Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Now, here's an extra whatever.

I think you're going to want this. Yeah. How are you? Good. I don't think the cameras are working yet. I don't think they are either. How do we get this thing back to full screen?

The other the first.

Yeah. Go that way. Let's go. Let's go.

and my son at game tonight. I might need to stand up just cuz I'll just throw you under man because I already signed up with DAV. Gotcha. Cuz I haven't thought about it. Actually, that I want to say maybe four or five months, but I retained them as my RS my RSO back in 20 21 about 5 months medical. So you graduate from boot camp you can exclusive boot camp is where I broke my back in three places. So, while I got to red, white, and blue face, I was recycled. And because I had fractured my back in three places, and I did not heal as fast as I as they wanted it as a recycle, I was

All right, Andrew, we ready? Okay, we'll go ahead and call this Twilla City Planning Commission meeting to order this Wednesday, April 22nd, 2026 at the hour 700 p.m. here in City Council Chambers. Uh there is a significant increase in fraudulent fishing requests using information from the public notices that are issued concerning the applications being heard during the planning commission meetings. Uh Twilla City collects fees only at the time of application submitt. Uh Twilla City will never ask for funds to be sent over wire transfer. Legitimate Twilla city emails always end with twillis.gov. If you receive a request requiring you to pay additional fees for an application in an email that does not end in twillity.gov of after your application has been submitted. This is fraud. If you receive such a request, please contact Twilla City Community Development Department immediately. Our first item on our agenda tonight is our pledge of allegiance. If you'll please rise and repeat the pledge.

I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay. Number two on our agenda tonight is a roll call. Commissioner Hammer here. Commissioner Proctor here. Commissioner Faircloth here. Commissioner Lynford here. Commissioner Anderson here.

Let's please excuse Commissioner Sloan, Cordova, and Jensen. I recognize Council Members Gossip, Council Member Hansen, uh staff members, Miss Young, Miss England, Mr. Johnson, and Mr. Agard. Number three on our agenda tonight is a public hearing and a decision on a conditional use permit request by Jessica Howard to authorize the use of a child care and preschool involving 8 to 16 children to occur at the property located at 1664 North Ashlin Court in the R17 single family residential zoning district on 17 acres. Miss England,

hello. Yes. Um, so I just wanted to point out that it is surrounded by residential use and residential zoning. Um, and then this is a close-up site plan. This is just showing um, you know, the layout and where the um, fenced outdoor play area is going to be and all that type of thing with this um, application. And then um here's some street views. Uh I will bring up that um the reason why I brought this, this is supposed to be an administrative conditional use permit. Um, but the reason why I brought it to planning commission is because I did get um a a an email from a concerned neighbor who had some who was saying that, you know, the culde-sac might um get overwhelmed with the additional traffic and that um there were a lot of cars parked at the property and uh there were a lot of people living at the house. And so I did talk to the applicant. The applicant did say, "Oh, I am renting my house, my basement out to another, like a couple." So basically another family. So we had to clear up that um zoning violation for us to be able to proceed with the conditional use. We did get that taken care of. Um, one of the conditions of approval will be uh for her to make sure that all of the drop off and pickup is going to be located either on their driveway or in front of their house. Um, this is the play area in the back and then this is just a list of all of

the additional requirements for home occupations that were that do have a daycare. um they are only allowed to have one non-resident employee. Uh the total number of students children shall be in shall also include her her children as well if they are under the care of the licensed uh daycare provider. Um they are allowed to have two sessions per day of a child preschool, but we've already talked about this and right now she is only going to be using it for daycare. She may eventually turn it into a preschool though. Um, and then also home daycarees are allowed to are allowed a fenced outdoor play area as well. Um, in that they do need to have all of the um proper state licensing for home daycarees. Um planning uh staff recommendation is to approve the um conditional use permit with the condition that all of the drop off and pickup activities are occur in front of her home or in the driveway her driveway. So that is all I have if you guys have any more questions.

Okay, let's bring us back to the commission for questions for staff. Seeing n done. That's a good thing, right? Yeah. Great. Okay. This item does require a public hearing. I guess you're Miss Howard back there. Okay. Well, I'll give you some time after the public hearing if you don't mind. Perfect. All right. We'll go ahead and open the public hearing. If you want to speak to this particular item, go ahead and approach the podium. State your name for the record. Write your name for the record. We can give you time afterwards since you're the applicant. if you don't mind, Miss Howard. Um, it's Harard. Howard. Sorry. Sorry. Um, yeah. Hold on just a second. We'll give you some time after the public hearing.

Oh, sorry. Yep. No, you're good. You're good. There's not a whole lot in here. So, seeing no one approach, I'll go ahead and close the public hearing and now invite you up. Go ahead and address the commission. We just have a process we have to do. No worries. Thank you. appreciate it. Uh, you want to go ahead and address the commission, you can. And if the commission has any questions for the applicant, we can address them now as well.

First off, I'd like to say that yard looks great. Um, I don't see these kind of applications very often with a yard like that with toys and things for kids to do. So, I greatly appreciate that part. That's that's great to see. Um, any other things you like to address to us?

Um, I was part of Overlink Academy that shut down. I was an assistant director there and what I went through with the parents as well is the reason I opened. Um I mainly have two and three-year-olds and I'm currently in college for this uh for my early education degree. So I do understand um about the congestion. I completely respect it. I have talked to parents even before uh this came up that it would have to be in the driveway or in front of the home. Um since then I've moved two of the trucks out into storage like where campers are and stuff. I pay for storage now for those trucks and I just have one vehicle in the driveway now. So it's pretty much opened up um for them to be there for pickup drop off. Kudos to you for furthering your education. That's awesome.

Thank you. Good. Do we have any questions for the applicant from the commission?

Pretty straightforward. Thank you. Appreciate you. All right. With that all that having been said, we'll go ahead and entertain a motion on this item. Mr. Chairman, I'll make a motion. Hold on. Just Yep. Commissioner Anderson, I was expecting more discussion. We can have that. Um, actually the photo that was submitted and I don't know if this came from the applicant or if this was staff with the camper that is parked in front of the house and not beyond the back of the or the front of the house.

So that particular picture was um submitted by the applicant. Um that's why I also went to the property to um verify what the conditions are now. Um that camper is not there anymore. So perfect. Any other discussion questions?

And then just to confirm the other adult individuals that were living in the basement that were smoking there, that's been resolved as well. So, um, what zoning is going to regulate is that single family homes are used as single family homes. We don't necessarily regulate whether or not somebody smokes. That's all going to be state licensing approval that they that will be monitoring that, not zoning, not the city. So, just so you know, there are different rules and in that type of thing in this situation. Um, but as far as the second family, the married couple that lived there, they no longer live there. So, it's all just her family that's there now. So, good questions. Good discussion. Anything else from the commission? We'll do this again after we get a first and a second. All right, Commissioner Proctor, you want to go ahead with your motion?

I move we approve the conditional use permit request by Jessica Howard to authorize the use of child care and preschool involving 8 to 16 children to occur at 1664 North Ashlin Court. Application number 2026019 based on the findings and subject to the conditions listed in the staff report dated April 16th, 2026 and to include this instructions for drop off and pickup activities. Perfect. We got a motion to approve with com from Commissioner Proctor. Do I have a second? I'll second.

And a second from Commissioner Hammer. Any other discussion before we take this to a vote? I just want to make sure that we've um addressed all the concerns that were sent by the neighbor. Um and actually I think that we have um Yeah, I'm good. Good. Yeah. You sure? Yeah. Okay. All right. Commissioner Hammer, how do you vote? I. Commissioner Proctor, I. Commissioner Faircloth, I. Commissioner Lynford, I. Commissioner Anderson, I.

