City Council

Oroville Planning Commission Monday, October 16, 2023 The meeting was held via Zoom. Commissioners Present: Arnie Marchand, Suzi Seger, Jeff Bunnell, Alternate Alan Freed. Heather Marthaller via zoom. Absent: Valorie Johnston and Alternate Rebecca Ann Staff: Kurt Danison via zoom and Cindy Boyer. The meeting was called to order by Arnie Marchand at 4:30. Arnie asked if there were any corrections or additions to the minutes of the last meeting, hearing none, approved the minutes for the September 18, 2023, meeting. To start the meeting, Suzi brought up a couple of corrections for Kurt to make in the Comprehensive Plan Draft, Lakeview Loop was one, and in V12, Tonasket was referred instead of Oroville. First on the agenda was to combine the Downtown Element and the Economic Element together and make it more current. Kurt explained The City has benefited from Gorman Brothers coming to town and opening a big wood processing plant and Gebbers Farms buying out Gold Digger Apples helped keep the apple industry strong in the area. He believes Oroville needs to encourage the development of diverse and sustainable businesses and industries that contribute to the social and economic well-being of the community, and support sport amenities and trails. He continued to explain that the Downtown Enhancement Plan starts with the appearance of Main Street and is an indicator of a city’s economic wellbeing. He suggested The City and the Chamber of Commerce should work together to clean up the city and encourage more citizens to help promote a healthy attitude for downtown. Kurt still hasn’t been able to talk with Ashley Range, from the Housing Authority on the Housing Element since she has been on vacation. Arnie has some questions about abandoned buildings in our area and thought that Roni Holder-Diefenbach, from the Economic Alliance, should come and talk to our City Council and have the Planning Commission invited for that discussion. Next the Commission needs to look at the Land Use Designation map and compare it to the Zoning map and see what the differences are so that can be discussed at the next meeting. Jeff asked about a new flood plain map, but Kurt said that is something that will happen next year. Kurt advised that the next meeting will be November 20, and we will be discussing the zoning maps and wrap up the housing element. We won’t have a meeting in December, so plan to have a public hearing in January. Meeting adjourned at 4:55pm