Planning Commission

3/23/2023 - Minutes I. Call to Order Members Present: Mike O’Brien, Chair; Abby Bleything, Vice-Chair; Brendan Sage; Connor Daley City Staff Present: Eric Vorwald Guests Present: Kristine Lott, Mayor; Nate Dagesse Call to Order by: Abby Bleything Meeting Start Time: 6:33 PM Minutes Recorded by: Eric Vorwald With Mike feeling under the weather due to an illness, he relinquished the chair to Abby to run the meeting. II. Changes to the Agenda None III. Public Comment Nate Dagesse provided public comment related to parking. He stated that one of the biggest impacts to development costs is parking and that relaxing parking regulations can lead to increased housing options and affordability. He also offered to provide information to the Planning Commission related to his experiences, as a developer in Winooski, to how parking has impacted projects that he has worked on. IV. Approve Previous Meeting Minutes Eric provided information the two sets of minutes that were included with the agenda. Brendan made a motion that was seconded by Mike to approve the February 23, 2023 minutes as presented. The motion passed by a vote of 3 – 0 – 1 with Connor abstaining. Next, the Planning Commission considered the minutes from March 09, 2023. Mike made a motion that was seconded by Connor to approve the minutes as presented. The motion passed by a vote of 3 – 0 – 1 with Connor abstaining. V. Continued Discussion on Unified Land Use and Development Regulations – Multiple Sections and Consider Setting Public Hearing Eric introduced the draft changes to Article IV and indicated that the review would primarily focus on the bicycle parking included in Section 4.12 and the remaining edits to Section 6.6 on site plan review and Article IX on definitions. He indicated that Abby had provided updated information to be reviewed by the Commissioners on the bicycle parking. The Planning Commission began their review and discussed changes related to definitions for short term and long term bicycle parking. They also reviewed the specific number of bicycle parking spaces that would be required for each use. Eric also highlighted changes that were provided that were not included and explained the reasoning why. This specifically related to uses that were not listed in the table for short term and long term bicycle parking.  The Planning Commission began their review and discussed changes related to definitions for short term and long term bicycle parking. They also reviewed the specific number of bicycle parking spaces that would be required for each use. Eric also highlighted changes that were provided that were not included and explained the reasoning why. This specifically related to uses that were not listed in the table for short term and long term bicycle parking. Following this review, Eric highlighted changes to the other sections of the proposed amendments and indicated that the changes were primarily related to moving existing text into other sections of the regulations. He also highlighted several changes that were proposed by Sarah. The Planning Commission discussed these changes and recommended updates. Finally, Eric reviewed the proposed amendments to Article IX on definitions. He explained several definitions were proposed to provide clarity and others were proposed since several terms did not exist. He indicated that, in several instances, terms were used in other sections of the regulations, such as Appendix A, but were not included in the based land use regulations so those terms were being wrapped into Article IX to ensure consistency with the regulations. Following this discussion, Eric asked if the Planning Commissioners were comfortable setting a public hearing to take formal comments on the draft amendments. There was general consensus from the group to move forward with a public hearing. A motion was made by Connor that was seconded by Brendan to schedule a public hearing on the proposed amendments for April 27 th . All were in favor. VI. Begin Discussion on Section 4.4 – Design Review Given the time, the Planning Commission decided to postpone review of Section 4.4 until the next meeting. VII. City Updates Mayor Lott provided updates on Council activities including orientation, policy and priority strategy retreat on May 13 th , request for funding from the congressional delegation to support changes to the O’Brien Community Center, and indicated that the City received a clean audit. Eric provided an update on the March Development Review Board meeting related to St. Stephen’s Church and stated that a decision was anticipated in the following week. VIII. Other Business Eric noted the next meeting would be on April 13 th , and provided an update on the Housing Initiative Director position, stating that a second interview was held earlier in the week. IX. Adjourn Motion by: Mike Second: Connor Meeting End Time: 7:58 PM