I am Chairman Hamilton. I also vote I. That one passes six to zero. Number four on our agenda tonight is a public hearing and recommendation on a proposed text amendment to Twilla City Code 7-14-11, landscaping and water conservation with new development regarding the use of sod and residential landscaping and the use of irrigation systems associated with residential landscaping. Mr. Agard,

thank you commissioners. This ordinance amendment is more of a housekeeping amendment. Um it was at the behest of the city mayor uh and she was looking through the code and found it to be fairly cumbersome and difficult to understand and so we are proposing some amendments to this ordinance to try and make it a little easier to understand a little less cumbersome. Currently it's the ordinance that governs landscaping and water convers conservation with new development. Basically any subdivision that was approved after April 1st, 2023 is required to comply with this ordinance. The problem with this ordinance is there's some areas in it that just don't make sense. Um it made sense when we ratified it three years ago, but um in looking at it today, it's just we wanted to revisit this. So the current language of the code states that saw or seated lawn grass shall be prohibited from park strips and areas on the lot less than 8 ft in width. And then number two, lots within lots within subdivisions whose preliminary plan approval occurred after April 1st, which has at least 250 ft of total landscaped area within the lot shall be landscaped with no more than 50% of front and sideyards landscaped area as natural lawn grass. Front and sideyard shall be landscaped and maintained. Landscaping is strongly encouraged to necessitate no or low water use and the use of artificial turf is strongly encouraged for the appearance or desire of lawn where irrigation is needed for plantings outside of lawn areas shall be a drip style irrigation. So what we are proposing to change is number one, we'd like to eliminate the language that prohibits saw areas and saw in areas then less than 8 ft in width. And the problem is in the R17 zone, you can have a 6ft setback on the sideyard. And this ordinance basically prohibits anybody

from doing sod in their six-foot sideyard. if they want to put sod in their six foot sideyard, as long as they meet the 50% requirement, they should be able to do so. So, there's a bit of a conflict there. Um, let's see. Number two, eliminate the language that states this ordinance applies to any lot with more than 250 ft of landscaping. Not sure why that's in there. Every lot has more than 250 square feet of landscaping space. Uh the minimum lot size we have in the city is 7,000 square ft. So they have more than 250. So that just doesn't need to be in there. Um number three amends the language regarding artificial turf. We would like to see artificial turf used more as a a landscaping element, not as the overall predominant landscaping for a site. So, we would like to make sure that that uh turf does not take up artificial turf does not take up 50% of the front and sideyard areas, but is more of a of a landscaping element combined with other elements. And then uh number four, just some grammatical errors to help the code become easier to read and understand. These are the changes that we are proposing. Uh the red is the code language that's being stricken and the blue is what's being proposed. We do believe that it does simplify and make the ordinance a little more easier to understand. And this is how the changes would look if were to if the changes were to be adopted by the city council. Saw or seated lawn grass shall be prohibited in all park strips. Number two, lots within subdivisions whose preliminary plan approval occurred after April 1st, 2023 shall be landscaped with no more than 50% of front and sideyards area as natural lawn grass. Front and sideyard landscaping shall be regularly maintained by the property owner. Landscaping is strongly encouraged to result in no or reduced water use.

Artificial turf may be used as long as it does not exceed 50% of the total front and sideyard area. irrigation needed for plantings outside of lawn areas shall be of drip style irrigation system. So, by and large, it's still the same thing. It just uh in my opinion, it's a little easier to read and understand. So, if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer those for you. Okay, we bring it back to the commission. I like less complications, less words. Spells it out a little bit better. Uh any discussion or questions or comments for staff from the commission? I just had one question, but Andrew answered it in his presentation on the 50% artificial turf. So great,

perfect. How this is supposed to fit in with our water reduction, right? Mhm. Why would we Why would we even limit artificial turf to 50%. I I get what you're saying, but one of the best neighborhoods in my or best yards in my neighborhood is 100% turf, artificial turf. So, well, I don't know exactly how to answer that question. Um, it does look great in the summer, looks a little odd in the winter, but um,

it reduces water usage, right? If you if you guys would like to change that, by all means, you can make that recommendation. And Andrew, I also know that we I've discussed this with you about the water usage. Anyway, um developers are turning these lots over to homeowners. How is this landscaping going to be enforced? Enforcement is always a difficult thing with with the city. We have one in co we have one code enforcement officer and they are busy and we don't regularly he doesn't regularly drive around looking for enforcements. He's busy responding. So we're still at a in a situation where this is an ordinance that is difficult to enforce. Uh we are working on a document you've provided an example of that a while back to me that we we would like I would like to have inserted with every new building permit that is and CFO that is granted to a potential homeowner. Um but at this point in time it's more of a we respond to complaints and then go under go into enforcement procedures. We just don't have the staff right now to actively police this. I get it.

But when they submit their plans, if they provide landscape plans, we verify during the building permit process and and so forth. Good question. Good comments. Any other questions from commission? I have one. Go ahead, Commissioner Lford. The Let's see. Second sentence. its front and sideyard landscaping shall be regular regularly maintained by the property owner. So with this being under the water conservation for new development just to make sure I understand. So that will transfer from the builder over to whoever the new owner is. Is that correct?

Correct. um during the process of building, is there anything that suggests um that the the builder or contractor isn't going to let that get out of hand as well.

Right now, builders and contractors usually don't put the landscaping in for the residential homes. It doesn't happen very often. There's a couple builders that do. Dr. or Horton does the front yards, but once they turn over occupancy to the resident, it becomes the resident's responsibility. Uh we have talked about in staff implementing an ordinance that would require contractors to install the landscaping which would give us better ability to make sure we're meeting the 50% requirement and so forth. That is not something that we have brought through the process yet, but I don't that does that answer your question

a little bit. I I know when uh my wife and I first moved, our sideyards were filled with metal uh concrete that they just had hardened and left. And so that's why I'm curious if there's anything that we're putting in this as well that would enforce the builder to keep the lot still tidy, even if the homeowners are the ones that are going to eventually put in the landscaping. Yeah. Every home has to go through inspections before CFO is granted. One of the things that the inspectors look at is to make sure the site is graded according to plan and that it slopes away from that the slope is away from the house for storm water management. They aren't I don't know how to say this but they aren't in the quality business. The building inspectors don't do quality of construction. and they're there to ensure building safety and minimum satisfaction of the codes. So they don't look for concrete and debris in finished grading. They look for grading itself. So right now that is not a mechanism that we have ability to enforce. I understand what you're saying, but that's more of a quality versus a a safety issue. And I I will just say that there are a lot of builders are now starting to include front yard landscaping and even sideyard landscaping for corner corner lots.

Yeah,

we've had we've had a lot of discussions amongst staff how to enforce this ordinance because it's one that we need to enforce more. Um, I am petitioning the city council for an additional code enforcement officer to help the the current code enforcement officer that we have. Uh, they have not approved that budget yet, but I'm hopeful that we will get another code enforcement officer which will enable us to begin or to do more enforcement of codes like this. So, we we are aware of the situation and we want to enforce that. We are working to get there. That's about all I can give you right now. So, Yeah, it's just having an ordinance that doesn't have any teeth. Like it doesn't make any sense to me. I wish that there was a way that we could figure out because as a no new homeowner, my very first time, I wouldn't even have known to come and ask. Luckily, my front yard was put in. But I mean, you wouldn't know that you need to submit a plan. There's so many people that think my property, my rights, I get to do whatever I want and and doing it um after the thought like after they've done everything wrong and spent all the money and done all the things and then we're going to send in the court code enforcer when things go wrong. Just seems like it it shouldn't be that hard to figure out. Do we give it to a developer? it's part of their package of coming to the city or does is the developer required to tell the new homeowner we're not putting in your yard but you have to and it has to be this way.

I mean because having this code is going going to be great. I love the new improvements. I don't have any problems with those. I just don't think that it's going to be very helpful. I mean that doesn't and it's not a problem for tonight. I guess it's an educational problem as it really is. Yeah, it we're evolving. We're we're working towards it. Yeah. So, would would amending this help give you some leg to stand on in eventually putting something in our codes that would delegate this to the builder? Does this help you along that path at all?

