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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPC Minutes 2018-06-13MINUTES PLANNING COMMISSION CþCouncil Chambers Port Angeles, Washington 983 62 fune 13,2018 6:00 p.m. REGUIIIRMEETING PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Chair Schwab opened the regular meeting at 6:00 p.m. ROLL CALL CommÍssioners Present: Commissioners Absent: Pamela Hastings, Duane Morris, Andrew Schwab (Chair), Steven Hopkins (Vice-Chair), Amy Powell, Benjamin Stanley City Staff Present: Allyson Brekke (Planning Manager), Ben Braudrick (Assistant Planner) Public Present: John Ralston, Marian Bodart COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE PUBLIC None. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Commissioner Hopkins made staff aware of a misspelling of his name and moved to approve the May 23,2018 minutes with that correction. Commissioner Hastings seconded the motion. All were in favor. ACTION/DISCUSSION ITEMS/OTHER BUSINESS l. Education: Growth Management 101 Staffplayed five videos from the Association of Washington Cities and the Department of Commerce detailing the Growth Management Act and Comprehensive Plan purpose and update process: 1. Washington Department of Commerce: Comprehensive Plan Basics 2. Association of Washington Cities: Why Your Comprehensive Plan Matters 3. Washington Deparhnent of Commerce: Implementing Your Plan 4. Washington Department of Commerce: Updating Your Plan 5. Association of Washington Cities: How do Council, Staff, and Commission Work Together from June 5th Public PlanAmendment) Chair Schwab asked Staff to review the City Council's recent action on June 5th conceming the Comp plan. Planning Manager Allyson Brekke described the City 2 I Planning Commission Minutes June 13,2018 Page 2 Council Action and discussion including the two motions made by the Council at their meeting on June 5,2018 conceming the 2018 Comprehensive Plan Amendment. Planning Manager Brekke listed options available to the Planning Commission. She suggested that the Commission look at the 2018 Comprehensive Plan Amendment and decide as a Commission whether it should move forward or be stopped. Chair Schwab asked Staff to describe the difference between an update process and an amendment. Planning Manager Brekke described the amendment process and timing schedule per the City's municipal code. The 2018 Comprehensive Plan Amendment was described asn correcting errors, including the AIA SDAT vision to the Comprehensive Plan vision statement, aciciing a timeiine to the impiementation matrix, anci inciu<iing oithe performance measure matrix. Chair Schwab asked the Commission if they felt that they adequately followed through with what they were tasked with and provide adequate time for public participation. Commissioner Hopkins made the distinction between an update and amendment process, and the need for time and public involvement. He felt discussions from the last meeting were higher level and were meant to help to realize the plan. He felt the motion was unanimously approved and that the Commission is interested in implementing the plan. Chair Schwab asked Staff what the possible options for moving forward could be. Planning Manager Brekke provided the Commission two options, (1) Stop the 2018 Comprehensive Plan Amendment process and plan review for 2019 or (2) continue the 2018 amendment and make a recommendation to the City Council. The decision on next steps could take place at a later meeting Commissioner Morris stated that there was really no discussion at all by the City Council about policy. The Council discussed how the Plan seemed cobbled together. ln2016 the City did an amazing job putting the document together. However, the City has four new members of City Council, with different and new ideas. He agreed with wanting to proceed with a more deliberate update process. The process could happen sooner than the eight year typical process. At the last meeting the Planning Commission had some of the best conversations since he started his tenure, but none of those conversations were meant as a solution. He asked what other Commissioners thought. There is work that can be done to rewrite portions of the Plan in ayear. Planning Commission Minutes June I 3, 2018 Page 3 Chair Schwab stated that the Plan was larger than a single Council or Commission. There are two decisions that need to be made. He felt like the Commission followed through with the amendment process and content they were tasked with. Commissioner Stanley did see everything proposed in the Comprehensive Plan Amendment as necessary, but the implementationportion of the update is an important piece of the plan that should be included in this year's amendment process. The Commission should keep that in. He stated that he would support larger changes based on the organization and delineation of the plan at an update process. After doing some background research, he felt like the word "Policy'' is misused. Many are high level and could replace goals. There could be clarity provided to each element and their goals/policies. He referenced APA's publication "Best Planning Practices in Comprehensive Planning". The publication lists scoring the plan, and using a matrix to better understand priority. Commissioner Hastings was of the opinion that the Planning Commission is not here to rewrite the plan, but to tune the plan up. Perhaps the City Council doesn't understand the difference between the update and amendment process. She agreed with the Chair that they accomplished what they set out to do. Chair Schwab asked what the difference is between goals, policies, and objectives. Planning Manager Brekke responded that during the 2017 Comprehensive Plan Amendment process the definitions were included for each. It was also identified that the Plan's policy statements didn't