Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutApproved Minutes - 2003-01-27 • ApplouiED City of Lake Oswego Planning Commission Minutes January 27, 2003 CALL TO ORDER Chair Vizzini called the Planning Commission meeting of January 27, 2003 to order at approximately 7:00 p.m. in the Council Chambers of City Hall, 380 A Avenue, Lake Oswego, Oregon. II. ROLL CALL Commission members present were Chair Daniel Vizzini, Vice Chair Frank Groznik and Commissioners James Johnson,Ken Sandblast,Mark Stayer, and Alison Webster. Staff present were Dennis Egner, Long Range Planning Manager; Sidaro Sin, Associate Planner; Evan Boone, Deputy City Attorney and Iris Treinen, Senior Secretary. III. CITIZEN COMMENT—Regarding issues not on the agenda. None. IV. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Vice Chair Groznik moved for approval of the Minutes of November 13, 2002. Commissioner Johnson seconded the motion and it passed with Chair Vizzini, Vice Chair Groznik and Commissioners Johnson and Webster voting yes. Commissioner Sandblast recused himself from the vote and Commissioner Stayer abstained. V. GENERAL PLANNING—OPEN WORK SESSION Outlook 2025 Comprehensive Plan Update(P 02-0001) Goal 1 — Citizen Involvement The intent of this work session is to identify specific issues related to public involvement in the City's planning process. This is a cooperative effort between the City and the citizens of Lake Oswego. This work will lead to the development of a work program to amend the Comprehensive Plan over the next few years and will be used as a framework to guide city decisions for the next 20 years. Staff Coordinator is Sidaro Sin, Associate Planner. City of Lake Oswego Planning Commission Page 1 of 5 Minutes of January 27,2003 Sidaro Sin, Associate Planner, presented the staff report. He explained the purpose of the work session was to determine the process, the reporting format and the schedule to be used to identify issues to be addressed during the upcoming periodic review of the Lake Oswego Comprehensive Plan. He pointed out that the review process had been named"Outlook 2025." He advised that periodic review,which was scheduled to begin in 2004, was mandated by the state. Commissioner Johnson related that the state Department of Land Conservation and Development was considering delaying periodic review due to budget considerations. Mr. Sin reported that the Comprehensive Plan had been adopted in 1978, the last review process had taken place in 1988, and in 1994 it had been modified in ways that were intended to reorganize it and make it more "user- friendly." He indicated that the schedule was for the Commission to hold monthly work sessions to review Comprehensive Plan goals and the Special District section. He said there would be an open house in October to review all the issues identified. He added that this public review process would solicit the participation of all stakeholder groups. He noted that the public would also be able to follow the process through material distributed to local publications and on the City's website. He indicated the final phase of the process would be to develop a work program and consider proposed amendments to the Comprehensive Plan. He presented a staff report format to be used during the review process. Vice Chair Groznik suggested that acronyms, such as "RAM" (Recommended Action Measure), and "CDC" (Community Development Code) should be initially fully spelled out in the reports so the general public would understand them. Mr. Sin then discussed Citizen Involvement. He recalled that the City already had guidelines for public involvement that had been fashioned by the Commission for Citizen Involvement; the City Code and Statewide Measure 56 described required notice procedures; and the City newsletter, the City's website and the Citizen Information Center offered information to interested citizens. Dennis Egner, Long Range Planning Manager, advised the Commissioners to consider whether Comprehensive Plan changes might need to be made because of a substantial change in circumstances; or a need to ensure that implementation was consistent with planning goals; or to correlate local issues to those of regional or statewide significance. Mr. Sin observed there was a need to continue earlier efforts to make the Code more "user- friendly;" and a need for better communication between citizens and policy makers. He said the document should reflect that in recent years the City had adopted six neighborhood plans; the Planning Commission had assumed the role of the Commission for Citizen Involvement; specialized sections of the Code had been combined into the Community Development Code; and the City had created an information center and website. He listed several Quality of Life Indicators that corresponded with the goal of citizen involvement, including the number of active neighborhood associations; the number of neighborhood plans; and the percentage