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HomeMy WebLinkAbout070709 Planning Board Minutes MINUTES TUESDAY, JULY 7, 2009 ITEM 1. CALL TO ORDER AND ATTENDANCE President Caldwell called the regular meeting of the Planning Board to order at 7:19 p.m. in the Community Meeting Room, City Hall, 121 North Rouse Avenue, Bozeman, Montana and directed the secretary to take attendance. Members Present: Staff Present: Ed Sypinski Tara Hastie, Recording Secretary Chris Mehl Doug Riley, Associate Planner Bill Quinn Brian Caldwell, President Cathy Costakis Erik Henyon, Vice President Sean Becker Members Absent: Guests Present: Dawn Smith Donna Swarthout ITEM 2. PUBLIC COMMENT (0-15 MINUTES) {Limited to any public matter within the jurisdiction of the Planning Board and not scheduled on this agenda. Three-minute time limit per speaker.} Seeing no public comment forthcoming, President Caldwell closed the public comment portion of the meeting. ITEM 3. MINUTES OF JUNE 2, 2009 MINUTES OF JUNE 16, 2009 MOTION: Mr. Sypinski moved, Mr. Mehl seconded, to approve the minutes of June 2, 2009 as presented. The motion carried 7-0. Those voting aye being President Caldwell, Vice President Henyon, Mr. Becker, Ms. Costakis, Mr. Quinn, Mr. Mehl, and Mr. Sypinski. Those voting nay being none. MOTION: Mr. Sypinski moved, Mr. Mehl seconded, to approve the minutes of June 16, 2009 as presented. The motion carried 6-0. Those voting aye being President Caldwell, Mr. Becker, Ms. Costakis, Mr. Quinn, Mr. Mehl, and Mr. Sypinski. Those voting nay being none. Vice President Henyon abstained as he was not in attendance at the June 16, 2009 meeting. ITEM 4. DISCUSSION ITEM 1. GROWTH POLICY AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PLAN IMPLEMENTATION A public meeting to provide opportunity for Planning Board members to discuss implementation of the Growth Policy and Economic Development Plan. President Caldwell called for updates from Board members regarding the implementation of the Economic Development Plan and Growth Policy. Vice President Henyon responded he had intended to meet with the Economic Task Force regarding issues they would like to see addressed with the implementation of the Economic Development Plan and Growth Policy. He added the Task Force intended to provide the Planning Board with a list of items that would be discussed at their next meeting. Mr. Sypinski asked if the Board was invited. Vice President Henyon responded everyone would be invited and he would send out the information at a later date. Mr. Quinn stated he had made an appointment with Bill Murdoch of the County Commission and he had graciously agreed to meet with him. He stated the meeting had occurred and had included Assistant Director Saunders as well as County Planning Staff. He stated they had seemed interested and pleased that the meeting had been held and the outcome had been that inter-local agreements, especially regarding the donut area around Bozeman, should be included. He stated a small group could be formed to write the language necessary to provide for a formal inter-local agreement between the City and County. He noted trust and cooperation would be necessary to help the County sell the transfer of development rights idea. He stated Mr. Murdoch had suggested two members of the City Planning Board and two members of the County Planning Board along with one of the County Commissioners could be part of the group. Mr. Sypinski added that Mr. Earl Mathers had indicated he would be interested in participating in the group to help move the concept through the County offices. Vice President Henyon asked if the by-laws allowed the Planning Board members to meet with other advisory or approval bodies. Mr. Sypinski responded the bylaws did allow Board members to meet with other advisory boards and they had done so in the past; he added that the County seemed supportive. Vice President Henyon asked if the County had hired Clarion to do their Growth Policy update. Mr. Sypinski responded he was not aware of who the consultant would be, only that one had been chosen. Mr. Quinn stated he was impressed with the how the proposal was received by the County and noted the Growth Policy would need to be distributed to them. He stated Sean had indicated he was interested in using some of the material within the Growth Policy. MOTION: Mr. Sypinski moved, Ms. Costakis, for Mr. Quinn to draft a letter to the City and County Planning Board’s to formulate a group to meet to develop language to address County development of property within the Growth Policy boundary or other areas of mutual concern. The motion carried 7-0. Those voting aye being President Caldwell, Vice President Henyon, Mr. Becker, Ms. Costakis, Mr. Quinn, Mr. Mehl, and Mr. Sypinski. Those voting nay being none. Mr. Sypinski stated the planning work group process would be slow, indulgent to forming particular interests for review. Mr. Mehl asked if the proposal would be for two members from the City Planning Board and two from the County Planning Board. Mr. Sypinski responded Mr. Mehl was correct and he and Mr. Quinn would be those representatives. Vice President Henyon asked if the meetings would be open to the public. Mr. Quinn responded the public would be invited to the meeting. Mr. Mehl stated the NSURB had agreed to meet with the Planning Board as long as enough notice had been given to the public. Mr. Becker stated the Commission had approved the UDO edits at last evening’s meeting and noted the casino language had been removed from the edits so was unaltered and would remain as is in the UDO. He stated the Board would not be reviewing the proposed UDO edits again and asked if the Board disagreed with the Commission’s decision. Mr. Quinn asked for clarification of where the casino language had been included; if the Growth Policy would be affected. Mr. Becker responded the casino language was only included in the UDO and the Growth Policy would not be affected. Mr. Mehl asked for a background of the Commission’s decision. Mr. Becker explained that the proposed edit might eventually cause the removal of all the existing casinos unless grandfathering of casinos was addressed; the initial location could burn down and another location would not be allowed a gaming license. Mr. Quinn stated he did not believe that there had been any underlying agenda regarding casinos in the Growth Policy and there wasn’t any move to eliminate casinos during previous proceedings. Ms. Costakis stated she had been given the Complete Streets and Form Based Zoning task and she had not