Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

This meeting is being transcribed and summarized.

I'd like to call this meeting to order, and let's call the roll.

Commissioner Schulte Heelan.

Present.

Commissioner Jones? Present. Commissioner Watten?

Present.

Vice chair Wolvotnik? Here. Chair Metland?

Here. Alright. We'll next move to public comment related to items not on the agenda. Do any comments for tonight? Doesn't appear so. Okay. No comments. Okay. Then on to our third item, which is a briefing on the Westland Vision 43 project.

Good evening. Oh, can you hear me okay?

All

right. Good evening Chair Mettlin, Vice Chair Wolvani, Commissioners, thank you for your time I appreciate it.

Good to see you.

It's been a while. Yeah. So we're gonna do oh, can I get my presentation on screen? Especially so I don't have to look at myself.

I mean

Thank you, Lynn. While Lynn pulls that up. Yeah. I I have four basic updates for you tonight and catch you up to speed on where we're at and kinda what it looks like going forward in the next few months or so. Hold on. I always forget to turn it on. Okay. So tonight's topics, we're going to go over our project timeline extension. We have a budget amendment. We have a new phased approach to the rezoning for our focus areas.

Then Then we're going to talk a little bit about what we're calling our strategic pivot. So we'll get into those each one at a time. But as we do in case someone is watching from afar online or on TV and they don't know what the project is let me just give you a quick overview. As you all remember, we're really out to develop a new vision for the community vision for Highway forty three the corridor within West Linn. We're working hard to collaborate with community members and to sort of shape the project's recommendations eventually to be decided on by council, hopefully approved by council.

We are out working on enhancing walking and biking connections within the corridor. As well as looking to expand opportunities for local businesses, for housing and community gathering places in our in in the 43 Corridor in West Linn. And lastly, of course, is the updating city plans and policies which will support these projects, the project goals and recommendations. So that's just a very broad overview and for anyone who is watching check out our webpage. Oops, did I do that?

There we go. You can check out the city's webpage and our project page at yourwestlin.com. Alright. So let's get into our updates for tonight. So we had originally planned for approval of the Vision 43 project roughly October 2025. Obviously, we're past that by now. So we had a contract extension. The actual extension with our consulting firm MIG runs through calendar year 2026, so all the way through December 2026. That's just for safekeeping. We fully intend on this project wrapping up in one way shape or form by July 2026.

But you know, we don't wanna have to keep going through these extensions and amendments. So we'll just build it out through 2026 just in case. This is actually gonna allow for us to do a couple of things. Number one, increase our outreach to residential property owners within our focus areas and we'll get into that in just a little bit. And then more time for some of these community open houses to review some proposed draft code language and gather feedback from the community about that.

So we just really wanted to get some extra time to talk to the community. Let's see. The second update, second part of this is we have a budget amendment. So our original approved budget was $200,000. That was council's award to this project.

By extending our timeline, we've added some management consultant costs. MIG now has to continue to manage parts of the project from November through what we think will be July 2026. So that adds a little bit of cost. And as part of that, we've also asked for some simplified visualizations, some renderings that are showing that will show maximum build out today under today's code and maximum build out under what we think the code will look like as we move forward. And so that'll give folks a little bit better idea of what we're talking about.

Those cross sections that we have are good, but this is actually more of a three d style, not three d, but more of a it's using a real building that they've and and put onto a real site in West Linn. So it'll give people a little easier idea of what we're actually talking about in height and bulk on-site. So we've asked for some new renderings. Those are drafted and should be out for public consumption not too far down the road. And then the funds, the $19,850 that we've amended and added to the budget was actually budget money that council budgeted for us to use for this project.

So we're just using it. Thought we'd be fully transparent that we're adding basically 20,000 to the project budget. Questions about that by the way? Didn't think so. Come on. Can you get me there, Lynn? Thank you. Alright. So let's talk about a new rezoning strategy that we have. My apologies.

