Minutes - Planning Commission - 01/24/2002 - Jt PC CC (2)

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Councilmember Hendriksen stated that there seems to a be a policy issue with the Council approving a Comprehensive Plan amendment on Tuesday night and then holding a public hearing for additional Comprehensive Plan amendments on a Thursday night. He stated that it seems that the Comprehensive Plan process has become a weekly process for the City. He quested when it had become an unspoken policy to change the Comprehensive Plan process from being a long range-planning tool to a"Plan of the week". Principal Planner Trudgeon replied that the City has been in the process of attempting to approve the Comprehensive Plan for some time and in December a Plan was adopted, but there had also been considerable discussion regarding land use changes that were not addressed as of yet. He explained that anytime a developer or a property owner requests and land use change the City has to act on those requests. Councilmember Hendriksen stated that what he was suggesting is that there should be some sense that when the Comprehensive Plan is approved land use change requests should have to wait until the next comprehensive plan is approved. Now the City is in a situation where they sent an amendment to the Met Council on Tuesday and now they were handling 14 more amendments only two nights later. He did not think that was an organized way to handle the situation and questioned how residents can keep informed if they are always changing things. Principal Planner Trudgeon replied that he agreed that it was not the typical way of handling things, but explained that because of the circumstances they have found themselves in this situation. Many of the requests before them had to be considered as official requests. Councilmember Hendriksen questioned if the City ever said no to any of the requests. Chairperson Nixt stated that the Comprehensive Plan process has been going on since 1997 and they have taken the time to evaluate land uses during that time, but the City had been, until recently, been having to comply with the 1993 Comprehensive Plan which was the reason for many of the amendments. The particular Comprehensive Plan they are looking to amend is the Plan approved December 18, 2002 in which the City received approval of from the Met Council. Over the several months that that Plan was being discussed the City received several requests regarding land use and that is what they are acting on. Commissioner Johnson noted that they were not going to be making any decisions regarding the amendments during this meeting and were there to take public comments and requested that they proceed with that. Chairperson Nixt verified that the meeting was a properly notified public hearing. Principal Planner Trudgeon replied that that was correct. Citizen Input Planning Commission Joint Meeting/January 24, 2002 Page 3 of 14