Planning and Zoning Commission

Lake Havasu City Jim Liesen, Chairman Mychal Gorden, Vice-Chairman Lake Havasu City Police Facility Don Bergen 2360 McCulloch Blvd North Doug Hardy Special Meeting Minutes - Final Lake Havasu City, Arizona 86403 www.lhcaz.gov Dan McGowan Chad Nelson Lucas Still Planning and Zoning Commission Christy Cunningham, Alternate John Kendig, Alternate Allen Windholz, Alternate Tuesday, July 22, 2014 2:30 PM Special Meeting 1. CALL TO ORDER Mr. Bergen called the meeting to order at 2:33 p.m. 2. ROLL CALL Present: 5- Donald Bergen, Dan McGowan, John Kendig, Christy Cunningham and Doug Hardy Absent: 4- Chairman Jim Liesen, Chad Nelson, Lucas Still and Mychal Gorden 3. CORRESPONDENCE AND ANNOUNCEMENTS Mr. Schmeling introduced and welcomed Mr. Doug Hardy, the newest Planning & Zoning Commission member. Mr. Schmeling also reported that Mr. Gorden had called and said he was sorry he couldn’t be here, but he is traveling back from Minnesota. Mr. Schmeling stated that at the last Commission meeting, members expressed concern regarding the Commissions’ early involvement, as well as the lack of media attention regarding the Development Code update. As a result we promised to give you an update. We had an opportunity to have the consultants in town and we are taking advantage of that by scheduling a public hearing and having them present to you today. To date, Clarion has provided us with an evaluation of our existing code and some proposed suggestions. Next, Mr. Schmeling introduced Don Elliott and Kristin Cisowski, with Clarion Associates. 4. PRESENTATION BY CLARION ASSOCIATES ID 14-0390 Development Code Revision Status Presentation by Clarion Associates Following his introductory remarks, Mr. Elliott presented a PowerPoint slideshow to the Lake Havasu City Page 1 Printed on 1/7/2015 Planning and Zoning Commission Special Meeting Minutes - Final July 22, 2014 Commission covering the following key points: • Project Overview • Project Goals • Development Code Overview • Development Code Evaluation • Proposed Zoning Districts • Staff Draft of Development Code • Public Draft of Development Code • Refinement & Adoption 5. PUBLIC HEARING TO DISCUSS DEVELOPMENT CODE UPDATE At the conclusion of the PowerPoint presentation, Mr. Bergen thanked Mr. Elliott for providing information about how Clarion looks at updating the plan. Mr. Bergen opened discussion by sharing key concerns and comparisons between the 2002 and 2014 General Plan projects, including but not limited to: • Description of the make-up of the 2002 General Plan Advisory Committee • Specific numbers of meetings and public participation numbers for 2002 General Plan project • 2002 technical assistance provided by an outside agency • Clarions role in the 2014 General Plan update • Concerns regarding limited outreach to the community beyond special interest groups • Lake Havasu City citizens should be providing the guidance in the plan development Mr. Kendig described his early involvement with the project and the initial meetings with Clarion Associates and the other citizens at the table. Additional concerns and comments included some of the following: • Clarified that the Planning Commission is not sitting as a “rubber stamp” group • Concern that the City is missing the public audience needed for this project • People don’t need to be on a board or commission but can be an active participant in this process • Expressed pride and admiration to the people who are showing interest in the process Mr. McGowan detailed several examples of what he feels are some of the biggest issues the Planning & Zoning Commission is faced with today, which are “grey” areas. He provided examples such as: • Assisted living facilities for elderly people • Sober living facilities in residences without proper permitting • Discussions regarding chicken coups in residential areas and impact to neighbors Mr. McGowan’s comments were directly related to the lack of authority or enforcement that is available to the City in the grey areas. He stated the Commissions’ job is to protect the whole Lake Havasu City Page 2 Printed on 1/7/2015 Planning and Zoning Commission Special Meeting Minutes - Final July 22, 2014 community. Ms. Cunningham joined the discussion by explaining how and why she became interested in serving on the Planning Commission. Next, she had questions for Clarion, some of which were: • The General Plan update is because of the 50,000 population; where can we find information about the state requirements? • Where can we find information telling us what we have to comply with? • What are the new elements we have to add to the plan? Mr. Elliott responded that it is the state website and he would be happy to send the information from the contract proposal portion that details what the city has now and what the state requires the city to have. Mr. Froslie clarified that regardless of the population increase we are mandated to update the General Plan. Crossing the 50,000 population threshold means we have to add chapters to our existing General Plan because we have more people. We would be doing this with or without the 50,000 population threshold being met. Mr. Kendig and Mr. Elliott had further conversation regarding the timing of the measurement of the population threshold. Mr. Elliott clarified that the latest census is the measurement used. To recap, Mr. Elliott stated he heard Mr. Bergen loud and clear, that he wants to make sure the General Plan truly reflects the values of the citizens in 2014 the same way it did in 2002. To summarize, it will take a longer period of time and a very concerted public involvement effort. What I think has happened in the past is that several times you have had plan updates. Then you have had amendments to the Zoning Code and they have never been brought together or updated at the same time. When we looked at this opportunity to work for Lake Havasu City- I will now paraphrase- the City said our Plan needs updating and our Code needs a complete rewrite. I think part of the reason why the City in the original contract decided to have the General Plan update more quickly than it did in 2002 was that there was a general sense that many of those values are a shared value of the city, that they did not have to reinvent that process as long as it was in 2002. You may disagree with that but in general I think the sense was we know we need an update, we know some things have changed and both of these items have to happen. The thing that is killing us on a daily basis is the grey areas and an inability to govern our city well through the Development Code. Mr. Froslie stated Mr. Elliott’s remarks were fair and accurate. Mr. Bergen, I would like to point out that when we contracted with Clarion, the first