of residents who were registered voters and participated in general elections. Chair Vizzini recalled the Planning Commission — Quality of Life Indicators Subcommittee had suggested additional indicators and he invited others to suggest indicators. Mr. Sin related that the City had received a suggestion that the Lake Oswego Neighborhood Action Coalition (LONAC) be listed under Goal 1. The Commissioners generally agreed to the suggested format for the staff reports and suggested that meeting minutes be included in the report files. City of Lake Oswego Planning Commission Page 2 of 5 Minutes of January 27,2003 They observed that the legal status of a Recommended Action Measure (RAM) needed to be clarified in the Comprehensive Plan. Mr. Sin then distributed a meeting schedule. Vice Chair Groznik suggested that the Commissioners consider scheduling a public open house mid-way through the process, as well as at the end. Public Testimony Sherry Finnigan, 128 Condolea Drive, Lake Oswego, 97035, recalled that she had served on the Commission for Citizen Involvement at the time the Commission had decided to apply the term "Recommended Action Measures" (RAMs) to their "wish list" of measures instead of the term "Implementing Measures." She explained they had made this choice after the staff had advised them the latter term indicated they were policies and there was a cost associated with policies. Ms. Finnigan suggested that instead of deleting the name "Commission for Citizen Involvement' (CCI) from the document the Comprehensive Plan should be amended to show that the Planning Commission had taken responsibility for citizen involvement. She noted the state mandated the City to have a CCI. She reported that although the hearing notice had stated that the information packet could be downloaded from the City website, she had difficulty downloading it. She explained that the Citizen Information Center did not have the material and she had eventually obtained it from Planning Department staff. Ms. Finnigan clarified for Vice Chair Groznik that in her experience it was sometimes a challenge to discover where to obtain hearing materials prior to the hearing. When she was asked her position on including a reference to LONAC in the Comprehensive Plan, she pointed out that LONAC was an independent organization and not an instrument of the City. When she was asked for her assessment of how responsive the City was to its citizens, she answered that her experience was that the Planning Commission was consistently responsive to citizen input. She recalled for Commissioner Sandblast that the original Comprehensive Plan mixed policies and RAMs, but RAMs had subsequently been separated in the Plan. She recalled that the Lake Grove Neighborhood Association had desired to make RAMs policies, but they had been advised against that because of the cost. Commissioner Johnson recalled that when the Old Town Neighborhood Plan was being formulated the residents believed that RAMs would offer a direction out of situations where policy was divided. Ms. Finnigan suggested the Commissioners consult with Bill Beebe, who had also served on the Commission for Citizen Involvement. John Pullen, 18 Britten Court, Lake Oswego, 97035, explained that he was the person who had suggested that the Comprehensive Plan refer to LONAC. He said that was because he had observed that City Councilors tended to rely on LONAC for policy support and organization meetings showed a large attendance. He observed that the City could rely on LONAC and the Planning Commissioners to know what plan features were not working and needed to be changed. The staff announced that the City Council planned to invite the Commissioners to meet with them on February 18, 2003 to discuss the review process. City of Lake Oswego Planning Commission Page 3 of 5 Minutes of January 27,2003 Norma Peterson, 890 "F" Avenue, Lake Oswego, 97034, recalled that when she served on the Parks & Recreation Advisory Board in 1978 she had found the CCI was very useful for citizens. She asked how it currently functioned. The Commissioners recalled that although they were previously required to meet with the CCI once a year to hear the CCI report, CCI membership faded and the Commission never had anything to report. So the Planning Commission had recommended to the City Council that the Commission be charged with acting as CCI regarding land use matters. They pointed out that they reserved a portion of each meeting for citizen comment, they were aware of the importance of encouraging citizen involvement, they scheduled open houses to solicit public comments regarding land use actions, and they met as CCI once a year. They explained that statewide planning goals required there to be a Commission for Citizen Involvement to involve the public in land use planning and land use issues, but that the Council and other City advisory bodies were charged with providing access to citizens for