07/28/1975 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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operates with a hearings officer for conditional use permi ts., and there is underway a study to determine whether consideration of PUDs also should be hdndled by a hearings office. .- Councilwoman.Shirey wondered whether use of a hearings officer in reviewing PUDs should be considered in conjunction with zone changes. She thought information gathered on consideration of PUDs would be useful in discussing zone changes. Assistant Manager said they could be combined but in discussions the issue would still come down to whether the Council wished each individual thing to be handled by a hearings official or by the Council. He noted the current use of a hearings offi- cial on conditional use permits was working very well. Mayor Anderson thought these policy issues could lead to some long drawn-out discus- sions. He suggested use of a questionnaire containing six to eight basic questions to be circulated among Council members to give some direction rather than debating the many issues involved. He felt a lot of time could be saved if the basic questions presented in the staff memo were answered, points of disagreement dis- tinguished, then discussion on the major points of disagreement. Councilman Bradley recognized the expediency of the suggested procedure but thought it "healthy" for dialogue to take place. Mayor Anderson said it was not his intent to eliminate full discussion, only to identify the major areas of disagreement first in an attempt to organize discussion more adequately. Councilman Bradley saw the issue only as whether the hearings off.icer or the Council would consider rezoning requests. That was the main issue, he said, the policy issue, and if a decision was made on that, subsidiary issues could then be considered. Councilman Murray didn't think it was thJt simple, that a "yes" or "no" answer on what Mr. Bradlelj considered the main issue miLfht not be so clear-cut. He agreed with t he need for full discussion but thought some de- vice to serve as a starting point, to focus discussion, would be useful. e Mr. Bradley said d.ialogue could be tailored to the four questions presented in the staff.memo. Councilwoman Beal noted the importance of zoning as an integral part of good planning. She hoped there would be co-ordinaction and input- from the planning staff .in r;eaching a decision because of the importance of this issue to general planning. <-. Councilman Murray asked for clarification of the term "Council review" as it ap- plied to decisions made by the hear.ings officer. Stan Long, assistant city attorney, said it depended upon what the Council wanted to do when looking at appeals from decision of the hearings officer - reserve the right of hearing appeals, look at the decisions again, review for errors, if so what kind, etc. Assistant Manager said his understanding was that the Council would not review decisions of the hearings officer unless parties in a zone change process filed an appeal. The Council may wish to be able to reconsider a matter on its own initiative after reviewing a hearings officer's decision. He added that at one point in discussions on the proposed change the Planning Commission had indicated it wanted the ability to enter into the review process on matters coming to the Council from the hearings officer. Mayor Anderson suggested again that the staff poll Council members as to their opinions on certain aspects regarding use of a hearings officer. Also, ask Council members to submit individually what they think might be the most critical development of such a program, recognizing that answers the Council was giving were preliminary only to bring out their thinking without taking up meeting time. e Councilman Haws wondered if the material would be prepared by the next committee meeting. Mayor Anderson didn't see that much urgency, the city had been function- ing without a hearings officer on zone changes for some time. Assistant Manager said it would depend upon the type of poll decided upon, individual interviews may be desirable. Staff would want time to work on it. -4-29 7/28/75 - 11