Minutes - Council Work Session - 05/26/2015 - Joint

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regarding the policies and acknowledged the difficult position the Commission is placed in during this review period. Commissioner Bauer stated that there are companies that gather consumer information that may be useful to the City during this process. . 2.02: Discuss Approach for Comprehensive Plan Update Community Development Director Gladhill reviewed the staff report and the role of the different Advisory Boards and Commissions during this process. Councilmember Kuzma stated that he has attended a number of the focus meetings hosted by Community Development Director Gladhill and believes he does a great job of facilitating and gathering public opinion. Mayor Strommen encouraged everyone to think carefully about the questions, such as those in the work planning document, to ensure that the questions are able to be answered by all residents. She provided the example of using questions that everyone can answer rather than higher level planning questions that could be intimidating. 2.03: Discussion on Potential Improvements to Other Planning Commission Topics Community Development Director Gladhill presented the staff report. Commissioner Bauer stated that perhaps it would be a good idea to do a review of all the planning Ordinances as there are so many variances being issued, in order to better fit the intent of the City within the Code. Mayor Strommen suggested that staff use a prioritization level, beginning with those issues that are constantly receiving variances and delaying review on Ordinances that may not need to be amended. Commissioner VanScoy stated that at one time there was a small architectural review board that considered projects proposed for The COR and believed that perhaps there should be a discussion on whether that group be re-established. Community Development Director Gladhill stated that board was removed during the revisioning process as the City was very involved, to the point of hiring an architect to sit on that board. He stated that staff agrees that there could be benefit to re-establishing some format of that group to review applications within The COR. Councilmember LeTourneau stated that it may be beneficial to define a process where the community could be divided up into sections, noting that while some development regulations fit within certain areas of the City, those regulations do not fit well with other areas of the City. City Council Work Session / May 26, 2015 Page 5 of 7