thing they did was to organize and meet with approximately 60 people from those groups that you mentioned earlier. Three or four of those folks sit on the Planning Commission and from those initial stakeholder meetings we developed lists for two different Technical Advisory Committees. One was to assist with the General Plan and one to Lake Havasu City Page 3 Printed on 1/7/2015 Planning and Zoning Commission Special Meeting Minutes - Final July 22, 2014 assist with the Development Code rewrite. Since that time they have reviewed the Development Code and they are here to submit their initial findings. You heard earlier in Don’s presentation that the General Plan document, similar to the one we are here today reviewing, comes in September. At that point he will be back here presenting issues they found in the General Plan. We have a 12 member committee for the General Plan and that is when that activity will start. We started with the Development Code first and that is why we are here today. Mr. Elliott began his closing remarks including comments such as: • He believes in local government • He believes citizens should be able to understand the code and come to the same conclusions that staff or the commission come to • Future public participation will be critical as we bring modules back • We post all footnotes of any changes and those are carried over from the current code. That information is available for your review on the website • When we bring back a presentation we highlight the biggest changes, significant policy judgments • We believe in full disclosure Mr. Bergen stated he appreciates Clarion has put a lot of work in on this. His closing comments included some of the following: • I would like to see more public input • The Planning Commission has not had the opportunity to give input to Clarion • I would like to see more current technology, online input • Most people are working and can’t make many of the meeting times • The Planning Commission could have been involved earlier during canceled meeting dates Mr. Elliott summarized that it is most helpful to get comments by a set date but that they will take comments at any time. It is never too late to comment until the document is adopted. We prefer the comments go to staff and staff forward comments to us. That keeps everyone in the loop regarding the comment information and the manner in which our time is being used for this project. Mr. Kendig complimented the City Attorney’s office for the support that office has provided during the Planning Commission meetings and his desire to see more City Council members present at the Planning & Zoning Commission meetings. He stated that it is up to Council to finalize what they have sent to them, to agree with or disagree with. In closing, Mr. Elliott stated they have in the budget, a certain amount of trips they can come down here. They will stretch that as far as they can, but they will never pass up an opportunity to brief the Commission when you want it. Obviously the same goes for City Council. These things go much more smoothly when you can have discussions along the way and not wait until the last part of it. Usually this approach to writing the Development Code is successful, meaning over 95% of Lake Havasu City Page 4 Printed on 1/7/2015 Planning and Zoning Commission Special Meeting Minutes - Final July 22, 2014 the time Council adopts it. The reason we think, is that this process allows the issues that are a concern to people to surface along the way. This is why we prefer to get a draft in front of people, because it is much easier to comment when you can see the judgments that are being made. Mr. Bergen directed to Mr. Elliott, that when you are meeting with the Planning Commission to give us an update on what you are doing, I would like you to also say “this is how we plan to change this to this, what do you think about it?”. Mr. Elliott responded he agreed. Mr. Bergen opened the meeting to the public. Cassandra Cunningham: I appreciated the presentation, it seemed very thorough. I have a few concerns of my own. I echo your concern with the community involvement and that includes timing. I am fortunate enough to be able to come at this time in the afternoon but my husband isn’t as well as the majority of our working friends. The other concern with that is that it is summer and a lot of our residents who tend to have a very strong opinion are not in town right now. That concerns me about the date of adoption scheduled for next summer. I don’t know that that is good timing and I would ask that we postpone that until fall or try to expedite it in spring. I don’t know how much this will be effected, but we are looking at an election. If we have a drastic change in our council members or mayor and they don’t agree with where we are going could this whole thing be scraped and be for not? My own personal concern is that I heard for manufacturing he wanted one district and I don’t know if that is in the current plan but I know a frustration I have heard from several local business owners is that the manufacturing is so limited. There is not much M1P property available for people who want to expand industrial. I personally and for my husband, would like to see more availability for M1P. Mr. Bergen stated if there were any change in Council that what is being required here is state law and it has to be done. Steve Van Ella: I have lived here 17 years and I have a business here in town on Main Street. I know one of the reasons my wife and I moved here was the town being more of a touristy town than your average town and the growth of the town. We fell in love with it. Over the 17 years I have been in construction and I have always heard the complaints of contractors of the building codes and I hope the experts like Clarion can come in and straighten up some of this mess. This is really just growing pains of the town and with all the money that has been invested with the CVB and all the people coming I think we really need to get this straightened out for future growth. Lake Havasu City Page 5 Printed on 1/7/2015 Planning and Zoning Commission Special Meeting Minutes - Final July 22, 2014 Mr. Bergen closed the public hearing. 6. CALL TO PUBLIC None. 7. FUTURE MEETING - AUGUST 6, 2014 Mr. Schmeling confirmed the next regularly scheduled Planning Commission meeting would be held on August 6, 2014 at 9:00 a.m. Additionally, on August 12, 2014 at 4:00 p.m. there would be a Code Enforcement work session. 8. ADJOURNMENT Mr. Bergen adjourned the meeting at 3:50 p.m. __________________________________________________________ Jim Liesen, Chairman __________________________________________________________ Diane Libby, Recording Secretary Lake Havasu City Page 6 Printed on 1/7/2015