Cannot seem to get rid of. So throughout the process or as we've moved through the later stages of the process, we started hearing some concerns from community members about residential properties that are within our focus areas. I'm gonna put some maps up in a minute. Residential properties within the focus areas that were potentially or are going to be rezoned. This is some little fear, little I don't know what that means, what's this gonna do to my property, we have concerns, and and that's perfectly normal.

So then at the same time we recognize that despite all of our outreach, you know, maybe some more specific outreach to those property owners is warranted in these cases, right? It's a big deal to have your property rezoned, can be. So put those two things together, we decided to create a new approach to how we're gonna rezone properties just within the focus areas. Lynn, can you fast forward that, please? Okay.

So phase one, we're gonna focus on existing commercially zoned properties that are adjacent to Highway 43. You'll see this on the maps in a few seconds here. There are a few residentially zoned properties that will be included. Most of those are actually properties that are being used as commercial now and have been for years. And we just need to clean them up a little bit, so those will be included.

But again, most of them are operating as commercial properties now. Let's see here, Lynn. Thank you. I don't know why this isn't working. Phase two, which will not happen within the timeline that we're talking about, phase two will be after adoption of the Vision 43 project.

We just don't feel like there's enough time to accurately go or to to go not accurately, to go out and have conversations with property owners about rezoning the residential property and do so within the July timeline that we've set forward. So this will happen after and it might be a year or even two years or more. There's some discussion that maybe we wanna wait and see what happens with the project, see what happens if there's any development before we start even discussing more rezoning of residential properties. So phase two will be the residential properties within the focus areas that we're about to look at. Oh and then rezoning outreach.

So we're gonna utilize a phased approach in that in the rezoning discussing potential outcomes. Can you go back to can you get me back to that? Oh. Oh, and then of course, addressing the individual concerns of property owners. Well, that was hard.

This is not working well tonight. Addressing the As we do the outreach for residential property owners within the focus areas, it'll give us a better opportunity to address their specific concerns about their properties. As you can see just for some context, this is focus area one. Walmart is sort of down near the bottom on the left, that big white square rectangle just gives you a little context. As you can see the blue properties are mostly commercial and those will be the properties that get rezoned as part of phase one.

All of the others that are

within the red boundary but are not shaded blue, those are primarily residential properties and those will be a part of phase two. Again, allowing us to go out and have more specific conversations with property owners about what that means. This is focus area two for context. You can see that that sort of triangle in the middle is the old Bolton Firehouse, the new firehouse is right behind it. Again, same basically the same concept not basically, it is the same concept here and also here down in the Bolton neighborhood with the market of choice kind of in the middle, library up near the top.

And again, just allowing us to go out and and really help people understand and property owners understand what the issue what what it means to have your property rezoned. And then again, phase one in the blue shaded areas. So let me pause because that is a lot of info to take in and and certainly field any questions you might have about this. And we can come back to it as well, but any thoughts, concerns or questions that I can answer about the phased rezoning process?

Go ahead Commissioner.

Just wanted to check-in real quick on the Area 3 per some of the last time that you presented, were some of the project focus areas changed to accommodate it and are they still the same off

of Still the same, yeah. We just cleaned up the map. We had different lines showing like oh, planning commission on one of these properties and the working group on one of these properties. Took all that out and just like here's the boundary. So the boundary is the same.

Commissioner Waletning? I just wanted to say that I appreciate the two phase approach. I think that's that's a smart thing to do. Thank you. And especially the amount of work that it would require. But I think just for the community to come to grips with those kind of changes, especially the people who own the properties and to learn what that means. So thank you.

No, no, thank you. Appreciate the feedback. As we've talked about all along, this is the community's vision. And you know it's a lot of information coming and coming and then when you realize there's some concerns I think it's appropriate to slow down and and create a space where we can actually make sure people are comfortable with what's happening. Excuse me.

And and one other thing I'll say is, you know, we've been working on this now about twenty six months. And, you know, you start twenty six months ago and you think, is generally what the what the project will look like. But as we all know time and things change and so you have to kind of adapt as you go through. So we don't look at it as it's this is just how the iterative process goes of long range planning. Sometimes you have to shift, but again to stick within that vision community vision program, it's appropriate to do that. So I appreciate the feedback, Commissioner.