always reflect how they are defined. The process would need a substantial amount of time and public involvement. She read the definitions for goals and policies and objectives from the Comprehensive Plan. Chair Schwab asked the Commission what they wanted to do right now. He offered the option to recommend the same motion as the previous meeting. He agreed with City Council and entertained the idea of stopping the 2018 process and review the plan for a larger 2019 amendment. Commissioner Morris agreed with the City Council's opinion that the City is in compliance with 2018 GMA and the Commission should continue the amendment to 2019. Commissioner Hopkins stated that the first motion only stated that the City was in Compliance with GMA, and that the Planning Commission could reaffirm their previous position. P lanning C ommi s sion Minu tes June 13, 2018 Page 4 Commissioner Hopkins made a motion to refer City Council to the Planning Commission's May 23'd unanimous approval of PZ 18-23,2018 Comprehensive Plan Amendment, citing three conclusions in the Staff Report of that date. Recognizing the four tasks the Planning Commission \ryere assigned to review Chair Schwab seconded the motion. Chair Schwab asked if there is any discussion regarding specific to the Comprehensive Plan Amendment. Chair Schwab emphasized that the Commission does not need a unanimous vote when considering this motion. CommÍssioner Morris asked what the Commission was accomplishing with this motion. Chair Schwab stated that the Commission is reaffirming the decision that had atreaoy -been macie. The Councii motion was to stop the work that had aiready been done. Commissioner HopkÍns stated that his motion was to approve the changes to the Comprehensive Plan that had been accomplished thus far in 2018. Commissioner Stanley asked as a devil's advocate what the motion set to accomplish with the work that has already been done. Commissioner Hastings responded that it appeared the City Council was placing the responsibility of fixing the plan on the Planning Commission without providing the high level policy guidance needed to accomplish the task. Chair Schwab felt that some of the City Council were unaware what the Planning Commission was tasked with and had a different expectation for the amendment. Commissioner Stanley elaborated that the issue may be that in some ways approving a 2018 amendment is acknowledging the plan's faults. Commissioner Schwab agreed and added that there seemed to be some members of the Council that see this process as an opportunity to fix everything, whereas that is not the purpose for an amendment. Commissioner Morris stated that he had listened to the Council tape and Acting City Manager Nathan West explained very clearly the purpose of the amendment process. He didn't understand the disconnect between the explanation given by Acting City Manager West and the City Council's motion and expectations. Chair Schwab felt that the Planning Commission had done their due diligence with the recommendation they made to the City Council. Commissioner Hopkins added that many of the conversations concerning the Comprehensive Plan at the previous meeting were generally about life and the urban environment of Port Angeles. There seems to be a desire amongst the Planning Commissioners to fix larger issues, but that wasn't the purpose of the conversation. Chair Schwab asked for a vote. Five Commissioners were in approval, with Commissioner Morris in opposition. Planning Commission Minutes June i,3,2018 Page 5 3. Discussion and Recommendation: Next Steps for the Comprehensive Plan Amendment Discussion of the Comprehensive Plan review followed. Staff provided the option of continuing the conversation on the Plan's review at a future meeting, and also provided the option of a joint Commission-Council Meeting. A joint meeting could provide more direction for both groups. Chair Schwab supported sitting down with City Council to better understand what they wanted of the Planning Commission. Commissioner Hastings thought a joint meeting could help both groups understand their roles and assign responsibilities. Commissioner Hopkins added that he'd like to focus on neighborhood development implementation not line by line edits. Commissioner Stanley also supported a joint meeting. Chair Schwab asked what the meeting looked like. Planning Manager Brekke responded that there are many ways to have the meeting, the important thing was to provide an invitation to Council. She saw this as a possible annual event. There was consensus by Commissioners to have Staff arrange a joint meeting with the City Council (no motion was taken). STAFF UPDATES Planning Manager Brekke stated that Staff was planning on having the J:urlre 27 meeting to hear a Façade Grant request. Staff also intended on having a RFQ out on June 22"d for the Housing Needs Assessment. REPORTS OF COMMISSION MEMBERS Commissioner Morris approached by constituents in the community about a compiled report of short term rentals and the lack of long term rentals. The community group had compiled a list of short term rentals from Lake Crescent to Gardiner. There were over 360 listed on both vrbo.com and AirBnB.com. He provided the list to staff. ADJOURNMENT The meeting adjourned at7:57 p.m. Ben Braudrick, Secretary Andrew Schwab, Chair P lanning Co mmis sion Minu tes June 13,2018 Page 6 PREPARED BY: Ben Braudrick, Secretary åî5*T)ORT GETES W A S H I N G T O N, U.S PLANINTII{G COMMI S S ION ATTENDANCE AND TESTIMONY SIGN IN ROSTER PLEA,Sø SIGN II.{ IF you plan to testify, by signature below, you certify that the testimony given is true and correct under penalty of perjury by the laws of the State of V/ashington. If you do not plan to testify, your signature only acknowledges your presence at the meeting. MEETING DATE: Thank you! Name Address Agenda ltem # J o *n R*açp N P o%o* tlv ?4