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Page Five THE ZONIN<3 REPORT ficial or body--the elected board, the city manager or county executive, the mayor as chief executive, or the elected commissioner with authority over the community's planning- zoning function. The appointment is for a fixed term of office or at the pleasure of the ap- pointing authority. Qualification for the position is listed in the zoning code as appropriate training, experience and ability to conduct fair and proper hearings. The qualifications do not include the need to be a lav,,yer or a professional planner, ba~vyers with considerable planning practice or training or planners with considerable exposure to legal functions or strong training and experience in current planning can serve quite well. Deputy hearing examiners should be authoriz- ed. They can serve in the absence of the hear- ing examiner excused from a case due to con- ~ict of interest, illness or vacation. Since the zoning code requires zoning cases to be dock- eted on agendas to' be heard within a maximum time period, excessively long agendas might occur. The cases on long agendas can be divid- ed between the examiner and a deputy examin- er to provide each examiner adequate time to review and hear each case. Large jurisdictions might have a sufficiently large and steady vo}- ume of cases that more than one hearing exam- iner is needed permanently to hear cases year- round. The code designates how cases are assigned to examiners. If the planning-zoning office administers the examiner's clerical functions, the zoning code should assure that the examin- er assigns cases to agenda dockets, not the planning-zoning office. But cases can be as- signed tentatively by staff subject to accep- tance by the hearing examiner. Section 3. Duties and jurisdiction of the hear- ina examiner.-- This section describes the type of development applications heard by the ex- aminer, such as variances, rezonings, special uses, conditional uses, PUDs, plats and various types of appeals of administrative decisions by the zoning administrator and building official on building permits and zoning clearances. The examiner is authorized to attach reason- able conditions to any decision in a case just as the CPC and BZA had done. These condi- tions include the recommendations of the staff plats committee and the results of negotiation with the applicant, staff and objectors based on testimony and evidence presented in the hearing. For sites proposed for development, the ex- aminer must follo~' standards and guidelines set forth in the zoning code for variances, special uses and conditional uses. Conditions car, in- clude shifts of land use and densities on the site, and the phasing of development; addition, deletion or shifts in site elements, the layout of lots, blocks, building complexes and circula- tion patterns that otherwise would create ad- verse impacts; the package of 6-12 or so points relating to infrastructure and procedure recom- mended by staff many times in their review of subdivisions and site plans; agreements with abutting property owners and public agencies for sharing the financing and installation of infrastructure and its capacity and design af- fecting more the the applicant's property, sub- ject to any necessary approvals by the elected board; maintenance permanently required by the applicant after the site is developed; and site changes due to environmental and public health standards related to zoning such as hill- side and wetland development set forth in the zoning code or as recommended by environ- mental and health agencies. For preliminary plats~ the examiner can re- quire ROW :for proposed streets to be dedicat- ed or be private, subject to the standards of development codes and the rules of the public engineer and can accept the method of instal- lation of infrastructure or performance bond as authorized by the subdivision code. For final plats, the examiner can accept dedication of ROW and.various types of easements if he is authorized to accept final plats. For each'type of application, the code speci- fies whether the examiner decides it or recom- mends a decision on it to another body that decides it. The zoning code allows the examin- er to pass on a case for any reason. A deputy January 7, 1994 Issue