No, this just cleans up existing code. just makes it easier. Just a bit of a like I said a housekeeping matter. That would be an entirely different code that we would have to bring back to you. At which point then we would probably remend this so that the property own to exclude the property owner line. It might it might it might be involved in an amendment. Okay. Yep. Oh, interesting. So, we could theoretically table this until that part's included if we wanted. Or would you want language and then work on it? But the ordinance is already there. I mean the qualifications. So

tableabling it doesn't really change anything because the ordinance is already in place. I see. I will say for the record that I do like the new changes, but I really am not buying into the 50% limitation on artificial turf. And of course, we can make that recommendation. We're not making a decision. So, we're sending it up to city council to make that big decision. You can recommend however you'd like on it. We could recommend that uh Councilman Gossip shakes his head, too. But, you know, I doubt it'll happen. Give it a couple years.

Yeah. If if you're not buying in the 50% if the rest of the commission is on board, I guess we'll find out. But um I think living in our day and age, the less water the better. Right. Right. Great. Any other questions or discussion? make a recommendation in there that they uh hire a new code enforcer. Actually, I I do have one more question. Yeah, go ahead.

With with section one on this, I I see under section two, you have a date of April 1st, 2023 for pre-existing in uh homes that have solder seated grass. And this just straight across the board saying that it's prohibited. Now, um, homes that already have it, even if they were built prior to that date in section two, are they still prohibited? Are we going to be knocking on their door saying, "Hey, you need to go hire a landscaper and get rid of this, or are we going to set kind of a grandfatherin situation with this before we go down the route of code enforcement?"

Excellent question. Uh you'll note that the title it says landscaping water conversation with new development. So it's anticipated that this applies only to new development. So existing development that has lawn in their par straps, we're not going to chase them down and say you need to put gravel or cobble in there. It's it's new development.

That is a great question. I think I would just want to see that in section one as well just for clarity cuz as it stands right now I I understand that it's under the with new development. However, I could see that still being hairy at some point just because of a misinterpretation. So, I would I would hope to put a date on that as well, specifying for subdivisions or plans after April 1st, 2023, just so that the language is in both.

Andrew, what are your thoughts on that, including that date in number one? I think it's a sound idea. Yeah, I have no problem with it. Okay. And you include that put landscape and water conversation doing development approved after April 20 23rd as the heading. You can do that. Yep. That will all Yep. Yeah. That helps kind of reiterate the numbers and the dates because we know how well we all read things. We just skim through it most of the time and we're not really reading deep into so if it right there in the heading it sticks out. Yep. Applies to both paragraphs in that point. So yeah, it's it's well said.

Great idea. All right. Any other questions or comments for staff? And hopefully these these houses that do have sod in their park strip, they take care of that sod buyback program because they can actually make some money off that. Yeah, redo their yard and save some money. I would, but I don't park strip group. So, all right. Any other discussion, questions, comments, concerns? All right. This one also requires a public hearing. So, I'll go ahead and open the public hearing now. If you'd like to speak to this particular item, please approach the podium. State your name for the record. Write your name for the record. Seeing no one approach, I'll go ahead and close the public hearing, bring it back to the commission for any of the further questions, comments, or further action.

Chair, I move that we forward a positive recommendation to city council for the proposed amendment of Twilla City Code 7-14-11, landscaping water conservation. um for new developments with in accordance with the staff report with the following changes um for approvals occurring after April 1, 2023 bold in the title and everything after artificial turf may be used stricken. um with the and let me modify that. So the irrigation needed for plantings outside land areas shall be um drip style irrigation system. I want that included in that.

So you pretty much just want to eliminate the percentage on artificial turf. Yes. Okay. So, I got a motion with a positive recommendation with the conditions listed as uh add the date to the title, the a date, April 1st, 2023, and then remove uh the limitation on artificial turf. Is that correct, Commissioner Anderson? Correct. All right. Do I have a second? I'll second. And a second from Commissioner Lynford. Any discussion before we take this to a vote? just that I haven't had enough time to look at less than I mean to take out the 50%. So I'm not I'm not in favor of that.

Okay, we can discuss it still. I just I'd like to know the benefit of of having of taking that out and and I'm not sure what I what I think that looks like and what a whole neighborhood would look like. So, I'm just not sold on it. I haven't had enough time to think about that. So, is there a different number in mind that you have or Okay. Just my personal and you're entitled to it all. Any other discussion?

When I when I think of something more than 50% of front and side, I think Vegas. I uh I came from Henderson um before moving up to Utah and a lot of that area is about 70 80% turf. They'll still put in a garden bed here or there. They'll do they'll still do some uh a little bit of zeroscaping here and there to offset it. I don't know that I particularly have seen 100%. But limiting to no more than 50 I I just I don't think that necessarily needs to be there and and I think that's why I would second that motion as I did.

Okay. Any other questions before we take this to a vote? Okay. Commissioner Hammer, how do you vote? Nay. Commissioner Proctor, yay. Commissioner Faircloth, yay. Commissioner Lynford, yay. Commissioner Anderson, yay.

I am Chairman Hamilton, I also vote I. That one passes 5 to one. Of course, that is a positive recommendation going up to the city council. They heard our discussion, so they will address that then as well. All right, this brings us to number five on our our agenda tonight is a decision uh on resolution 2026-01 public comment policy amendments and open meetings. Looks like we got Mr. Johnson joining us tonight for this one. Thank you, Commissioners. Absolutely. I don't get the mic very often, so I appreciate it.

You going to sing us a song, too? No, but I am kind of doubling up on item five. So if you let the lawyer talk, you get twice as much, right? That's okay. Just tap in pants. Oh, perfect. Okay.

So, what I originally was planning to present was um just some changes in the public comment policy. I I'll get to those in a minute, but but the um Twilla City Council made some changes to their policy and it seemed to make sense to offer similar changes to the commission to see if it would make sense to adopt those. Um talking it with through it with Mr. Agard, it's also probably a good opportunity since since it overlaps a little bit with the Open Meetings Act to have a discussion on the Open Meetings Act. So, we're kind of doubling up on item five. Um, if it's okay, I think it makes sense if I were to we we'll count this as training as well to to go through the open public meetings act portion of it. Um, see if we have any questions and then I'll I'll get to the to the resolution having to do with the public comments policy.

Perfect. I love it.

Great. Great. Um, so the goal of the uh public meetings act really is is transparency. Um, it's right right in the in the statute itself. We It doesn't say we the people, but it certainly reflects we the people. Public bodies exist to aid in the conduct of the people's business and actions and deliberations of public bodies must be taken openly. And as I stated, there's also a requirement right there in the code that there's annual training um for all the public body members. And just to clarify, public body includes the the planning commission. you are all part of a public body. Um, as as we go through the slides, I kind of go back and forth between commission and public body, but but uh you are a public body. Um, I'm going to jump ahead to the punchline, but we're going to talk a lot about what's in the um open meetings act. The one I really just want to hit on the head is this one. Um, we'll talk about things like notice and minutes and those requirements, but where the commission will have support of of city staff like Miss Young, Mr. Agard, Miss Miss Angland, and city recorder on all those things. This is one where really not that you're totally on your own other than, you know, we have this training, but but this really will be up to you as the commissioners to follow. And this is just right out of the code. It is a violation for individuals constituting a quorum of a public body again that counts as the commission to act together outside of a meeting in a concerted and deliberate way to predeter predetermine an action to be taken by the public body at a meeting on a re relevant matter. So you can't huddle up before a meeting basically and and and plan on what you're going to do. Um, we'll come back to that. Like I say, I'm really going to hit that one on the

