Planning Commission

FAIRMONT PLANNING COMMISSION The regular meeting of the Fairmont Planning Commission was held on July 20, 2016 at 7:00 p.m. at the Public Safety Building located at 500 Quincy Street. President Bill Oliver called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. and asked for a roll call of members. ROLL CALL OF MEMBERS MEMBERS PRESENT MEMBERS ABSENT President Oliver Commissioner Parker Commissioner Weber Commissioner Majic Commissioner Richardson Commissioner Straight Commissioner Blickenstaff Commissioner Miller Commissioner Greene CITY STAFF City Manager – Robin Gomez City Planner – Sandra Scaffidi Planning Secretary – Maria Cipolla President Oliver excused Commissioner Straight from the meeting. Commissioner Weber excused Commissioner Miller (he is paving) and Commissioner Parker (he is on vacation). President Oliver: Commissioner Majic has an unexcused absence [Commissioner Majic attempted to contact the Planning dept. via email after business hours]. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Approval of Minutes from June 15, 2016 President Oliver asked for a motion to approve the minutes. Commissioner Greene motioned to approve minutes. Commissioner Weber seconded. Motion carried 5-0 PUBLIC HEARING FOR JULY 20, 2016 1. General discussion regarding 10-year update of the Comprehensive Plan. Sandra Scaffidi: We have received nine proposals for our Comprehensive Plan. Hopefully, all of you received them and read through them. We did receive comments back from Commissioners Jamie Greene and Houston Richardson. Thank you very much. Our selection committee narrowed it down to two firms. We are going to speak with them tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. The Commissioners are invited to attend. It will be in the City Manager’s conference room. We selected Downstream Strategies and Mackin to interview. We are going to speak with them and narrow it down to one. I do have hard copies of the proposals if anybody would like to see one. Commissioner Weber: What is the cost for these companies? I am always concerned about what things cost. Also, what will they be doing? How long will they be doing it? What do we expect out of them? Sandra Scaffidi: Mackin is around $50,000.00. Downstream Strategies is about $54,000.00. They will be helping us update the Plan. They both gave suggestions on how they would go about that. They will be involved in the public relations aspects; helping us host public meetings; and helping us gather data such as identifying the economic indicators and the population growth. They will also be reviewing our different policies and give an outsider’s 1 prospective as to what they think is working and what is not working. This will be in tandem with our community groups working together in this process. The Commissioners, Robin Gomez, and Sandra Scaffidi, discussed further how they can reach out the public (newspapers, social media, television, city’s website) for a better turnout at the public meetings, how and where they will hold the public meetings, as well as the possibility of having the agendas advertised for the meetings so that the public is informed about what will be discussed at each one of the meetings. They also discussed reaching out to organization such as the Chamber of Commerce, the Westside Action Coalition, and Main Street Fairmont, Fairmont Community Development Partnership, Fairmont State University students, and many others to get the point of view and vision of all the generations living in the City of Fairmont. Both companies are partnering with the WVU Law Clinic. Mackin is out of Pittsburgh. Downstream Strategies is out of Morgantown. Either one will be a good fit for our town. Sandra Scaffidi: The last page of your packet is a draft calendar of events for our meetings. We had discussed having additional meetings, along with our regularly scheduled monthly meeting, getting together on the second and fourth Wednesday of every month at 7:00 p.m. We don’t have the topics scheduled yet because we are waiting on our consultant. I don’t want to work too far forward without them. These may be the dates. I know August 10th is coming up quickly. We will let you know if that one is a go or not. PUBLIC HEARING TO SET FOR SEPTEMBER 21, 2016 1. Tim Fitzwater is requesting a rezoning of his property at 1004 Bell Run Road, Tax Map 03-19 Parcels 39 and 1, from General Residential to Neighborhood Residential. President Oliver asked for a motion. Commissioner Greene moved to set the request. Commissioner Weber seconded the motion. Motion carried 5-0. 2. Marion County Board of Education is requesting a rezoning of their property from Neighborhood Mixed Use to Educational at the corner of Chamberlain and 11th Street. Tax Map 3-6 Parcel 93, Lot 25. President Oliver asked for a motion. Commissioner Greene moved to set the request. Commissioner Weber seconded the motion. Motion carried 5-0. NEW BUSINESS None CITIZENS PETITION None OTHER BUSINESS 1. Commissioners Comments: Commissioner Greene: I had some questions earlier about the packet tonight. I appreciate Mr. Gomez and Ms. Scaffidi getting back to me so quickly. Thank you. 2 2. Staff Updates: City Planner, Sandra Scaffidi: I just have one additional thing to mention about the Comprehensive Plan. After we choose a consultant, we will be discussing with them what we expect from them, and what deliverables they will be providing to us. Also, in your handbooks, Maria went through and updated it with a Policy and Procedure Handbook for the Planning Commission. This will help us clarify the rules of Planning Commission. Furthermore, I added a little article, in your packet, about spot-zoning. I know the Commission spoke about that frequently. It is only one page describing what it is and how to zone appropriately. I also wanted to reminder the Commission to look through your Comprehensive Plan Handbooks and make notes, deconstruct it, and lets us know what you like and what you don’t like; what worked for us and what didn’t work for us. That will gives us a great starting point for our consultants. We will be having plenty of public involvement in this Comprehensive Plan update. ADJOURNMENT President Oliver asked for a motion to adjourn. Commissioner Greene made a motion to adjourn. Commissioner Weber seconded it. 3