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Date: April 20, 1995 To: Mayor Glen Hardin Councilmember Carolyn Beahen Councilmember Sheila Beyer Councilmember Kenneth Peterson Councilmember Gerald Zimmerman Ryan Schroeder, City Administrator Steve Jankowski, City Engineer Sylvia Frolik, Zoning Administrator James Gromberg, Economic Development Coordinator Planning and Zoning Commission From: David Bawden, Planning and Zoning Chairperson Subject: Comprehensive Plan Update It is my understanding that there is some concern over the overrun in the costs for the update to the comprehensive plan. The purpose of this memo is to make you aware of some of my concerns 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 Planning Commission and a subcommittee that was formed to work on the comprehensive plan, pursued the plan for several months and addressed many issues including the transportation element. This ultimately led to a joint meeting with City Council on July 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 issue to resolve however, the Economic Development Commission under the direction of Jim Gromberg proceeded to "re -invent the wheel" and address the "entire" plan and come up with their own plan. This is far beyond their charter as the Economic Development Commission and is the primary reason for the increase in consultant time and delay in the completion of the update to the comprehensive plan. Furthermore, information was requested of Jim Gromberg by the Planning Commission such as certain land values and 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 to have several committees addressing the issue then that should have occurred at the onset. This was not the case and the comprehensive plan update should have been complete in the September/October 1994 time frame, but due to the miss direction by Jim 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 staffs place to have their own agenda and pursue this agenda through the city's commissions. I can only hope that in the future that similar incidents will not occur and we can proceed in a much more orderly fashion.