head. But first of all, what are the elements of a lawful meeting? Well, first of all, a public body convenes. It seems odd that that's not defined, but what we have in mind is that a quorum of the body has to be present. So, for the commission under the bylaws, it's at least four members. One or more may be present electronically. Um, and that's to have a quorum. So keep in mind when we when we get back to the one I'm I'm I'm hitting over the head it that's actions by a quorum. So four members even if electronically um could constitute a quorum. Um it con it's convened with someone with authority to do so and uh following the lawful process to do so. In other words, the chair calls the meeting to order. Um the lawful purpose of a public meeting. First of all, I'm jumping down. It's worth defining relevant matter. That's actually defined in the statute. It's something within the scope of the authority of the of the public body. So, the purpose of the of a of a meeting is to receive public comment about a re relevant matter or to deliberate deliberate about a relevant matter or take action vote on a on a relevant matter. Again, this these are all things that for for the commission, things that the commission has jurisdiction over. Things that aren't a public meeting public meeting even if a quorum is present are things like social gatherings and chance encounters um parades, ribbon cutings. We don't have to notice if if five of you are planning to go to a ribbon cutting. Um we don't have to, you know, uh recently Mayor Win retired. don't have to notice if if a quorum of the of the council or commission is going to attend because you the plan isn't for you to go there and talk about business, right? Talk about relevant matters. It's the same if

you attend a a seminar. You don't have to divvy up say, "Oh, only three of us can go to this training." No, it you you all can go. It's okay. Just be careful not to not to discuss something inappropriate. And if you run into other people at the park, that's fine. You can talk to them. You don't need to run away. You just um like I say, you can't talk about anything inappropriate. So, how is a meeting open in public? Um basically the questions are how does the city or how does the commission what does it do to ensure that the public knows the time and place that the meetings are going to are going to occur or have already occurred? What are the topics that are going to be discussed or were discussed? um that the public has a reasonable opportunity to attend and give input at the meeting and they need to have a reasonable way to see how the commission came to the decisions. They need to, like I say, you can't huddle up before the meeting. You deliberate at the meeting. Sorry, this is a busy one, busy slide. Um the notice requirements I'm going to go quickly through. I did put an asterisk next to them. I The open meetings act has specific notice requirements. A lot of what the commission considers have special notice requirements that are in LAMA, not in open public meetings. I'm just making note of it. I don't want to get too complicated. For the purpose of the open meetings act, um it requires 24 hours notice for the meeting itself. Um the notice has to show the uh date, time, and place of the meeting. has to be accompanied by an agenda and the agenda has to have reasonable specificity as to what's going to be discussed and I highlighted hearings especially with hearings it's it's uh commission of

course gets a lot of hearings it's important that they know what is going to be addressed uh for example the hearing um recently on the on the ordinance uh having to do with parking in the front yard if the notice only said ordinance on parking. That wouldn't do it. Um I know Mr. Agar did a great job of getting exactly what it is in the notice so so that it was clear. Um also um uh there it's uh specified where where the notice has to be posted uh for Twilla City. Those are the three places. The Utah public notice website, city's official website, and in a public place likely to be seen. We'd like city hall. That seems like the one that makes sense. What if someone brings up a topic that's not on the agenda? Well, first of all, topic is not defined by the statute, but I'm going to jump down to the bottom of the slide here. Topic probably is limited to relevant matters. Um, so within the scope of the jurisdiction, uh, for example, talking about Councilman Gossit's haircut, shaving his head, that's probably okay. Even though we didn't put it on the agenda, it's probably okay. You mentioned it. Um, but for relevant matters, commissioners can't bring up something that's not on the agenda. But if a resident brings up a topic that's not on the agenda and the chair allows it, the commission can discuss that topic further as long as it originated with a resident and not with a commissioner. Um but the commission can't take a vote on it. So that's kind of a judgment call for the chair. Um how how much do we really want to talk about this if we can't vote on it? Are we gonna muddy the record if we're eventually going to take it to vote at another meeting? It's a judgment call.

Um, briefly, I'm I I'm just notice just going to mention notice requirements for emergency meetings. Just to be clear, emergency meetings are not the same as a regular meeting during an emergency. This isn't like, okay, you have a regularly scheduled meeting and we have the next pandemic and so you got to figure something out. meetings can be postponed and cancelled. These are more meetings where um something came up that's unforeseen and it's got to be decided in a in a quick manner. So probably um maybe it's my lack of imagination, but I just don't think that that's um going to happen that often. We have emergencies, but not necessarily emergency meetings, if that makes sense. Um and the timing of the notices, excuse me. Um we we go right to the best notice practable practicable so of the time and place and the topics to be considered. Um with an emergency meeting time is short and and so they the legislature gives you some leeway as as far as timing and also the location just what makes the most sense to have an emergency meeting. It requires an attempt to notify all the commissioners. So again, this isn't just we had a regular meeting and we had an emergency situation where we got to figure it out. It's got to be nobody knows about this meeting yet. We're trying to notify all the commissioners and then a majority of the commissioners have has to have to approve that it's going to occur. Public access to meetings. I apologize. This is about the most circular explanation I I I've done. But what is open and public? Must be open to the public. A little bit uh better of an explanation is um there has to be a space provided and facilities uh at an anchor location where the commission normally meets.

That's right here. even if there's uh if it's a electronic or virtual meeting um the public has to have an opportunity to gather here and to comment here have hearings here. The only exception if is if there's some kind of health or safety risk in in that case there can be an exception um and something else figured out depending on on on what the danger is. Um there still has to be reasonable opportunity for the public to be heard. Um, and I'll also note um the Americans with Disabilities Act that um any accommodations we we'd seek to to make those happen for for people with disabilities so that they can have meaningful access to the meeting and and meaning meaningful input. Okay, we're back to this one that I'm hammering over the head. Public access to the commission's deliberations. It's a violation for individuals constituting a quorum of a public body to act together outside a meeting in a concerted and deliberate way to predetermine an action to be taken by the public body at a meeting on the relevant matter. Um some pointers, avoid texting or emailing other commissioners um about any topic during the meeting. avoid discussing discussing or deliberating items outside the meeting with other commissioners, but especially if there's a a quorum of commissioners. Um, and then public access access to records after the meeting. This goes through our minute taking. Um, there has to be an audio recording in in its entirety. uh written minutes which constitute the the official record and must include um the dates the members president uh substance matter of of uh all proposed or discussed items a record of how each individual member voted and we're not

just bugging people to write their names. There has to be uh the name of a person who provided testimony or comments and a summary of their testimony or comments. And then the minutes must be available within a reasonable time. That's a little open, but once they're approved, it has to be posted to the Utah Public Notice website within three business days. What happens if a public body violates the Open Meetings Act? Um some big things that could happen. A court could overturn any action that's taken in uh in violation of of the public meetings act. Any person who intentionally violates the public meetings act can be charged with a class B misdemeanor. Um two big ones. We don't want those to happen. It is an intentional violation. If if it's an accidental violation, it's still bad, but but uh it's not a class B misdemeanor. Um, if we can fix mistakes, it's possible. It might well it probably requires renoticing and redeliberating any particular item. As you can see though, if you think through it the noticing requirements, we can we can probably fix that way. Um, minute taking, we can probably fix that way. The the one where you deliberate before a meeting, that's hard. How do we fix that? We've already deliberated before the meeting. So that's again kind of why I'm hitting that one as hard as I am. So we're going to I won't read it again, but here it is just for as a refresher. That's the rule. We're going to run through a couple of scenarios and see what you think. Is it a violation? So there's a ribbon cutting. Five commissioners attend the ribbon cutting at a new doughnut shop. Their attendance was planned two weeks in advance, but no public notice of their anticipated attendance was given. While there, all five gathered together and debate whether cake donuts are

better than raised donuts. They split three to two in favor of cake donuts. Is it a violation? No. No. No. They can talk whatever they want about cake donuts. That's not a relevant matter. So, we're good. Okay. Example two, social event. Four commissioners are all invited to the same private picnic. The fact that the four happen to be friends with the host is a total coincidence. While there, all four gather and discuss a controversial reszone application. All four stating that they plan to recommend against it. Is it a violation? Yes.