non-land-use-related issues as well, such as transportation and natural resources. Ms. Peterson cited the case of a developer who was allowed to build an adult living facility next to the First Addition Neighborhood even though the neighborhood believed it was not an appropriate use in that location. She held that the neighborhood had not been allowed to have that discussion at the hearing. Evan Boone, Deputy City Attorney, recalled that some testimony had been disallowed in that hearing because it was not related to applicable criteria for a decision regarding Conditional Use. However, both the neighborhood and the local business association had testified at the hearing. He indicated it was possible that some citizens had not understood the land use process or not understood that their testimony was to focus on the criteria. The Commissioners explained to Ms. Peterson that the Planning Commission served to consider and recommend broader and longer-term changes, such as a zone change or Code amendment, but the Development Review Commission was the body to hear specific land use applications and render a decision regarding a proposed development. They clarified that after an applicant had filed an application his proposal would be judged according to existing criteria, but if citizens felt that the criteria needed to be changed, the Planning Commission could recommend that it be changed and applied to future applications. Mr. Egner recalled that it was at a previous meeting when the Commissioners met as CCI that the Commissioners had fashioned the current process to examine and discuss the Comprehensive Plan with the public one chapter at a time. He anticipated the next CCI meeting would be scheduled for November 2003. He advised that the CCI reported to the City Council. Chair Vizzini recalled that one of LONAC's goals was to educate the public about how the land use process worked. Matt Finnigan, 128 Condolea Drive, Lake Oswego, 97035, related that he had served on the City Council when the Comprehensive Plan was created. He agreed that the text should initially spell out all acronyms and he suggested the use of footnotes could help make the Code more understandable. He reported that he sometimes had problems City of Lake Oswego Planning Commission Page 4 of 5 Minutes of January 27,2003 finding hearings materials at City Hall or the library. He observed that the Planning Commission had been open and willing to listen to the public. He encouraged the Commissioners to meet with the City Council at mid-stage in the review process to gain Council direction and he suggested that the staff report be distributed to the public early enough to allow citizens to prepare their presentations. He agreed that LONAC was an independent organization. He applauded the Council's effort to appoint people with differing interests to advisory boards. He explained that the provision in the Lake Grove Neighborhood Plan that required a pre-application developer/neighborhood meeting helped to identify issues associated with a proposal. He indicated that he agreed that the Commissioners should also serve as CCI because it was now a more effective body. He said that the public should be kept aware of positions taken by Council members that could impact existing zoning. Vice Chair Groznik suggested that Commission meetings be broadcast to the public. The staff agreed to research the cost of broadcasting the meetings. Mr. Finnigan suggested that the City Council/Planning Commission work session be televised. Chair Vizzini encouraged the audience to share their comments with the Commissioners. The staff offered to distribute to the Commissioners at the beginning of each meeting a summary of key discussion points from the last meeting. They also invited the audience members to sign up to receive a monthly mailed update on the review process. VI. OTHER BUSINESS ake Grove Town Center Workshop Mr. Egner reported that a public workshop to discuss detailed concepts on how to implement ideas for the Lake Grove Town Center was to be held February 20, 2003. He explained an idea for a new zone called the Village Mixed Use District. He confirmed that the City Council had discussed the feasibility of creating an urban renewal district in Lake Grove. He reported that staff had attended Waluga, Lake Grove and Lake Forest neighborhood association meetings and discussed the plan. Mr. Finnigan suggested that the staff provide materials that would show residents what the physical impact of a zone change would be. The Commissioners cautioned them to work with the community to build a consensus about change and not to jeopardize the progress that had been made thus far in the process. VII. ADJOURNMENT There being no other business, Chair Vizzini adjourned the meeting at 9:00 p.m. Respectfully submitted, . d_01----rt,-A-ra \--) Iris Treinen Senior Secretary City of Lake Oswego Planning Commission Page 5 of 5 Minutes of January 27,2003