Agenda - Council - 05/09/1995 - Laserfiche WebLink

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I I I I i I I I I I Date: To: From' A~3ril 20, 1995 r M~ayor Glen Hardin C~3uncilmember Carolyn Beahen Ci~uncilmember Sheila Beyer Cpuncilmember Kenneth Peterson Ci~uncilmember Gerald Zimmerman R ~an Schroeder, City Administrator S' eve Jankowski, City Engineer S dvia Frolik, Zoning Administrator J~ .mes Gromberg, Economic Development Coordinator P,anning and Zoning Commission ,, David Bawden, Planning and Zoning Chairperson Subject: Cbmprehensive Plan Update It is my ~nderstanding that there is some concern over the overrun in the costs for the update to tile comprehensive plan. The purpose of this memo is to make you aware of some of my ~oncerns with regard to this issue and also make you aware of the hurdles that the Planning Commission has faced since the update process started on December 7, 1993. The Pla@ning Commission and a subcommittee that was formed to work on the comprehensiv~plan, pursued the plan for several months and addressed many issues including the t~ansportation element. This ultimately led to a joint meeting with City Council on Jul~ 6, 1994. The major concern that the Planning Commission had at that time was land~ use around the highway 10 area and the commission felt that the Economic Development Commission could help address this issue. This should have been a simple i~ssue to resolve however, the Economic Development Commission under the direction of ~im Gromberg proceeded to "re-invent the wheel" and address the "entire" plan and comelup with their own plan. This is far beyond their charter as the Economic Development (].ommission and is the pdmary reason for the increase in consultant time and delay in t~e completion of the update to the comprehensive plan. Furthermore, information wa~, requested of Jim Gromberg by the Planning Commission such as certain land values an~l comprehensive plan history, none of which has been received. The Planning and Zoning Commission was originally given the task and authority to advise the ,City Council on updating the comprehensive plan, if the city council's intention was t~p have several committees addressing the issue then that should have occurred at theionset. This was not the case and the comprehensive plan update should have been cor~plete in the September/October 1994 time frame, but due to the miss direction by JiG Gromberg and lack of cooperation, the plan is still not in place. I can understand that all may not be satisfied with recommendations that are made, but I don't think that it is s!affs place to have their own agenda and pursue this agenda through the city's commissi/pns. I can only hope that in the future that similar incidents will not occur and we can proceed in a much more orderly fashion.