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planning commission has become an advocate of a certain interest group rather than representative of the total community. Local planning commissions usually vary in size from five to fifteen members. The County Plan- ning Act specifically states that thc planning commission must consist of from five to eleven members. Fur.thermorc, not more than one of thc members shall be an officer or employee of the county and at least two members must reside in the unincorporated portion of the county. The Municipal Planning Act does not indicate a specific number for a planning commission, presumably leaving it to each community to determine for itself the number of members of thc commission. In determining the size, consideration should be made to obtain a representative .sample of the citizens in the community, while at the same time not making it so large as to make its operation unwieldy. In general review of municipal ordi- nances and resolutions, seven to nine members were found to be the numbers that appeared most often. A recent survey of counties showed that most county planning commissions consist of eleven members. In addition, the size may vary depending on the degree of urbanization of the community - a small, rural community may get along with, or desire, a smaller planning com- mission than a large, urbanized community. B. POWERS OF A PLANNING COMMISSION Under Minnesota state enabling legislation, a local planning commission is advisory in nature; that is, advisory to the county board, city council or town board. The major exception to this is that counties may, if they so choose, designate the commission as the final authority on conditional use permits, and some counties have elected to do so. Thus, the planning commission cannot make binding di~cisions for the county, city, or township it can only recommend that certain actions be taken by the elected officials. The elected officials in their deliberations, however, should carefully consider the recommendations of the planning commission. Unfortunately, in some communities the local elected officials fail to consider properly the recomq~endations of the planning commission or consistently overrele its recommendations. The result is often a loss of interest, resignations, and high turn-over rate among planning commission members which usually adversely affects the whole planning process.' -10- C. FUNCTIONS OF A PLANNII~IG COMMISSION The major function .of a planning commission is to o~sist the local officials in developing, reviewing and analyzing programs and development pro- posals. The time demands on local officials from a variety of matters related to community.affairs-is usually so heavy that the officials have little time to devote to planning and development matters. Consequently, the planning commission can usually provide a more careful review of planning programs and development proposals and give valuable advice to the local officials. A second major function of the planning com- mission is to educate the local officials on planning and development matters. This is a valuable, but often overlooked, function of a planning commission. A planning commissioner who takes his or her responsibility seriously often learns much about planning and development concepts and standards in frequent contacts with developers and technical planning and engineering staffs. This information can and should be passed on to local officials at regular meetings established between the local officials and the planning commissioners or through written communications in formally reviewing planning programs and development proposals. Since the chief duty of a planning commission is to assist the elected local officials in the decision- making process, the planning process must be relevant both to day-to-day issues as well as the long-range issues, and a proper balance must be established between the two. The long-range policies are needed to establish the framework for the day-to-day decisions to bring about a properly coordinated approach to planning and develop- ment. On the other hand, the planning com- mission must also be prepared to assist the local officials in the short-range, day-to-day issues in a practical manner.