Yeah, that's looking bad. Right. Right. Example three, the reply. All I have a feeling I just as I was looking through previous materials that probably some of you have heard this example before, but here it is. Uh, city staff sends a an email packet. Um, excuse me. City staff sends by email a packet to all the commissioners for the next meeting. The agenda includes a controversial reszone application. One commissioner hits reply all and expresses many concerns with the proposal. Three other commissioners also hit reply all to express their concerns with the proposal. Is that a violation? Yes.

Yeah. Yeah, that's looking bad. Okay, sorry. This one feels a lot like like you know those rotten crest questions you'd get in school, but here it is. City staff sends an email similar uh sends by email a similar meeting packet. So again, it's got a controversial reason application on the agenda in a separate email. So, not reply all, totally separate email. Commissioner A emails Commissioner B that he hates the reason and wants uh to forward a negative recommendation. In another separate email, Commissioner B emails Commissioner C and mentions that she agrees with Commissioner A's concerns. In yet another separate email, Commissioner C emails Commissioner D and mentions that she agrees with Commissioner's A concern and Commissioner's B concern. So, none of them like it, but they're not all talking together. It's sort of going down the line. Commissioner D replies to Commissioner C that he likes the reason and wants a favorable favorable recommendation. Is this a violation? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you can try to say you got one guy disagreeing. Is it? No. I I think it is. I think they're deliberation.

Yeah. They're deliberating. Exactly. Exactly. Great. 100%. Rule of thumb for emails may seem obvious at this point, but uh as much as possible, use emails only for scheduling and transmitting documents. Uh the more this can be like a one-way communication, the better. And if you can think in terms of any opinion on any agenda item, it's best reserved for the microphone. You'll probably always be safe. Um examples of safe transmitting information one way, like here's the traffic study for the meeting. That's fine. It's a little more dangerous voicing your opinion in an email. I think the traffic study is wrong. I'm voting no. Um and then it's definitely illegal to to just use it to predetermine. So if someone says, "Let's kill this thing." And gets six thumbs up, yeah, you're out. That's definitely bad. Um, there are times, again, maybe it's my lack of of imagination or experience, but I I don't foresee the planning commission having closed meetings, but it is in the it is in the open meetings act. So, um, for all of you who are interested in what city council does, they do close meetings sometimes. Um, when can a meeting be closed to the public? Um, there's certain subject matter that's allowed. um discussion of character or competence of an individual. Um B in other words, these are personnel matters. This isn't like your the the competence of your favorite celebrity or athlete or or anything like that. These are personnel matters. Um also what's allowed strategy strategy strategy strategy sessions to discuss a pending or imminent litigation and strategy strategy sessions to discuss the purchase, exchange or lease of real property. uh if public discussion would prevent getting the best terms. These all kind of make sense if you think about it. I mean, if if there's a bidding war and we're talking about

something in in public, we're not going to be able to get a good deal. If we're getting sued and we're talking about it in public, the other side sees what we're doing. Um but any final action still has to go back to a public meeting. They can't vote on something in close meeting and have that be the final decision on it. they got to take it back to the public meeting. Um, for example, if if it is a a real estate purchase, they can talk about in closed meeting, but to approve it, it's got to come back to the open meeting and be voted on. And just procedurally, closed meetings have to be initiated by a motion in an open meeting. They can't just start out in a closed meeting. And you have to say why. You can't just say we I move for a closed meeting. It's going to be to discuss litigation, to discuss personnel, to discuss both all. Um, and there has to be a majority for in favor of closing the meeting. I actually didn't know this till the other day and when I was reviewing it. It has to be a twothirds majority. I've never seen anything other than unanimous, so I never knew, but it has to be two-thirds majority. And the close meeting still is recorded as well. Um, hopefully that was not too fast, but any questions?

Okay, pretty straightforward.

Great. Great. Well, having that having said that, I'll move to uh resolution 202601. Um, as I stated, this started with uh some changes to the city council uh public policy, public comment policy. Um, some issues that that we were seeing as city staff were having to do with written comments and not being clear which rule from the from the uh verbal comments applied to their written comments. One big my memory is what sparked it is, you know, they have the the public comment email address. Well, it was getting junk mail and the city recorder said, "We can just ignore this, right?" And we kind of looked through what we could point to to ignore it. And we figured we could, but we would feel better if we made it more clear. So, that's part of what started it. Um, also there there were some emails that were um came in later and and this gets a little more complicated with with city council since they have an open public comment period, not just hearings, but does it get read later? Is it just disregarded? Um, so we hope to clarify that some of those with this. Um, one issue is as we did point back to say all the rules um that apply to verbal comments also apply to written comments. For example, if someone were to email an anonymous written comment, the chair would have discretion to just disregard it. Um really the the comment period including for public hearings is um it it may be limited to residents and stakeholders and if you're getting anonymous emails you don't know who that

is. So it doesn't mean you have to but um you you the chair would have the option to to disregard those emails. Um, and also just general decorum. Um, just as someone uh can't come up to the microphone and and be insulting or threatening or anything like that, it's the same. If there's a threatening or insulting email that the chair would have the option to disregard it. Um, one other more housekeeping item that's that's in the first paragraph is is we clarified that chair as used in this includes anyone lawfully uh presiding at the meeting. So, in other words, vice chair. Everything still would apply to vice chair. Um, I apologize I didn't do slides of of this as well, but it's in your packet. Um, if you have any questions, I'd be happy to entertain them.

Perfect. Let's bring this back to the commission for questions. Hopefully everybody got a chance to read through it. It's been a a discussion for quite a while actually. I brought it up a couple years ago when I was chair and now we're getting some solidification. So, I like it. Any questions for staff comments, concerns? No, I'm just glad it's done. Yeah, I like the new time um when public comment is due because then it really does get to us in a timely manner. I can see when it was the 5:00 cut off, then staff didn't see it. We didn't get until the next day and and oftent times you're reading it right before. So, I like that. Great. Great.

Yeah. I noticed too in there you've you explain in depth that uh freedom of speech does exist, but if it's not pertaining to the agenda, then the chair does have discretion to disregard those comments and ask them to step down. We need to stay focused. That That's correct. That's correct. And and this is um the city does have the right this is a limited public forum and and and the commission has the right to limit time, place, and manner of comments. And yep, and I think getting it writing is going to help us out immensely. I mean, we haven't had an issue since I've sat on this board, but um I think it'll help in the future. So, right.

All right. Any other questions, comments for staff? This does require a decision for us since this is our uh public comments. So, I will entertain a motion. Chair, I'll make a motion. Yes, Commissioner Proctor. I move we accept the ordinance as presented by Attorney Johnson. Okay. I got a motion to approve the uh public meeting ordinance, whatever numbers are as presented by Mr. Johnson. Do I have a second? I'll second.

I got two of them. Also, Commissioner Hammer. Any discussion before we take this to a vote? All right. Commissioner Hammer, I. Commissioner Proctor, I. Commissioner Faircloth. Hi. Commissioner Lynford, I. Commissioner Anderson, hi. I am. Chairman Hamilton, I also vote I. That one passes six to zero. Thank you. Appreciate that. All right. Number six on our agenda tonight is our city council reports.

We won't make you shave your head yet, y'all. It's almost there. You're going to let it do itself, huh? Went from a forehead to a five head. It's almost to a six. Well, now you're now you're a city councilman. It's going to be gone. Yeah. you know, look at my future. We love you. So, uh, well, since Chris isn't here tonight, everybody knows that, uh, Commissioner Sloan loves racing, but I think the reason you like racing is because, uh, you get to see the racks, right? That's the fun part.