yet met with Assistant Director Saunders so she had been gathering examples of Complete Streets policies and added that the website had a model policy of elements. She noted Missoula was in the process of adopting a Complete Streets policy though she wished Bozeman would be the first to adopt the policy. President Caldwell stated that recommendations to adopt the Complete Streets policy could be forwarded to the Commission for review and approval. Vice President Henyon stated the adoption of the Complete Streets policy would necessitate a lot of UDO edits. Mr. Sypinski responded he agreed with Mr. Henyon and suggested City Planning Staff and the City Attorney would need to be consulted due to those implications and edits. Ms. Costakis added that a draft Complete Streets document would be presented to provide Staff opportunity to comment on the proposal. Ms. Costakis stated the investigation of Form Based Zoning would be a lengthy process which she would be discussing with Assistant Director Saunders to determine how extensive the adoption of the form based code would be. Mr. Sypinski added that the Downtown Improvement Plan would also include different types of land use designations and types of form based zoning such as the Entryway and Neighborhood Conservation Overlay District already provide; he added there was a lot of conflict with form based zoning or geographic areas that would need to be more protected. President Caldwell stated the draft Downtown Improvement Plan had been presented and thanked the Board members for coming to the meeting. He stated the draft implementation plan discussed a timeline and public comment would conclude on July 15, 2009 with a deliverable date for the finalized document on July 30, 2009. He stated the adoption of the plan would occur with a first reading by the Planning Board on August 18, 2009 with a Commission meeting on August 24, 2009. He stated final adoption of the plan would occur at the end of September. He added that he had obtained traffic research documents regarding converting one way to two way streets; he added having examples would be critical for the implementation of the Downtown Plan. He asked if everyone would be interested in helping him to provide a paper presentation to reference specific information to the Commission in support of changing Babcock Street and Mendenhall Street from one way to two way streets. Ms. Costakis volunteered to help President Caldwell and suggested she could call Dan Burden to find real information as opposed to just presenting factual reports and asked if President Caldwell would also be taking on Main Street going from four lanes to three lanes. President Caldwell responded that it might be best to let sleeping dogs lie as public comment, consultant recommendations, and general concerns seemed to move toward other forms of mitigation for Main Street. Mr. Sypinski stated he agreed with President Caldwell and suggested the Board be cognitive of what had occurred on Main Street (poor economy, March explosion) to limit the affect of impacts to downtown. Mr. Sypinski asked if the City Engineering Department had been consulted and if a cost analysis had been provided. President Caldwell responded the document’s position would be more of an advocate and clear indications of cost could not be achieved; he added he thought the point would be that it would be clear that other places had made the changes successfully. Mr. Mehl stated he would be supportive of meeting with Engineering Staff prior to the adoption of the document. Mr. Sypinski suggested the Board have educated questions for Staff to answer and research the information prior to any meetings. MOTION: Mr. Mehl moved, Mr. Quinn seconded, to ask the Planning Department to coordinate with the Engineering, Street, and Fire Departments for a meeting regarding the Downtown Improvement Plan. The motion carried 7-0. Those voting aye being President Caldwell, Vice President Henyon, Mr. Becker, Ms. Costakis, Mr. Quinn, Mr. Mehl, and Mr. Sypinski. Those voting nay being none. Mr. Becker stated that none of those entities listed had major problems with the proposal and had suggested when they could figure out where to come up with the money to make the improvements, they should come back with the proposal at that time. Mr. Mehl responded he wanted it to be known that he would be supportive if Debbie Arkell were present at the Planning Board meeting along with the presenter of the Improvement Plan. He stated the first meeting could be to present the plan and the second meeting would be to provide for discussing the details of the recommendation to the Commission. Mr. Becker stated Sun Valley Idaho had a multi-jurisdictional ordinance regarding constructing on hillsides and suggested he was not supportive of something as radical, but the rules of the UDO should be tightened through the implementation of the Growth Policy. He stated the Commission had previously outlined ridgeline protection but it was still very loose language that would be worth attempting to address; he added his fear was that there were inconsistencies between the UDO and the Growth Policy. President Caldwell stated he agreed with Mr. Becker and suggested examples from Sun Valley to circulate the information and see if it was too draconian to use or if it could be trimmed down and made usable. Mr. Sypinski noted that he and Mr. Quinn’s discussion with the County in the formation of a work group could also address “critical areas”. Ms. Costakis stated the County was arranging round table discussions regarding their park and trails plan and she had been asked to chair one of those discussions. She stated she could forward the itinerary of the rest of those discussions if any Board member would be interested in attending. She stated a Complete Streets policy that was adopted by both the City and the County should be part of the discussion. Mr. Quinn stated the adopted Transportation Plan would take over at some point with regard to the design of the streets. President Caldwell agreed with Mr. Quinn responded that Complete Streets were mentioned in the Transportation Plan but were not properly expanded upon. ITEM 5. NEW BUSINESS There was no new business forthcoming. ITEM 6. ADJOURNMENT Seeing there was no further business before the Board, President Caldwell adjourned the meeting at 8:37 p.m. __________________________________ __________________________________ Brian Caldwell, President Doug Riley, Associate Planner Planning Board Planning & Community Development City of Bozeman City of Bozeman