Chair, Tom Watton has raised his hand. Yeah. Go ahead, Tom.

Oh, thank you. So just using because it's up on the screen, focus area three. So, you know, as I I'm looking at phase two would be kinda center left. And so, you know, I know this is still, you know, obviously preliminary, but, you know, there's some significant topography in that zone, you know, this phase two. Where's my question?

You know what, I think I'm just going to hold my question and maybe I'll hitch up a little bit later. Maybe it's a little premature.

Sure. No But you are right. Sort of that west slope there off McKillican down to the highway, that is certainly a pretty sloped or a pretty good pitch. And those are all residential. There's a couple properties in there being used as commercial. We captured one on the corner. I think there's a dentist office that is not included right now. We don't have to panic. It's okay. Again, can see this is where we have most of the residential properties that we'll need to work with property owners on.

And what you're leaning towards or at least kind of headed toward Commissioner Watten is, yeah those are sloped and not easy properties to redevelop and not although they're adjacent to the highway, they're not really accessible from the highway. So those may warrant some further conversation in the future. I would also say that just because something is in a focus area, the focus area is created the focus area was not arbitrary, but it was created through

Lost audio.

Through the working group and council and and and commission and a bunch of groups. It's not it can adjust if necessary. We prefer not to, but we can make adjustments to it. So I think that's part of these conversations that will go out over the next few years to have is what is that boundary? Is that really where we want it to be or is that just not going to work?

The first phase of the project though, the first phase of rezoning that's really what we were out to capture as a project and what our charge from council was. So we feel like we're sticking to the general core of the project and you know hopefully take it from there. So now have oh sorry any further thoughts or questions on the rezoning the phase rezoning process? We can always come back to it as well. Alright I have one more update for you.

Lynn, can you fast forward me there? Okay. So, as you recall, we've brought to this commission a fair number of policy questions for discussion and feedback. We took some of those to council. It started to become a very time consuming process to work through each of those policy questions.

So we have a, what we're calling a strategic pivot where we're now gonna we're actually just going to bring draft code language to the commission and to council. It'll be part of your work sessions as we lead up to a public hearing for this project at the commission. I think it's gonna work a little bit easier. The draft code is being written now. It's based on feedback from the community, from the working group, from the neighborhood associations, the technical advisory group, things that if we've talked about here.

So I think it'll be more effective use of everyone's time if we just bring you draft language and have conversations about pieces of that code and what they might mean, what they'll do, and how you feel about that. So I think it'll just be a little bit more efficient that way. So that's that's our pivot, our strategic pivot. Although it's fun to go deep on all those questions, I think we might still be having those conversations for months and months and months and I just don't know that that's effective. So beyond I think as we're excuse me guys.

As we're working through some of this draft code, you know, we're still out in the community. We had a working group meeting last month. I was at Robinwood six weeks ago, Bolton a couple weeks ago. We'll be back there in January at both those neighborhood associations. We have two community open houses scheduled right now, January '26 and January I'm sorry, February as well.

Where we'll be doing community wide open houses to discuss the draft code language and discuss what where we're at and get feedback from the community at the community at large. And we intend on starting the Planning Commission sort of process if you will in February. It'll be after the community open house and we'll start talking code language and all of the fun stuff about this project. We We intend on having two work sessions with the Planning Commission and then shortly thereafter in April we'll go to a public hearing looking for your recommendation to council. And then immediately following that we'll get into the work sessions with council.

So that'll lead us right into the June and early July for for their decision, the council's decision. So that is oh, and then some of the things that we are puzzling through with the consulting firm and internally that you will have crack at when we bring you code. Things and topics such as do we limit drive through uses. You know, if someone expands or remodels their structure, are they required to meet the new code or is it 50% or more like where's the threshold for needing to meet the new code versus just a small remodel. We're obviously still talking about height limits when you're adjacent to a residential zone, it's a pretty good topic.

Also ensuring massing of the buildings doesn't create a tunnel or canyon like effect on the highway that's been brought up a few times. Will there be exceptions and what does that process look like? Oh that's what I'm I'm just not holding it up enough. You know, also prioritizing pedestrian access through sites that are you know being built. Careful consideration of what is allowed near residential areas.