I like tonight. I like that there was some discussion and and good comments and the fact that not everybody just agrees blindly. So, I thought that was really cool. So, I that's what I come for. Andrew had me all excited when he was telling about Riverton and how they get heated and everything. And so I've been waiting for one of those and everybody's too nice. So So I liked it. Uh we really didn't have anything to that that was too wild and crazy uh last week. The one thing that I did like uh was John Kra got up and gave the the quarterly report for how things are going in the city. And I think that's it's really fun to see the things that are coming, the things, you know, the vacancy rates, the everything that he goes over. It shows that we're growing and and we're moving kind of in the right direction. So, I liked everything that I heard. If anybody had a chance to watch it, if not, go back and

and watch it. But, uh, it's interesting. It's fun to hear the you know, you're watching the pieces of it, but it's fun to sit back at the end of the quarter and go, "Oh, wow. That's That's pretty cool. But I don't have anything else, but I appreciate you guys and thanks for all the time you put in and and for your thoughtfulness and thinking about matters like this. You know, you too, Kelly. I like that. So, I can have a thought. No, I I I greatly appreciate that, too. I'm glad Councilman Member Gossip brought that up. It's almost taken a page out of Governor Cox's we can disagree better. Yes,

we don't have to agree about everything, but we can talk about our disagreements and we don't have to agree about everything. We don't we can disagree and we can talk about it, but at the end we're going to come to a solution and we're all going to get behind it and we're going to do it. So, I love that about this commission. It's it's so work awesome working with all of you guys. Perfect. Thank you uh for those kind words. Moves us on to number seven is a review a decision on our April 8, 2026 planning commission meeting minutes. Are there any additions or corrections to those minutes? She already made the one correction I pointed out. Perfect. I'll entertain a motion. I move to approve the minutes from April 8th, 2026. Got a motion to approve. Do I have a second?

I'll second. I've never seconded. There you go. And a second. I got a first from Commissioner Hammer and a second from Commissioner Faircloth. Any discussion? Commissioner Hammer, how do you vote? I. Commissioner Proctor. I. Commissioner Faircloth. Hi. Commissioner Lynford. Hi. Commissioner Anderson. Hi. I am Chairman Hamilton. I also vote I. That one passes six to zero. Now, um I'm going to jump ahead a little bit um because we'd like to excuse the minutes taker. If she'd like to leave, she can leave while we do training, but you don't have to. You're welcome to stay and hang out with us. Uh but other than that, we've got some training here. Some conditional use permits, which I think is very vital to what we do. We do a lot of it.

Question for you, chairman. Do you want to do you want to adjourn the meeting or do you want to wait till after training to adjourn? That's a good question. Should we go ahead and just adjurnn and then move to training? I I would move that we adjourn first because I'm going to have to miss tonight's training myself. Okay, I'll entertain a motion to adjurnn. I'll make that motion. Okay, Commissioner Fair or Lynford and I'll second. We'll go ahead and adjurnn. Uh those that don't need to stake can leave and we'll go move into training. Well, as the commission is aware, we are requ I have one question. Did the public meeting training that the attorney did, does that count as a training also?

So Matt and I have tag team tonight. Our hope is to get you one hour. So a half an hour in open meetings and then a half an hour on my conditional use. So perfect. Thank you. Do I keep streaming or no? Yes.

Yeah. So you are aware that state law requires the planning commission receive four hours of training every year. One of those hours can be attending 12 meetings and then you can also obtain your own training or you can let staff give you some training and fulfill that those hours in that manner. Um I like to give specific trainings that are related to what you do exactly as a planning commission. So, for those of you that have been on the commission for a while, you've you do a really good job with conditional uses, but it's always good to have a refresher course on what conditional uses are and how we handle them because really that's the majority of what you approve is conditional uses. Uh for the commissioners that are new, this is a a good course for you to understand uh your role and your authority in regards to conditional uses. So to start, what is a conditional use? How do we define them? Mr. Anderson um things that nor don't normally take place in a zone but can be permitted. is based on whatever conditions the the planning commission or whomever the regulatory body is puts on that use. Okay. Excellent. So this is what we define a conditional use and Commissioner Anderson is right in line with our definition. A conditional use is a permissible use upon which the approval authority has the opportunity to assign conditions to mitigate specific potential impacts onto adjacent properties. That's the whole purpose of a conditional use is to identify potential problems and try to

resolve those with conditions of approval. uh you guys have had one just at your last meeting with auto repair business and you attach conditions to it to try and mitigate potential impacts. That's that's the purpose of what we're doing. What does permissible mean? It's allowed permitted but it's not something that's it's allowed but it has to be approved. Yeah, exactly. I couldn't say it any better than that. So, how are conditional uses determined?

Based upon the use that the applicant wants to do in that area. Okay. Who who establishes conditional use? Council.

The city council does. Okay. Conditional uses are established by the city council during the legislative process of establishing zoning districts and the types of land uses that can occur within those zoning districts. The city council also decides which uses are conditional and or permitted. So what that means is when you don't want a use to occur in a particular zone, the time to prohibit that use in that zone is not during the conditional use permit, but during the time when the council is ratifying that zoning ordinance. You will often encounter members of the public who will come to the planning commission is I want you to deny this doesn't belong in this area. that doesn't matter. Once the zoning ordinance permits a use, it is permitted in that zone. So, those kind of comments really are irrelevant to a a planning commission's decision on a conditional use permit. The zoning code already allows it. They can do it in the zone. Period. We are trying to find how does this impact the adjacent properties and how can we correct that. So, just be aware. You will get those comments quite a bit. We need you I want you guys to deny this. No, zoning code allows it. That's not up for discussion tonight. Okay. Utah State Code 10-9A-507. A legislative body shall classify any use that a land use regulation allows in a zoning district as either permitted or a conditional use. So, state law also in requires the city council to establish permitted and conditional uses. So, we have conditional uses in our residential zoning districts. I apologize if that's not very legible, but I just wanted to throw the chart up there for your reference. This is our list of uses for our residential zones. So, we have various uses in residential

zones, and some of those uses are permitted, some of those uses are conditional, and some of those are not permitted at all. If there's not a P or a C in the chart, that is not a use that can occur. You'll note that mobile home parks and subdivisions are not permitted in any zoning district. So, somebody can't come in with a chunk of land and say, "I want to build a mobile home park." It's not on the list. It's not approved. You can't do that. So, that's how we determine residential uses. If they come in and they say, "I want to build a um a golf course and a country club in an R110 zone," you can see that that is conditional in the R110 zone. So they could do a golf course and a country club in an R110 zoning district, but they have to come to the planning commission to discuss how they're going to prevent all those stray golf balls from taking out people's windows. Okay, so that's how our residential ordinance works in regards to conditional uses. Commercial zones are very similar to residential zones in regards to we establish the use and then we look at the chart to see if that use is conditional or permitted. Till city has a very expansive list of commercial uses. This is only the first 10 or so uses on our list. But if someone comes in to Anna and they say, ' Anna, I want to build an auto impound yard in this property next to my house and it's zone neighborhood commercial, Anna's going to look at that list and she's going to see, okay, there's nothing there. It is not permitted. You cannot do that in that zone. But if they're next door to a piece of property that zoned industrial service, can they build an auto impound yard? Absolutely. It's it's conditional. But then they're going to come to the planning commission. planning commission is going to say, "Well, you're storing wrecked vehicles. How you going to prevent people from looking at it? You're going to assign conditions to mitigate that." Okay? So, that's how we

establish and and uh govern our uses in both residential and conditional zones. Now, this list and the previous list is all established by our friendly city council members. Does the planning commission ever have an opportunity to weigh in on these uses, these use lists? Yes. Yes, you do. So, if we ever go through a a a code amendment where we revise or add uses to a list, planning commission will have the opportunity to make a recommendation to the city council. So, you do get involved in the establishment of these things as well. Are conditional use applications administrative or legislative reviews?

