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<br />Ms. Colbath concluded the presentation by noting that a major part of the commission’s work was <br />processing land use applications and the volume and complexity of those applications had been increasing. <br />—— <br />She said that 446 land use applicationsa 20 percent increase over the previous yearwere received <br />during the past year. She said there had been a decrease in large-scale development proposals and an <br />increase in requests to change underlying zoning. She anticipated land use applications to remain a large <br />portion of the commission’s workload. She invited questions and comments from the council before <br />proceeding to a presentation on new priorities. <br /> <br />Mr. Kelly thanked the commission and Planning staff for their difficult and thorough work. He particularly <br />thanked Ms. Colbath for her service and regretted that she was not requesting reappointment to the <br />commission. He was somewhat puzzled about Phase 2 of code amendments as he understood that <br />suggestions for amendments would be solicited from the public but the presentation suggested that a list of <br />amendments already existed and the public would be asked to help refine and narrow that list. Mr. Nystrom <br />said that Phase 2 would be community-based and no official list of amendments existed; that list would be <br />developed in the first steps of the process, which he hoped would begin in October 2006. <br /> <br />Mr. Kelly asked that the council see the entire list of potential amendments in addition to the refined list. <br /> <br />Ms. Bettman stated that she was panicked by the statement that opportunity siting and infill standards were <br />complementary but not necessarily dependent on one another. She pointed out that the original council <br />motion initiating opportunity siting as a strategy had referenced her email about protecting the existing <br />neighborhoods. She said that finding ways to downzone existing residential neighborhoods with an <br />identified fabric and character was inexorably linked to opportunity siting; it was a tradeoff and the two <br />issues went forward hand-in-hand. She felt like a scientist who had advanced an idea for the good of <br />mankind only to see it get turned into a weapon. She said that moving forward at all with opportunity siting <br />without inexorably linking it to protecting the existing neighborhoods would wreak destruction in those <br />neighborhoods. <br /> <br />Mr. Hledik replied that the Planning Commission fully appreciated that the intent of the first motion was to <br />identify opportunity sites for increasing residential density with the objective of addressing concerns about <br />increasing density within existing neighborhoods and therefore the potential for conflict with the existing <br />characteristics. He said the commission understood in that respect opportunity siting and infill compatibility <br />standards were hand-in-hand. <br /> <br />Mr. Hledik said that a second motion directed the commission to further explore infill compatibility <br />standards and through those efforts the commission had identified certain circumstances which did not relate <br />directly to opportunity siting, but where infill compatibility standards would still need to be addressed. He <br />gave River Road and the Jefferson neighborhood as examples. He said the emphasis was that the comple- <br />mentary nature of the two issues needed to be addressed but in some cases the infill compatibility standards <br />issue went deeper than being coupled with opportunity siting. He stressed that the two would not be <br />completely disengaged but the commission had found that infill compatibility in some cases had a separate <br />arena. <br /> <br />Ms. Colbath said the commission heard repeatedly in the public forum that fixing infill problems should not <br />be delayed because of opportunity siting, which could be a lengthier process. <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />MINUTES—City Council September 27, 2006 Page 3 <br /> Work Session <br /> <br />