And then of course creating enough flexibility with the code that we actually get development that the community wants here in West Linn. I mean I think at the end of the day that's sort of the goals. What type of development is the community been saying they would like? And are we gonna get there with the code that's being written? And that's really the the crux of the issue. Right? We just need to make sure that what we put down on paper can get us where we wanna go. You know, for us if we go through this process, create have this code written and it nothing happens that we probably didn't get something right and we'll have to go back and look at it again. So that's that's where that's at. And oh, look at that.

So thoughts or questions? I know it wasn't, you know, life changing, but any thoughts or questions about those updates or the future?

Commissioner Wolhotney.

Yes, sir.

So just thinking about Phase two, are you considering like mixed use transition zones for the Phase two areas, the residential areas?

Yeah. One of the discussions with MIG and internally was having these sort of sub zones, right? Like less intense, similar to highway adjacent rezoning, but less intense. Also the properties off the highway are usually smaller, more residentially sized. So I think it's a combination of that. We don't really know the answer at this point in time, but that's what started to lead us as staff down the road of, you know, we're probably not ready for that yet. Those are larger conversations that we're gonna need to figure out.

So

that's part of that slow down phase two approach. Yeah. I think it's all gonna be talked about. I think it'll be interesting to see if we get activity in the first two or three years after adoption and how that might impact rezoning other properties. Maybe at the time there's I don't know. That may just change the flavor of what we want as a community. I know that wasn't really an answer, but it's the

best I got.

That's good. Thanks.

Yeah, of course. Thank you.

Any other questions or comments? All right. Thank you.

Thank you for your time. Appreciate it.

Yep. Yeah.

And good luck to you, chair. Yeah. We're down to one more meeting after this.

Yeah. Thank you. Long time. Alright. That brings us to our fourth item, which is a briefing on senate bill fifteen thirty seven of twenty twenty four. Darren?

Alright. Thank you, chair. Alright. So I had sent out a memo, a brief memo around senate bill fifteen thirty seven and specifically the commission's interest in the exemption process for the limited land use decisions component of the bill, which was sections 44 to 47 of the bill. So as as I outlined in the in the memo, senate bill fifteen thirty seven added three additional types of decisions to a limited land use decision that is a replat, property line adjustment, and non conforming alteration of a non conforming use in addition to subdivision plats and design review for permitted uses in a commercial zone which were already in in the statute.

It also added in the memo I I copied and pasted it there a sixth section around procedures to process a limited land use decision. And at the time this bill was passed, the state guidance was that the city would have to you utilize the procedures in the limited land use decision section of of the statutes to process those those types of decisions, those limited land use decisions. If you'll remember, staff brought that forward to the commission in summer of this this past 2025. Got some feedback on it. Went back and and revisited this with the state, which at the time they had changed their changed their guidance that cities could still implement the the procedures as they've adopted in their code.

So we pulled it from the we pulled it from the the packet of code amendments that we were bringing through in the summer and fall. And and at this point, we are still utilizing the the quasi judicial proceedings for those those limited land use decisions as as outlined in our code. So there is there is the exemption or time time extension option for implementing the limited land use decision requirements. That was section 46 of the bill. The city would be required to show a hardship to get the exemption or the time extension, and hardship is around increased costs to the city to implement it or lack of staff capacity to implement.

So those those are the those are the two options you have to try to get an exemption or a time extension. But again, however, at this point in time we are still utilizing our own procedures as the state guidance is Now change to say that we do not have to remove the quasi judicial proceedings from the limited land use decisions. So that's that's the limited land use decision portion of the bill, and again the there is the exemption and time extension process, but we do not feel like we need to pursue it at this time because they have backed off on saying we have to move away or we have to move away from quasi judicial decision making. So any questions about that component before I move on to the adjustments?

Mr. Robotnik.

