09/08/2008: "CC Public Hearing Tuesday On UDC Changes"

A public hearing has been scheduled at 10:20 a.m. on Tuesday to receive comments from the public on a proposal from Community Development and Planning (CD&P) to change the regulations to allow them to make changes to county regulations outside of the normal procedures currently in effect.

The proposed ordinance will remove the requirement that changes to the Uniform Development Code (UDC) can occur only once a year when proposed changes to the Comprehensive Plan (CP) are made.

A Planning Commission hearing on this ordinance was held on January 18, 2008, (full story) at the request of CD&P Director Ron Hendrickson to allow changes to the regulations to be made more frequently than once a year.

Citizens, and some of the Planning Commission (PC) members, were very uneasy with the proposal, but in the end the PC agreed to a modified form of the request that would allow some changes.

After failed motions, it was “Moved by Brian Ehrmantraut, seconded by Barbara Thomas, to create a Recommendation that would read: The County Council pass this proposal by Community Development and Planning with the inclusion of paragraph H. 4, limit to four U.D.C. reviews a year, and add a sunset clause.

The vote by the Commission was as follows: Stephen Adams-abstained, Karin Agosta no, Barbara Thomas-yes, Bob Gamble- yes, Brian Ehrmantraut- yes, Mike Kaill no.
Motion passed with three yes votes, two no votes (Agosta and Kaill), and one abstention (Adams).

The Staff report states that to keep the process simple “recommendations of the Planning Commission were not incorporated into the ordinance.”

The reason for not allowing more frequent changes to the UDC and the CP are so citizens and staff have time to understand how any proposed changes from the public and the staff will fit together with all of the other regulations, and also so the public knows when the changes will take place -once a year, at the end of the year- without having to read the small print of legal notices.

The public hearing will be in the County Council hearing room in the Administration Building across the street from the court house.