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HomeMy WebLinkAbout121608 Planning Board Minutes MINUTES TUESDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2008 ITEM 1. CALL TO ORDER AND ATTENDANCE President Pomnichowski called the regular meeting of the Planning Board to order at 7:03 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: Sean Becker Andrew Epple, Director of Planning Cathy Costakis Chris Saunders, Assistant Director of Planning Dawn Smith Tara Hastie, Recording Secretary Donna Swarthout Brian Caldwell JP Pomnichowski Chris Mehl Bill Quinn Erik Henyon Members Absent: Guests Present: Lucy Pope Linda Locke Kathie Callahan Jane Ellen Krabler Krystina Prinzing Ward 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.} Lucy Pope, Alliance for Building Communities, thanked the Board as she knew it was a big task to draft a Growth Policy and she wanted it known that the Alliance was appreciative for the inclusion of affordable housing. ITEM 3. MINUTES OF DECEMBER 2, 2008 Vice President Henyon stated that on page 5, paragraph 3, the second sentence should say “Bozeman’s cost of living was 13% above the national average”. Seeing there were no further changes or additions to the minutes, President Pomnichowski approved the minutes of December 2, 2008 with corrections. ITEM 4. BOZEMAN 2020 COMMUNITY PLAN UPDATE 1. Review and discussion of Chapter 6 – Housing (Saunders) Assistant Director Saunders stated he had distributed a memo to the PB and the proposed text was as described. He noted he had no further comments to provide to the Board and stated he would be available to answer any questions. Ms. Costakis asked if the provision of Functional Neighborhoods included a definition. Assistant Director Saunders responded he did not know of a true definition for Functional Neighborhoods and it was an overall impression by the community of what a neighborhood should be. Mr. Mehl stated he did not understand why two of the goals were the same for different objectives. Assistant Director Saunders explained the language in each was slightly different and explained. Mr. Mehl suggested the Board should pick which wording they would prefer to see included. President Pomnichowski opened the item for public comment. One member of the public noted there was a typo. President Pomnichowski pointed out a misspelling. Ms. Swarthout stated she appreciated the comments from Alliance for Building Communities and suggested addressing their comments one at a time. She stated she hadn’t had time to think through her comments in a lot of detail and may have missed something, but suggested the word “encourage” be replaced with “ensure”. She stated she agreed with the Alliance with regard to differentiating between the goals in the chapter; she suggested one goal address affordable housing and one address housing in general. Planner Saunders responded H.3 had been included to address the requested language from the previous meeting and public comment from Alliance. Ms. Swarthout stated she did not understand and she saw overlap, but was uncertain how the third goal would fit in. Assistant Director Saunders responded the Board had moved at the previous meeting that the specific language submitted by Alliance be included in the document. Mr. Mehl suggested Ms. Swarthout form a motion. Ms. Swarthout responded the Board should first make comment. President Pomnichowski stated the City would not be constructing houses and so could not “ensure” but could strongly “encourage”. Ms. Swarthout suggested the word “expand” be used. Mr. Mehl agreed that “expand” would give more emphasis. Mr. Caldwell stated quality could not be removed for the sole purpose of affordable housing and noted the biggest investment a person might make would be to own their own home. He stated he thought some of the suggested changes went too far and suggested the Board be mindful. Ms. Swarthout responded she did not expect full support for the recommended changes and noted she was in full support of stronger language. Mr. Quinn stated he thought H.1 and H.2 could either be combined or shortened and two goals would be adequate for the chapter. He stated the overall goal of encouraging broad types of housing types made sense with goal H.1 being general and H.2 giving more detail on affordable housing. President Pomnichowski stated she agreed with Mr. Quinn and suggested the rationale combining items. Mr. Caldwell stated it had been broken into two goals to provide reference to the Land Use chapter and he thought it was important to make reference to Chapter 3. Ms. Pope responded the public comment had included the same language and H.3 etc. were all repetitious objectives. Mr. Mehl suggested three goals; 1 general, 2 a reference to Chapter 3, and 3 affordable housing. He noted the order in which they would fall if those edits were made and suggested keeping 3.1 and removing 3.5. He suggested removing 3.6 and keeping 2.4 with a goal H.3 to “promote or encourage the provision of affordable housing”. He suggested 2.1 and 2.2 be changed to “provide and encourage”. He stated 3.4 should remain and 3.5 and 3.6 should be removed. Mr. Caldwell stated he agreed with Mr. Mehl. Ms. Costakis concurred with Mr. Caldwell and Mr. Mehl. President Pomnichowski asked if there were any comments on the Housing Appendix. Assistant Director Saunders noted which change had been made to the Appendix and noted the rest of the comments from the previous meeting had been included in the Implementation chapter. President Pomnichowski asked if placing a specific time frame in the document would be a good idea. Assistant Director Saunders responded the specificity had been included after the conclusion of a study and suggested that the study could be referenced within the document to provide clarification. Vice President Henyon stated that the additional text provided in 6.2, Intent and Background, would make more sense in the background as it seemed to be an imposing type of structure for that category of housing and suggested it would be better as a side bar. Ms. Costakis added she thought there was too abrupt a change in that location and the specific type of housing being singled out seemed odd to her; she agreed with including it as a side bar. Hearing no further public comment forthcoming, President Pomnichowski closed the public comment portion of the meeting. 