Thank you, Chair. I just want to say thank you, Darren, for revisiting this and checking back with DLCD. It was nice to see the link to DLCD and their late August guidance. So I think that makes everyone feel a little more comfortable that we don't have to do an overhaul of our code and the way we've been working for decades literally. So this is good. Thanks.

Alright. Thank thank you for that. And there there is the one other component of the bill that the city has to has to utilize, which is the mandatory adjustments sections of the bill, sections 37 to 43. And this this is a part of the bill that all of all jurisdictions in Oregon must follow. You have to you have to allow these mandatory adjustments such as reduced setbacks, increased heights, there's a number of adjustments outlined in the bill.

So again there's an exemption process from the mandatory adjustments. It requires showing well first of all let me step back. In order to qualify the for the man mandatory adjustments in the city of West Linn, you would have to achieve 17 dwelling units per acre. There's very few properties left in the city that can can achieve that that density. And then also to qualify for the exemption, would have to apply showing that all of the adjustments listed in the bill are eligible for an adjustment under our current code, which our current code does not allow all of the adjustments.

So we we feel like we would not be eligible to get that exemption. And in addition, we'd have to show that 90% of those requests had been granted in the last last five years. So we did not we did not pursue again an exemption process from this section of the bill either. Any questions?

Not seeing any questions.

Alright. Well, if the commission has any if you think of anything after the meeting and would like a follow-up, just feel free to reach out and get you additional information.

Great. Thank you. Let's move on to our work session for tonight, is the Planning Commission annual report.

Alright. Thank you again, chair. So, again, I just gave you a very very short memo with a draft of the annual report for 2025. I filled in the accomplishments and filled in the the council work plan items for the planning commission. So what we're really looking for is feedback on 2025 challenges that the Planning Commission identified in any any other feedback that you would like to share with City Council.

I provided the 2024 annual report to see what the counts the commission sent off to council last year, and then also provided the the council adopted priorities and work plans for the Planning Commission that was adopted in August of of twenty twenty five. So again, this is something council does every year. They ask all of their community advisory groups to do this annual report, and then they utilize the annual reports during their goal setting session. So I will just open it up to the commission to provide any any feedback on potential 2025 challenges to add. And again, any other feedback you would like to pass along to city council as far as priorities or or potential work work work program items, and we'll get it filled in and bring it back to you at the next meeting to to finalize.

Chair Mettlin? Yes. Tom Watton would like to speak. Oh, yes. Go ahead, Tom.

Thank you. Hey, Darren. When I was reading through this, it's a pretty simple question. But under the 2025 goals, I see affordable housing on there. And it kind of without taking any time really is what what are we doing or what's you know, the middle housing, you know, we've come to recognize, and I know you already know this early on, but affordable it's not necessarily affordable housing.

And I was just is there any headway on what affordable housing is in writing for us continue to talk about?

That's a great question commissioner. And I would say the the housing production strategy that was adopted by City Council last spring. We now have grant funds from the state and consultant is going to come on board here shortly to start implementing some of those those strategies or actions that were the 12 the 12 actions that were identified in that housing production strategy. Some of the first ones we're going to tackle is rezoning, updating the zoning code to implement those actions that we're targeting affordable and workforce housing where there's a big need in the city of West Linn for both of those types of housing. So we're hoping that that work will lead to more flexibility and options for affordable housing to be created within the city of West Linn and you know a lot of it is working with our partners to identify properties and opportunities to help fund affordable housing projects in the community.

Okay. Excellent. No, that's great news. I know that everybody spent a lot of time on that. And I was just it's nice to hear that there's some level of traction. So will we be updated on that, I'm guessing, from time to time?

Yes, you will. We plan to put together a working group again for the code amendments portion of implementation of that housing production strategy. So again we'll probably come back to the Planning Commission asking for a volunteer to sit on that working group. Not it.

I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I had a good time on that. But thank you very much.

Commissioner Wolpotney.

Thank you, chair. So I was just flipping down to the last year's report. And, I think that the 2024 challenges, are still probably applicable to public engagement and legislative projects, providing guidance to community members on how to engage. Actually, it's encouraging them to engage at this point because we have so few people who attend and provide public comment unless there's a hot button issue. And was oh, so looking at, you know, this past year, because I couldn't remember that we had a joint meeting with counsel and and it it's not list did I miss it on here?

