Lately there has been a lot of debate in regards to filling vacancies on the planning and zoning commission. The city council has held off on filling the vacancy despite having multiple applicants. On Monday 2nd ward councilman Jason Thornhill brought up concerns that the job description and requirements for planning and zoning commission were vague and needed to be more specific. The most interesting thing about this whole mess is, the planning and zoning commission really doesn’t have any authority. Their vote is purely a recommendation to the city council. Recently there has been an attempt to give some power to the planning and zoning commission. If the commission votes unanimously then the item goes to the council’s consent agenda. The consent agenda is supposed to be a faster route through the planning and zoning process because it does not have public comment. This sounds really helpful except for this clause:
Any such item can be removed from the consent agenda and placed under old business at the request of a council member or any other interested person.
I understand a council member having the ability to pull an item off the consent agenda, but what exactly constitutes an “interested person”? The planning and zoning commission has authority, so long as no body that cares at all what is going on with a development has anything to say about it. So if the planning and zoning commission has no authority then what is the hold up in filling the position and all the debate about? I don’t know, it is absolutely politically puzzling.
Tags: city council, development, planning and zoning, PoliticsCategories: City Politics, Politics.