2. Review and discussion of Chapter 16 - Implementation (Saunders) Assistant Director Saunders noted the locations of the recommended changes and that the page numbers would be corrected. He stated that page 8-9 specified tracking affordable housing in a policy similar to the one for Chapter 12 and he could find no duplicity. President Pomnichowski opened the public comment portion of the meeting. Seeing no public comment forthcoming, the public comment period was closed. Mr. Quinn suggested including “environmental” instead of “fiscal” or “economic”. Assistant Director Saunders explained the difference between fiscal and economic and that the primary difference would be the overall benefit to the community. Mr. Quinn responded he would instead prefer to see the word “environmental” added instead of any of the language removed. Vice President Henyon noted there was a formatting issue and explained where he had seen it. President Pomnichowski noted the same formatting should occur throughout the document. Mr. Mehl suggested the side bar should remain on one page if at all possible. Assistant Director Saunders responded the formatting adjustments would be made. Ms. Costakis stated that on page 8-9 she thought the first and the last one before Arts & Culture were the same. Assistant Director Saunders responded one of them would be removed. Ms. Costakis suggested there were a lot of actions and it seemed like some of them could be combined. Planner Saunders noted which of them could be combined. Mr. Quinn asked what the Affirmative Maintenance Ordinance was. Assistant Director Saunders responded it was an overall ordinance that stated the owner of a property must maintain it; he noted the “broken window affect” had influence when a site was not safe and secure and could invite vandalism. Mr. Quinn asked if that on page 8-15, midway through the page, and on page 8-8 the items were the same references to infill. Assistant Director Saunders responded one of the references would be the responsibility of the developer and one would be the responsibility of the City. Mr. Quinn asked if the review and revised standards would address the issue of the radius of intersection improvements. Assistant Director Saunders responded the standards would address the issue and the City Commission had approved the Draft Level Of Service Zone Code Amendment. Mr. Quinn asked if parking should be included. President Pomnichowski responded parking had been included in Land Use. Mr. Caldwell asked if the Downtown Plan would need to be directly referenced in the 2020 Plan. Assistant Director Saunders responded the Plan itself could be referenced under Action Item E #10 that would state the Downtown Plan would be an addition to the 2020 Plan. Vice President Henyon stated he wanted to see an action item and priority set for snow removal under Public Services and Facilities. Ms. Smith stated the City could only do so much. Vice President Henyon stated he did not think the City was being effectively plowed. President Pomnichowski suggested the language “review and revision of the snow removal ordinance” be included. Ms. Costakis suggested sidewalk snow removal be included in the language and asked if enforcement of that requirement had been discussed. Assistant Director Saunders responded it had been discussed and the requirement was more stringent downtown with other neighborhoods being required to complete the removal within 24 hours of the end of snowfall. Ms. Smith suggested snow removal had been covered under item 12. Mr. Caldwell noted the implementation of the items should be carefully considered and when the description included a more holistic approach, the policy and UDO discussions would need to be revisited at a later date to provide more clarification. President Pomnichowski noted compliance would be easier with a more broad description of the term. Ms. Swarthout stated she thought there would be stronger language included with regard to the inclusion of recycling. She stated she wanted the City to encourage public participation in the curbside recycling system. Assistant Director Saunders responded the issue was similar to the last discussion and the language had been included in a more general reference. Vice President Henyon stated he was not supportive of the City taking money from private recycling businesses and he was supportive of recycling, but not through the City. Mr. Caldwell stated he was supportive of including recycling language. Ms. Smith suggested including a general reference that did not name whether the recycling was done by a private or public entity. Ms. Swarthout asked Commissioner Becker to comment on why the City would not want to encourage recycling. Mr. Becker responded the curb side recycling included a public relations marketing budget that was managed by the City Collections Division along with a series of other efforts. He explained that only 1/3 of the City of Bozeman was within the scope of curbside recycling; he suggested the continuation of the collection of recyclables and non-recyclables might cause a decline in the ability to recycle at all due to the current stockpile. Mr. Quinn added that he thought the Growth Policy ought to encourage recycling but he did not think specifying curbside recycling was a good idea. Mr. Mehl stated the Clarion report had indicated key community and regional partners should be referenced and he thought the language should remain broad; adding that the level of specificity requested had not yet been brought to the table. Ms. Swarthout cited that annual household waste had been amended to include e-waste. Ms. Costakis responded she had only added e-waste and she agreed with Ms. Swarthout with regard to the inclusion of recycling. President Pomnichowski stated the personal preferences