Planning Commission

MINUTES Laramie Planning Commission April 13, 1999, 4:00 p.m. Council Chambers, Laramie City Hall Regular meeting of the Laramie Planning Commission was held Tuesday, April 13, 1999, at 4:00 p.m. in Council Chambers of Laramie City Hall. I. CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL Members present: Doug Bryant, Carole Aspinwall, Everett King, Natalie Miller, George Bach Members absent: Jeanette Reisenburg, Jodi Guerin, Lucas Ratliff, and Ken Patel Staff present: Andy Kasehagen, Planning Manager; Mary Beth Thompson, Planner; and Sherryl Schilling, Acting Secretary Public present: Johnny W. Kuhn, KN Energy II. APPROVAL OF AGENDA The agenda was approved. III. APPROVAL OF MINUTES On motion, the minutes of the March 9, 1999 were approved as distributed. IV. CITIZEN COMMENTS - Non-Agenda Related Topics There were no citizen comments. V. DISCLOSURES There were no disclosures. VI. CURRENT PLANNING PROJECTS There were no current planning projects. VII. LONG RANGE PLANNING PROJECTS A. Consideration of Establishment of a City of Laramie Business Revitalization Zone A. Kasehagen explained that no action was needed at this time but that he wanted to provide some background information on the program that this zone designation is intended to facilitate. SBA Section 504 Loans is an annual federal funding program that Laramie has not taken advantage of previously. This is a low interest loan designed for small business start-ups and LPC April 13, 1999 Page #2 small business expansions. The criteria are broken down into rural areas and urban areas that meet low to moderate income or poverty income guidelines. Laramie is one of three communities in Wyoming that is designated as an urban area even though we don’t have a population of 50,000. The 50,000-population limit makes a community an “entitlement community” where you get a direct annual stipend from the block grant program monitored and administered by HUD. Laramie needs to develop a revitalization plan for small businesses as well as a zone designation for that area in order to participate in this program. One of the key things that this program will provide to Laramie is an increase on an annual basis of $250,000 available for low interest loans. Currently, Laramie can apply for up to $750,000 and this program will enable small businesses taking advantage of the program to apply for $1,000,000. Several of the local financial institutions have been very interested in this program recently. LEDC, Chamber of Commerce, DDA, UW, Territorial Park, and other economic development related organizations in the community are interested in making Laramie eligible for this program. One of the requirements appears to be a review and approval of the revitalization plan and zone by the Planning Commission for a recommendation before going to Council. A. Kasehagen said that he would research this program further in order to provide a staff recommendation at a future meeting. B. Consideration of City/County Cooperative Planning Issues and Planning Area Boundary A. Kasehagen provided an update on the ongoing efforts in cooperative planning around the City of Laramie. Based on recent discussions between the City Council and the County Commission, continued cooperative planning has been expressed as a major goal of both entities. In order to re-initiate the cooperative planning process, the City and County Planning staffs met with the chairs and liaisons of both Planning Commissions on April 7, 1999. Discussion at this meeting focused on how to proceed with setting and resolving planning issues in order to provided recommendations back to the City Council and the County Commission. The recommended method was to form a working group similar to the one used during the 201 IGA rewrite process. This cooperative planning working group will consist of the Chairs and Vice Chairs of the Planning Commissions and their liaisons. The County and City Planning directors will serve as staff to the group. C. Resignation C. Aspinwall stated that she will be moving to another state and will have to resign from the LPC. She will submit a written letter of resignation to the Planning Office. LPC April 13, 1999 Page #3 VIII. ADJOURNMENT On motion, the meeting was adjourned at 4:45 p.m. ____________________________________ ______________________________ Doug Bryant Sherryl Schilling Chairman Acting Secretary