just for your information.

So as you move forward and if, following the public hearing, I don't know that anyone has signed up to testify, following the public hearing and your deliberation, should you choose to make a motion to approve or recommend approval of the package, we would also ask that you move to include those supplemental amendments that I've just described. And that concludes the staff presentation. Happy to answer any questions.

Does anybody have any questions?

No. For once.

In that case, do we have a motion?

Planning commissioner Wright, I move to recommend planning commission resolution twenty twenty five dash 400, an amendment to exhibit a pertaining to murals and property line insertion corrections in any attachments, a resolution recommending city council amend Newburgh municipal code title 15, title 12 streets and sidewalks development code to clarify regulations, comply with state lands, use requirements, and improve customer service in the permitting process.

I second.

And fate

Just before you do that, you have to close the public hearing.

Thank you. At this point, I would like to close the public hearing. And do we need a roll call on that, Faye?

Brandy Rickert?

Yes.

Jason Dale? Yes. Kayla Maverick? Yes. Chris Wright? Yes. Linda Newton Curtis? Yes. Matthew Mansfield?

Yes.

Jose Valapando?

Yes.

Okay. So we're moving on to items from staff. Other items from staff.

Yeah. Thank you, chair. Just one item. So for your meeting on November 13, currently there are no public hearings scheduled. There's no business that's scheduled to come before you.

Although we felt that it might be timely to provide the commission with an update on the urban growth boundary work that's part of the planning division's work program as this is a topic that has come before city council as well as the city's work on housing compliance with state housing laws and updating the city's housing plan. So if it would be of interest to the commission, we're available to do that. And we're also working I wanted to let the commission know that we're assisting the school district with a school attendance boundary study that they're embarking on. So in in the process of collecting data to help them with that, we're pulling together, I think, some of the information the commission had earlier expressed an interest in seeing around housing starts and permits that were in the pipeline and just generally what we see over the next three to five years. And so along with this update on the urban growth boundary work, we could be prepared to share that information as well, if the commission would like.

I think that would be very interesting. I don't know what others think, but I certainly think it would be. Absolutely. Okay. Yes, please.

Well, very good. Then we'll prepare an agenda for November to include that. Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay. So items from start oh, items from staff.

We've done that. Ice items from commissioners. And here's where I will refer back to our original issue, earlier this week.

Chris, before you start, I have a quick one. Can I it'll take, like, thirty seconds? This is for staff. I wonder if you could relay a message to traffic safety and if there's any possibility for them to do some centerline striping near, on 3rd Street, 2nd Street near Everest in 02/19. And it's just, you know, people tend to be it's cars on both sides and people, you know, tend to be right in the middle. If there's some striping, it might help things, I think.

Yeah. Thank you for we will convey that along with the staff, the Traffic Safety Commission. And I I I can also ask them to provide an update on ODOT's study. ODOT is they call it their urban design verification study, and it was looking at I think that was one of the intersections.

Not necessarily the intersection, but the striping along the

actual The striping in that area? Okay. Well, then maybe that's not relevant. Yeah. We'll pass that along.

And it's just, you know, because people tend to drift and they just don't have any guidance. I think if they have the guidance there from

Yeah.

From the center line.

It is really worn. You can't really see it.

And just to be clear, we're talking on 2nd And 3rd Street, not at ODOT. Right.

Yeah. Nothing nothing to do with ODOT. It's all

Just just Also, just ODOT related while we're on the subject. They are gonna start some curb ramp work at the end of the end of the month downtown.

Yes. Yeah. The city will be pushing out information out to the community on that as well.

Thanks. That's it. Yeah. Thank you. Thanks, Chris.

Oh, you're welcome, commissioner Dale. We've with our student commissioners, with the exception of of one recently, have a tendency to be absent for four months during summer, and that leaves the planning commission at risk for quorum now that they have voting rights. And I was wondering if we can, offer some strategies to, either adjust those time timelines of commission of a student to reflect during their student their student year and maybe to end in June instead of December because then you get another student commissioner that then comes in in January, forward sometimes. I'm not sure how that would go in the future. Also consider short term summer alternatives or junior commissioners who can step in temporarily.

Some of these strategies are assigned student commissioners with staggered start and end dates, so not all are absent during the summer. We already allow virtual attendance for students and other members traveling or working during the summer. It might be an option to confirm a student commissioner's attendance in advance if they have a backup, in the future. The planning commissioner city, can also offer incentives incentives for attending summer meetings by recognition, certificates, or leadership notes. These are something that they can put on a future job application that was really important to people starting out.

There can also, create a mentorship pairing with an adult commissioner, to deepen the engagement of student commission. Building a culture of ownership. Students are our future leaders. They thrive when they feel and know their voice is truly heard and matters. And we might wanna give a future student leadership over a over a specific agenda item for encouragement such as youth housing and homelessness, something that really, really resonates with the youth.

And that might help keep a commissioner in this spot and well engaged and if they can alter the times throughout the whole year in other projects. And that's about it. And I hope I hope we get a really good commissioner, a state commissioner, that we can soon have to engage with us. I thank you.

Madam chair, may I?

Yes, please. Yeah.

So well, a couple of thoughts just on process. So if the commission as body wanted to put forward recommendations on the sort of the programmatic level of what the student commissioners, what the scope or support and mentorship, that sort of thing. This commission, you you could have that discussion, and that would, that could be formalized into a recommendation. Alternatively, any commissioner or any individual could convey that to the mayor or to the city council as well. So I just wanted to open up those channels for you.

The sort And of on the policy of student commissioners, I know that's something that the mayor is already looking at. And so I think that they would be open to your input on that.

Thank you.

So I'm wondering, did you want to take this further now, Chris, or how are you thinking?

No. I just wanted to throw that out. There is, a discussion of potential future discussion for commissioners. I've been on the commission since 2019, and this has really been an issue every single summer, except one when somebody's kid was here. And I thank you very much. I appreciate it.

Any other items from commissioners? No. I have one. I would like to step down as chair because I don't think I do a very good job, and it's

You got three meetings left.

Oh, do I?

That's it. Then you're done.

And if we don't have one in November, then you would have, what, one and then January?

Don't get up so close to the finish line.

Oh. Fine. Yeah. Yeah. Fine.

You can't do it. Oh, alright.

Peer pressure.

Yeah. I do it so infrequently that I can never keep up with what I'm supposed to be doing, but, What job?

Call call call Chris on on some off time. She loves this kind of mock stuff, and and she'll just berate you a little bit, and and it'll be fine.

Oh, alright. Alright. Well, in that case, any other items from commissioners?

Okay.

Meeting adjourned.