It seems that I mean, we used to try and have a couple joint meetings with council a year, and it's been a while.

I do I do think we did had a joint meeting with council in in March or April. I did not list it in your accomplishments, so I'll go back and find that date

and put

In that in

2025?

I believe so. But Okay. I I know we did the docket separately this year. Okay. But let let me let me check on that and I'll

I'll update this. I was trying to remember. So if you

Yes, I'll check on that. That's good.

Was that the training we had in April, where we had a joint session, but it was more we were receiving instructions?

Yeah. The the quasi judicial training was in February, but I I I'll go I'll go check. But I I believe we did have a joint meeting in in April.

Yeah. If if we could list that or make it a challenge.

Okay. All right. So I hear the just bring forward the twenty twenty four challenges to 2025, but reword the second one to encourage more participation. Yeah. And then maybe carry forward the working on affordable housing in the community as commissioner Watten points And it

and I just had a a thought. I don't know if anyone else is. Is. But having some sort of communication or well and just thought of another aspect of this. But we've had joint meetings in the past with the historic review board.

And Tom is Commissioner Watten is probably the the most familiar with with their operation on at least on the current commission. So But at some point, it might be nice to have a joint meeting with them, especially if there's an issue that comes up in the Willamette area. That's that's appropriate. And then the other the other thought where I started with is actually some sort of communication with with CCI. Since I'm the commission liaison to CCI and they canceled the meeting yesterday because of a quorum issue.

So it didn't have enough attendees. And their responsibilities have expanded, but I think they're they need more things to do or involvement. So anyway.

Alright. I can I can draft some language to put into additional feedback to city council for those two items? So I'm also looking at the last year's annual report. There was adoption of the housing production strategy. You could just transition that into implementation of the housing production strategy.

Implementation of the Waterfront Vision Plan, adoption of Vision 43. So yeah, I think all of those are worthy of being moved forward. I'll put those into your into your annual report. You can look at it when when we bring it back on the seventeenth.

Hey, Darren. Just for your for your record, I've got 11/18/2024 for our joint joint meeting. Hopefully, that helps you.

Yeah, Darren. I didn't see any in my calendar that was a joint with city council this year.

There was not one?

I don't think so. Okay.

Yeah. I'll I'll I'll I'll confirm that and and let you know when we come back on the seventeenth.

Yes, commissioner.

Yeah, I just have a question. I was reading the challenges kind of explicated for 2024 and the point about public engagement. I think I was here, but I was very new when we discussed that. Is that kind of a goal or a topic that comes up frequently? And what have been the ideas for how to engage? I guess I'm just curious how that's explored or how we make progress on that realistically.

Yes. So that's a great question. So for large long range planning projects like a waterfront vision plan and vision 43 when we did the house bill 2,001, the middle housing code amendments. We put together we put together a public engagement plan for those large projects and we bring it to the CCI. The CCI reviews it and then and then we'll bring it to council and council will review it.

And that's, you know, projects that are gonna last for a couple years. I don't wanna put words in commissioner mouth, but I I think commissioner Ravotny is talking about when we have quasi judicial proceedings or just in general comments from the community during during planning commission meetings. It's more the focus of these comments than if if I I have that correct.

Yeah. I guess I'm I'm used to thinking pre COVID, and we used to stack them up in here. It was

Yeah. That's what I was kinda more curious about because I know I mean, I was I mean, I participated in the Vision forty three kind of community input. But I was, yeah, curious about how to fill the seats and just make sure that people understand what we're doing. I know that there are those who tune in, but I was also curious about just kind of more of the day to day.

Yeah. As far as as far as people coming to testify before the Planning Commission again I think it's depends on what the what the topic in front of the Commission is and again you know we can we can notify people but we can't force somebody to come and testify. Whereas through the engagement plan we we try to use multiple venues to try to get the word out and get feedback from people not just traditional go to an open house but going to where those folks are. Chris did a great job of that with vision forty three going to all the different events around around the city for about eighteen months. So we we use different tools and and actions to try to get feedback from people on those larger projects.