Administrative.

They are administrative. Okay. So everything, all the legislative, all the parameters of the code have been established by the council. It's your job as the commission to make sure that it complies with those standards. Um, I already done that. Okay. The review and approval of a conditional use hinges on the satisfaction of the substantial evidence test. Now, what makes substantial evidence? This is a quote from my predecessor, Mr. Jim Bolzer. Those you guys, those of you that remember Jim know that he was a very eloquent individual and had a lot of big words. I love this one. The quantum and quantity of evidence on the record sufficient to convince a reasonable mind to support conclusion. By the way, I missed Jim. So, um I'm not sure what quantum means, but I think it has reference to quality. Okay. So, in a meeting when you receive public comment on a controversial conditional use permit issue, um, you want to weigh the quality and the quantity of evidence on the record of a potential impact and you want to make sure that you clarify that and voice that into your into your motions and into your findings of fact.

Can a complete application for a conditional use permit be denied? No. If there are extenduating circumstances that safety then yes that we cannot mitigate that we cannot mitigate.

Exactly. Ex spot on. We are you are as a commission obligated to approve conditional use permits. Um you can establish conditions that would be pretty ownorous to satisfy if you have evidence that you that that condition mitigates a problem. For example, someone wants to build a sewer plant next to a residential zone and you put a condition. You need to build a 100 foot tall wall. If you believe that that is going to mitigate the problem, that could be a condition. Can they meet that condition? Probably not. Okay. No, because our highest structure is only 19.

Exactly. So, in some situations, a denial is just as effective as putting a condition on an applicant that can't be met. Um, however, I strongly emphasize that it's not good to deny a conditional use permit. You are obligated to approve it and you're obligated to establish conditions that they that will mitigate a problem, but sometimes it can't be done. I have seen you guys deny one conditional use permit in my eight years here at city. For those of you that have been on the commission for a while, do you remember which one it was? Tyson, tell us about it. It

was over here in this Well, there's two of them actually that I remember. One of them was the trucking company over here because the inadequacy of the road over there and the other one was over here, this Allen Lid building. It was the applicant did not suffice his previous conditional use. So, we denied the second one. He could not Yeah. So, we're not going to give you a second one if you can't comply with the first one. So, there was two that I know of.

So, the one that the truck driving one is the one that comes to my mind. I remember you you guys deliberated that quite a bit. um you you established the fact that in order to accommodate the safety of a truck driving school on that unimproved road that they would have to improve that road being Flender's Way and 1280 North that was going to require road widening, a signal modification at the intersection of Main Street. And I remember Chris Sloan saying they're not going to do that. We need to deny this. Um you could have also just slapped those conditions on there as well. But uh just show your information that you are obligated as a commission to to approve your conditional use permits. Utah case law has established that the burden of the land use authority is to identify potential detrimental impacts to adjacent properties and set specific conditions to mitigate those detrimental impacts. Okay? So your conditions have to be established to mitigate a problem. So, if you don't like a particular CUP that's coming in, let's say you don't like that sewer plant and well, where am I going with this? You can't you can't set you can't set unreasonable conditions just because you don't like a particular use. That's where I'm going with that. Your conditions have to be addressed to solve a to resolve a problem. Okay? It is the applicant's burden to comply with those conditions. So if you set those conditions, the applicant has to comply. They don't want to comply, then they don't get their business license or their conditional use permit. So when you set those conditions, they have to get they have to follow that through. Why does the applica why does the planning commission deal with conditional use permit applications? Why not the city council and why not or why not both?

Because the city council delegated it to us.

Exactly. city council sets the law and you guys have the responsibility to enforce it and to uphold it. So, um the state has really been cracking down on on city councils and what they can and cannot be involved in. Uh when I started here, the city council heard subdivisions. Every subdivision went to the city council and recently the state told the city councils, "You cannot do that." And so, we had to revise our code. Uh what the state is doing is they're trying to keep the city council strictly legislative and uh keep them out of the administrative responsibilities. Um some cities and counties comply with that, some don't, but uh everybody's getting to that point where they're going to have to. Once the city council establishes the code, the planning commission's responsibility is to execute the code. And then to city code 7-5-3 specifies the planning commission is the approval authority over conditional use permits. So the conditional use permit process. How do we process a conditional use permit? So first of all, they're going to call Anna, our city planner, and they're going to ask her if they can do a specific use in a zone. If Anna determines that it requires a cup, they submit an application to our department. have got some images of the application. The application includes a checklist. Our checklist usually in includes the application includes the noticing documents to to meet all the noticing requirements. Um usually a site plan or some other traffic plan if it's related or any other pertinent data or that would be in that would help the planning commission in making their uh decision on the conditional use permit. We are required to send out notices for the public meeting. So we are required to mail notices 10 days prior to the meeting apprising them of the hearing, the location and what is being

asked. And we are also required to post the notices at the city hall state website and um we mail those notices to all property owners within 200 feet of the subject property. So, anytime you have a public hearing, we've had to go through those notices, make sure that everybody within that proximity has been properly um aware of made no properly made aware of the of the meeting. Our public notices usually are just one sheet of paper that include the date and time of the meeting as well as the location. and uh we will often put a map identifying the particular property and um that's what we send to the applicant. We try to put as much information as we can in the notices um but also make sure the notices are quick and easy to read is we found that if they're too long, people don't read them.

Staff reports. You're familiar with our staff reports. Whenever we have a conditional use permit, the city planner or or the director will write up a staff report and we send that report to you on the Fridays before the meeting. Our staff reports include facts about the subject property, descriptions of the issues involved, staff's identification of potential issues, staff's identification of conditions, and staff's recommendations. We also like to throw in their maps and plans and model motions, all for your reference and use. And then during the public hearing, we have a staff presentation. Applicant presentation if needed or requested. Public comment is taken. Planning commission likes to have the applicant presentation after the public comment period. It's entirely up to you guys. There's nothing that says otherwise. And then the public hearing is closed and the planning commission deliberates and and makes a decision on the cup. Planning Commission decision um includes discussion impacts identified conditions determined motions and vote. Uh we need to emphasize that when you make a condition that you need to identify the impact. So if you're going to require a 100 foot tall fence, how does that mitigate the impact? And uh you guys are pretty good about doing that. Commissioner Hamilton always reads that into the motion when you when you have a complicated matter. So, keep doing that. That's very important important. We always have to identify those impacts. Uh written notification. Once you approve a conditional use permit, staff prepares an official approval letter including the date of the decision and the conditions of approval. Uh and then we mail that to the applicant and that's their formal approval. Conditional use permits are good for one

year if they don't take any action. So to city code 7-5-4, prior to approving or denying a conditional use permit application, the planning commission make in the public in the business at which the public hearing is conducted a findings of fact. So again, the findings of fact are needed when you're going to make a condition of approval. Findings of fact should have the reasonably anticipated detrimental effects of the proposed use on an adjacent property. Evidence identified of the reasonably anticipated detrimental impacts. Reasonable conditions imposed intended to mitigate detrimental impacts. Reasons why conditions are imposed and how they hope to mitigate impacts and evidence that conditions will resolve those impacts. So, there's quite a bit that you'll have to you have to remember when you're when you're slapping conditions on a conditional use permit. Question for you is the planning commission obligated to follow staff's recommendation, conditions of approval, etc. No, you are not. Okay? When it comes to a conditional use permit, staff is a resource and we give you recommendations, but you are the decision authority. So you can you can make those decisions however you feel like regardless of what staff is recommending. Question for you. Who is responsible to see that a conditional use permit and its conditions are upheld by the applicant?