for snow removal and recycling would not be resolved at the night’s meeting and suggested the Board specify language for inclusion in the document prior to the next meeting. Ms. Smith asked Assistant Director Saunders the legalities of modifying the language to more specifically address snow removal and recycling. Mr. Mehl responded it was a visionary document and if the City decided there was a better method they would need the flexibility to interpret the language. Mr. Caldwell noted the Clarion report did not call for the elimination of specific action items, but was their recommendation for a good plan versus a bad plan. Assistant Director Saunders noted there were some implementation policies that carried specific actions. President Pomnichowski stated the Growth Policy was a document that everyone, even those outside the City, must comply with and some of the implementation policies included a mandate. Ms. Swarthout suggested the language “conduct outreach & education to maximize public participation in both city sponsored and private recycling programs” should be included. The Board concurred. 3. Release of Draft document Assistant Director Saunders noted the method by which the public release of the document would occur. He stated he would make edits in the next week and public hearings would need to be scheduled; he asked if the Board was still amenable to the previous schedule; two hearing before the Planning Board and then the City Commission hearing. President Pomnichowski suggested a display ad be included in the notice to the public. Mr. Mehl suggested the Board should see the document prior to the public hearings. President Pomnichowski agreed with Mr. Mehl. Ms. Smith noted the 30 days would be exceeded if the Board saw the Draft document in whole prior to its release to the public. Chairperson Henyon stated he would like to see the compiled document for the January 6, 2009 meeting with public hearings twice after that. Mr. Mehl suggested the first hearing be held on February 3, with the second on February 17, 2009. President Pomnichowski suggested Staff provide a draft prior to the end of the year for Board review. Assistant Director Saunders responded he had thought to have it all assembled by December 24, 2008. Vice President Henyon suggested the Draft document should be ready for City Commission review by February as a new Planning Board will have taken over by the end of February. President Pomnichowski suggested the first public hearing for the Draft could be held on January 6, 2009. Mr. Mehl stated it was his understanding that the Board would be able to review the Draft document in its entirety prior to the public hearings so he had not reviewed the materials as thoroughly as he would have liked. The Board concurred that January 20, 2009 and February 3, 2009 would be the scheduled public hearings for the Draft. Assistant Director Saunders noted that Mr. Hietela of Prospera had suggested that the language in Chapter 8 not be included in the document until the Bozeman Economic study had been completed and implemented in the chapter. President Pomnichowski stated she objected to approval of the Draft document without Chapter 8. Mr. Caldwell suggested the entire chapter could be included later as a Growth Policy Amendment. Vice President Henyon noted Prospera had indicated they would have their document complete for Planning Board review prior to the public hearing portion of the Draft Growth Policy. Mr. Becker responded the current economic conditions had made it so Prospera had to re-evaluate their information given the current circumstances and noted Prospera may still get the document to the Board prior to approval of the Draft. President Pomnichowski stated she saw no reason why the Draft document couldn’t be approved and a Growth Policy Amendment pursued to include the remainder of the language in Chapter 8. Mr. Mehl noted Prospera would not be finished with their study prior to January 6, 2009 and the study would become a part of City documentation. Assistant Director Saunders responded a prominent statement would be included to direct the public’s attention to the Prospera study. Ms. Swarthout stated there had been general acknowledgement by the Board that a Growth Policy Amendment could be pursued to include Prospera’s study in the Growth Policy. Vice President Henyon noted comments had been received from the business community as well as the Planning Board and suggested those comments be included. President Pomnichowski suggested there had already been public comment with regard to the lack of material within the Economic Chapter. Ms. Swarthout suggested there was a consensus among the Board members that Chapter 8 should be included in the Draft and a Growth Policy Amendment would be pursued at a later date to provide for the inclusion of the Prospera study. ITEM 5. NEW BUSINESS Local Organization 2020 Community Plan outreach. Mr. Mehl suggested each Board member sign up with a group that they would like to work with to discuss the Draft Growth Policy. The Board concurred. Mr. Caldwell noted the Downtown Neighborhood plan was going well and had gone through a rigorous RFP and RFQ process that had narrowed it down to a choice of three consultants. He noted interviews would be conducted and the end result would be a well funded plan. President Pomnichowski stated she was the representative to the TCC and would not be able to attend the meeting of 12/17/08; she asked for a volunteer to attend the meeting. Vice President Henyon noted he was an alternate for the TCC meeting and would not be able to attend either. President Pomnichowski noted she would be unable to attend any of the January meetings of the Planning Board due to legislative sessions. ITEM 6. ADJOURNMENT Seeing there was no further business before the Board, President Pomnichowski adjourned the meeting at 9:15 p.m. __________________________________ __________________________________ JP Pomnichowski, President Chris Saunders, Assistant Director Planning Board Planning & Community Development City of Bozeman City of Bozeman