I I would agree that Chris has done a great job with going out to the community and having those meetings and getting feedback from other other venues or in those in those meetings. So so I think because because of that participation, maybe that also people have contributed and they don't feel they have to be here for the discussions that are brought to us.

Go ahead commissioner.

So in kind of following in the way that last year we kind of spitballed and throwed out some ideas. In in looking at the identity of West Linn and that it is about frequently kids attending school, their parents, families, many other organizations in Westland and other cities will do high school integration projects. And working with Westland High School with their civics departments or whatever and having kids coming in here and being able to get credit for attending meetings, seeing how the process works. And when you start involving kids,

parents,

you involve their families. Start in Gesundheit, and you start getting people involved. So, you know, by starting to engage the youth and getting them involved of how a government works, how you get a planning commission, then you can start getting news articles about it. We've got multi the majority of the population in this city is on social media, Instagram, Facebook, Reddit, whatever. The fact that these meetings maybe might be better served by being posted on next door Facebook.

Hey, we've got a planning commission, and it's not a hot topic issue, but come be involved, know, and something that is not labor or staff time intensive, something that isn't putting a burden on anyone or taking on, but that is where people are directing most of their attention and focus. That's where they're facing their eyes forward, and that's where they're going to engage. We don't want to engage them online. We want to engage them in person. We want to find ways to access them, to encourage them, to engage in person, but that's where they're going to see that information.

Outside of putting giant billboards up saying meeting here today, announcing it in the place they're going to see that the meetings and why and and, you know, so that they know why it's important that they have a voice in their community as a so it's proactive as opposed to reactive feeling caught off guard. Wait. What is this thing happening? And playing catch up in a reactionary sense. No. I'm part of this community. I'm part of this process. I kind of know what's going on. I feel connected. I know these faces. These are people I can talk to along those lines.

Right. Yes. Thank you.

And giant flashing billboards.

Can I

just ask a follow-up question? Have you ever posted about planning commission on your own social media?

No. I avoid social media like a plague. You have no idea. I have worked very hard to get off that that. I took the heroin needle out is what I'm saying.

Okay. Thank you. Any other commissioners? Ever post about planning commission on social media?

No. There's a subreddit for West Lin that could be used. There's Nextdoor that could be used and they could be very easily

done.

There's some limitations on Nextdoor for governments using it. That's why I asked the question.

So if it's something where and and also, I think I've been also hyper hesitant to not sound like I'm endorsing unless we were able to have this conversation. I didn't wanna go off and start doing something, and then later

on something like, no, no, no, that's

that's massively illegal. You shouldn't be doing that.

Yeah.

But if that's something where we can, or if that is something that is a conversation we can have, then that is something where we could be happy to. I would absolutely be happy to do it, but I kinda wanna know the boundaries before I just jump in.

Yeah. It's a good question. There are some for sure, but yeah. I'll just say that we we did look into this question a little bit when I got here of posting because the city council posts their agendas on social media. And the feedback was is that the level of interaction of people actually, you know, because you can get the metrics of people interacting with the Facebook posts was not sufficient to justify it. So that's that's kind of a little bit of backstory.

Well, or you throw it out and just see who starts showing up and

Yeah. But I mean what I mean to say is people weren't actually looking at the posts, like, for city council.

Oh, well, yeah. But you put it to where they go, not you know, you don't put it on the city page, put it to the places that people are already going. So where are the engagements? Like in Westlin Open Forum, Westlin, you know, etcetera. Where are they actually going already? That's where you put the information. Not Okay. You don't put it on your site and hope they come to you.

I see.

That's not how you advertise.

Okay. Sorry.

That's not how you market.

No. I

understand. The way that you put it was not creating additional work. And I think that what you're describing sounds like it would be

additional I'm sorry. I may have sub dropped the voice on it, but I tried to use the word minimal.

Okay. Yeah. Okay. Gotcha. Thank you.