That's my job. Okay? That's me. Okay? You guys do not have to do that. Um, now you can make staff aware if you see a conditional use permit that's in violation. Um, that has happened and I I encourage that. But when it comes to enforcing that, uh, that is my job. I am specifically mentioned in the ordinance as the the authority to do that. Um, same question here. Who's responsible to um, enforce it when they're in violation of the conditions? Uh, that's me. That's not the city planner. Um, it's not Paul. It's not the code enforcement officer. It's me. We We recently had one where we had to go into some enforcement. Do you guys remember what it was?

The reflective lights or reflective strips.

Yep. Yep. The uh the little coffee shop down there in front of cow ranch. They they had put little bike reflectors at the top and I guess those had fallen off and uh we had to I had to make sure that they they addressed the issue and put the pro the appropriate reflection materials on the building. So it does happen from time to time. We are currently in the process of enforcing another cup that you recently approved. It was the auto repair business just north of city hall on Garden Street. Um, they are now in the process of putting up their fence and bringing in some paving, but we've had to send them some notices. So, I'm the one that has the pleasure of enforcing your conditions. So, thank you.

Can the planning commission revoke a conditional use permit? Yes. Yes. The planning commission can revoke a condition a conditional use permit only when staff brings it back to you for a hearing. Okay. So, can the planning commission amend a previously approved conditional use permit? Yes. Would that be the same situation? Same situation. Staff has to bring it to us.

Yep. It has to be appropriately noticed as a meeting and so forth, but you can amend a previously approved conditional use permit. Can the planning commission establish impossible conditions if they are opposed to a proposed use to prevent it from locating on a particular location? I don't recommend it. Not for the fun of it. No. Could get us into legal trouble down the road. Mr. Johnson would have some words about that. Mr. Johnson would have fun with that. Can the planning commission table or continue a conditional use permit request? Yes. Yes,

absolutely. In fact, that's a tool that that I recommend that you use. Um, if you're lacking information to make a decision, table it. But make sure that when you table a conditional use permit that you do so either time-sp specific or action specific. Okay. So, give the applicant some clear understanding of what you need. Um, is there can you table it too many times?

Not really. Really. There's nothing that says you can't table an item too many times, but you want to make remember that the applicants, they paid money for that application and they want to get things going. So, be reasonable in how many times you do table an item, but there's no limit to how many times you can do that or how long. Okay, let's see. Just answered that one. Tips and tricks. Okay, leave emotion and personal perspectives at the door. be objective. Not always easy to do, but um I think in this position sometimes we have to be objective and uh actually we always have to be objective. You don't want to be subjective in making these decisions. Uh be clear and detailed about your findings of fact. So always state into the record what your findings of fact are. Don't be shy. If you believe a use will generate an impact, voice the concern clearly on the record. Uh there's no such thing as a stupid concern. If you have a concern with an application, speak up. Uh let us let us know. Let let get that into the record and deliberate and talk with your fellow commissioners about about what you think is an impact. If it's something that is not relevant or is is not an impact, the other commissioners will probably put you in your place or staff will tell you, you know, you're getting that's not pertinent to this. But don't be shy. Please speak your speak your thoughts. Um don't rely on the staff or the staff report. I remember last time Commissioner Hammer has some questions about this. Um we're going to give you the best we can give you and we always do. Um, but sometimes staff has maybe they're not entirely right and that doesn't happen very often because we we we do we we do good at our

jobs. But even tonight, you know, Commissioner Anderson disagreed with staff on on turf and uh nothing wrong with that. That's that's that's a very healthy thing. So, uh, if you disagree with staff or if you, uh, you don't exactly agree with what's being said, that's okay. I have a thick skin. I I think Anna has a thick skin. She could probably handle it. Um, questions for me. I have a question. Sure. Um, just about like the disagreement that y'all had today about the turf.

Um, when you don't have that information, like I don't know why turf is better than it's, you know, I've heard that maybe your yard can get too hot if you have too much turf or but would could we have tabled that before? Um, because I know it was more about the grammar and revising just the wording. Yeah. But he asked that we revise even the percentage. Was that okay? Like I don't I just don't understand. You could have tabled it if the comm if the majority of the commission wanted to table that pending a revision, you could have done that.

Okay. And then when you are tableabling something, um, if you wanted more information about turf and why turf is good and could we have asked for more information on that or can we go home and research that and like I just you could you could direct staff saying hey why are you recommending 50%. Okay, that's what I Yeah, I you could ask Commissioner Anderson, can you give us a little more information on why you think it should be all of it? um that is absolutely within your purview to do. Okay. And I will encourage you to do that presentation. Yeah. Now, keep in mind that that's a legislative item and so they're a little different than a conditional use permit, but the the principle's the same.

Okay. You can always table an item pending more information. Okay. Yeah. I I think I just need to learn more about what is what and what I can ask and and you can always direct staff to bring you more information. Okay. and we'll bring you the information that we can. Um, yeah, good question. Tabled that one twice on the older home parking thing. We tabled that one twice to get the information we needed. So, okay. Yep. Cool. Send it on. Thank you. Any other questions? Can I ask a question?

Sure. So on the conditional use permits, if you get your list of I'm asking because I had a situation like this, but if if I was granted a conditional use permit and it came with these conditions, you can do your business there. Whatever. If those were never broken, can you be broken? So if they're in compliance with all of their conditions, with everything, is it possible to pull the rug out when you've met all the conditions? No, I don't think so.

Yeah, there have to be there has to be a reason for staff to revoke that. And we would investigate that. We would see there's no violation. We drop it. We drop it immediately. Actually to carry that one further, let me ask if if all those conditions are met, but there was an unforeseen condition that has arisen during the course of business that is now causing the two neighbors to not be good neighbors. Could we revisit that conditional use permit at that point with noticing and all the things? Yes,

I believe we could. I believe we could. It would have to be a staff initiated thing. Um, but through proper noticing and of the both the property owners and the adjacent residents, I believe we could revisit something like that. Wouldn't that just come back to us for reision re revision of to mitigate the new problem? I believe I believe we could. Matt, if I'm out of line on that one, let me know. But I that's where I I sit back and I go, "Okay, I was given a a conditional use permit to do a a nightly rental in a fair."

Yeah, a different town. But if it seems to me if if you gone through the process to get the condition permit and it's granted doesn't seem right that they'd be able to go back later and say, "Oh, now we want this." That's why that's why I asked the question. I have never broken.

It's it it it's a difficult situation. It's one we don't face very often. I am thinking that if a if a situation arose and there was a code enforcement issue involving that CUP that is part of the code enforcement procedure, we could require them to go back to planning commission to address it. Um, if there's that's probably the only mechanism that we could do something like that. We just can't. Well, going back to that coffee shop. Um, no, but they were they were violating their condition. They weren't they weren't doing something new. So, yeah, those are those are excellent questions, but I think it would have to be tied to a code enforcement action. So,

I think it would have to be something substantial, too. It couldn't be something minor that it's like, "Oh, right. We didn't see that. We didn't think of it." And it's it's something really just that the neighbor doesn't like it. It would have to be something substantial that would be you'd have to mitigate the first should have mitigated the first time around, not not something minor. Yeah.

Yeah. What would likely happen in that situation is I would begin an investigation into it, work to understand the issue and possibly resolve it with the applicant and then we make that determination at that time whether to bring it back to the planning commission. So, excellent question. So, excellent question. Got me thinking tonight. Any other questions? Now, when I when I say, you know, don't always trust staff completely, that doesn't mean be mean to us. Um,

you guys you guys are always very kind and uh respectful with staff. And believe me, I really appreciate that. I I' I've been on commissions where we've had antagonistic commissioners, and it it is not pleasant. And so you guys have always been really good about working with and respecting staff and I appreciate that. City council is as well. City council's also very very good with their staff. So I appreciate that. Okay. If no further questions, that's another hour in your training books. So uh uh for the record, for those commissioners that didn't come in today, please view the training and let me know online. our YouTube YouTube has all of our planning commission meetings. Uh that way you can get the training time on your on your record. So

thank you Andrew. Thank you. All right, guys. Have a good night.