I think for me over the last ten years, the one of the issues has been avoiding ex parte contact because we've often are dealing with issues where not trying to get a bunch of public comment. It's not on the record. So I try to avoid it.

I think that's a fair comment. And I think that I maybe heard you I thought I heard you differentiate between or one of the commissioners differentiate between contentious versus other meetings that you might wanna encourage people to go to. And I think that that's appropriate dividing line between the two. I certainly would not recommend posting about the food cart CUP on your

It personal has it has been helpful though to have because there has been a difference in the public engagement for these large projects I've seen evolve over time, and I've been very impressed with that change because most cities do with the minimum. We sent out a flyer, right, or whatever it is. Right? There's been some intentional engagement, And it's been helpful because I have been able to push those things out that the city's been pushing out, right, saying, hey. There's an open house. And I'll just kinda forward it along to folks. Right? And I think that's an effective way to get into the personal networks.

Oh, and actually, yes. I did some for the Vision 43 project, and I heard some very positive response from Citi, but it didn't seem like anyone had any interest to that going forward. So you feed the beast that seems that they want the beast to be fed.

Anything else on this agenda item? Feedback for the annual report?

No. I think I've got enough to update the update the report and then bring it back to you on the seventeenth.

Great. Thank you. Okay. Planning Commission announcements. Any commissioner have an announcement to make?

Okay. Seeing none, let's go to staff announcements.

Alright. Thank you, chair. So again, the next meeting, my my regular update for you. The December 17 meeting will be a quasi judicial hearing for a temporary sales office to sell homes in a new subdivision. So that will that will be what will your primary your primary agenda item that night.

Again, we'll finalize the annual report. Again, update it, bring it back to you. We are going to have a chair Mettlin celebration at the end of the meeting to celebrate him being ten years on the commission and rolling off, so we'll do something at the end of the meeting. And then I also wanted to give you an update that Chris Myers who was just here earlier giving your vision 43 update has accepted a job elsewhere. So Chris will be leaving us here in about a week or just over a week.

So that project will more than more than likely transition to me. So I will then be your face for vision forty three when it comes back to before the Planning Commission. So those are my updates unless Lynn or Steve have anything additional.

Mister Jones?

So you're now in charge of waterfront vision forty three. Is there any division that like somebody else can like handle all this plus everything else?

Yes. So mister Coper is is working through working through the workload. At this point, the waterfront vision plan, I'm not sure if I updated you the last meeting, but council adopted the waterfront vision plan back on November 18. So that's the the workload on that is settled down now until we are again gonna go try to achieve our secure grant funds to do the next phase of of zoning zoning work and code work. And so we'll time that out to try to keep the two things overlapping too much. But yes, work work workload is definitely definitely on mister Cooper's mind.

Yeah. Just wanting to make sure that it just sounded like the funnel kept coming and ending on you. And I was like, that's not fair.

I enjoy a challenge.

Mhmm. I do too, but just wanting to make sure.

Yeah. Commissioner Volatney.

Thank you, chair. So I guess a couple questions. Are we trying to hire? Do we we are we advertising positions?

Well, Chris hasn't left yet, so so not yet. No. Shortly thereafter, yes.

Okay.

Yeah.

And then I guess the other the other question is, I mean, would love to see Joel stay, but but I'm wondering if council has selected or or will we know at in two weeks who the next commissioner will be?

I'm not I'm not sure if you know the answer to that. But typically typically they will appoint people at their business meeting which is next Tuesday. So I I know commissioner Schulte Hillen was up for was up. So have you have you heard any word at all?

Excuse me?

You you were up for your your term was ending this this year. You heard?

I have not.

Okay. Alright. I can check-in and I'll I'll I can send you all an email too.

I I didn't realize your term was up as well. Oh,

yeah. I had to resubmit, but I forgot in the year and change that I was finishing somebody else's term. So the email came as a surprise.

Yeah. I forgot that too.

And just to add or clarify to Darren's comments, the council will be interviewing candidates tomorrow on Thursday and then appointing at the business meeting on Tuesday, the ninth. Thank

you.

Alright. I think with that, we are officially adjourned at 07:55PM. Thank you all.