Highlights of the January 18 County Planning and Zoning Commission
Goal-setting Meeting.
>From Suvia Judd to 20/20 visionaries and friends:
Summary of County Commissioners' Suggestions to P & Z
= Revisit Comp. Plan; incorporate good suggestions of citizens from
December hearing before Co. Comm. (Greene).
= So-called one per forty rule is not having effect of protecting
farmland and violates rights. Farmland must be protected even if
rights have to give. However, use non-productive land for houses.
Revisit Moscow area of Impact agreement; prevent leapfrogging near
city. 2- 5 acre lots should be available somewhere (DeWitt).
1/40 rule has perverse result of preventing families with two dwelling
on one parcel from upgrading (e.g. replacing mobile home). This is
unforeseen side effect of 1993 subdivision ordinance and can be fixed
by a revision of the non-conforming use ordinance to treat dwellings
differently from commercial uses (drafted). (Spangler, Asst.
Prosecutor Whitney, Planner Billington).
Relations between two boards got off to a cordial start. I hope the
County Commissioners accept Whitney's offer to explain the old and new
subdivision ordinances with concrete examples. P & Z asked the County
commissioners for a memo outlining priorities for action of the Comp.
Plan.
Interjection by Whitney that new taking rulings by US. Supreme Court
require watching by counties.
Invitation to Public to Comment (attending: me, Pricilla Salvant, Barry
Ramsey)
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Suvia's presentation to P & Z:
I asked P & Z to:
1. Pick up on rural residential rezone process, as follows: (a)
Invite Bill McLaughlin to present UI survey results, (b) finish and
distribute newspaper insert for two-way communication with public. (c)
consider committee's recommendation for managing rural residential
growth; (d) arrive at concrete proposals, re-test on public direct
growth; (e) arrive at concrete proposals on re-test on public direct
staff to write ordinance.
2. Revisit Comp Plan, and give clearer protection to farmland in
"Rural Area" (a) Get on an ongoing Plan revision schedule, (b)
establish benchmarks for annually evaluating progress towards goals.
3. Pick one P & Z project to try a different approach to public
participation, such as community-based planning.
On questioning from Planner Billington I said that advantages of
community-based planning are a.) many heads better than one, and b.)
sense of ownership in outcome. Chair. Carl Mickelsen said he has been
doing a lot of thinking, and believes that the places where maximum
democracy is needed is at the start of the planning process where
community values are decided upon. Skyler Schlueter (Genesee) was
afraid that more participation would mean increased voice for activists
like me with one point of view. Ably refuted by Mickelsen and Hoey
Graham.
Result: I am invited to arrange a one hour presentation to P & Z
on enhanced public participation/community- based planning for the 2nd
meeting of March or April. I agreed to produce two local professionals
with POSTED different methods to speak. They should be people BY
KB who can go on to donate time to lead the county in a pilot of new
process. I am hoping one speaker will be Tom Hudson. Please contact
me with suggestions for another speaker. I note that Planner
Billington made clear later that he expect the pilot to be the Comp. Plan
process. This makes sense to me because of the obvious
need to articulate community values.
Presentation by Loreca Stauber on P & Z Behavior and Process.
The gist of her presentation was that P & Z members need to watch their
conduct. Members need to be more civil and professional with people
testifying and with each other. Discussion followed. Some debate on
value of cross examination versus other styles of eliciting facts from
those testifying at hearings. Doug Whitney suggest P & Zers visit
court when land use cases are being tried, to see lawyers' cross
examination techniques, and to see how P & Z's quasi-judicial holdings
are treated in court.
Useful results: Members resolved to call each other on inappropriate
behavior either informally after hearings or in a brief self-critique
session after hearings. Doug Whitney will give an update/review on
legal/ethical conduct requirement for P & Z members, cover _ex parte_
contacts, the open meetings act, conflicts of interest, etc.
Planning Department's Goals (Objectives) for the Year. Gerard
Billington present his goals for the year. P & Z (tiring) went along
with this. Gerard plans to rewrite the zoning, subdivision, and
manufactured housing ordinances, (taking out discovered bugs in 1993
subdivision ordinance), and combine into one ordinance. He plans to
proceed in stages, incorporating new directions from P & Z as they are
ready.
Meanwhile, in his view, P & Z will: a. Hold regular hearings, b. work
on rural residential rezone issue (which will probably widen to include
Co. Commissioners' concerns about the 1/40 rule), c. restart Comp plan
process (probably not for at least 2 months).
Gerard and staff will focus on: a. processing applications,
b. ordinance rewriting, c. staff support for P & Z's projects. (There
will be minimal staff support available for enhanced public
participation he warned me.)
*ALERT*
Rural Residential Rezone Committees 1 & 2, which several 20/20 members
served on, will be presenting/reviewing their work products to P & Z on
February 15th. How this meeting goes could determine how we balance
housing development and farming/open space in the county. Please
re-read the proposals of Committee 1 and come participate. If you have
better solutions, great. I think the public needs to provide P & Z and
Co. Commissioners with a menu of well spelled out alternatives.
Note: P & Z schedules. Generally, 1st meeting of the month is on the
1st Wednesday is hearings, and 2nd meeting is on the 3rd Wednesday is
planning. This winter, meetings as follows: January 25th - hearings,
February 1st - hearings, February 15th - Rural Residential Re-zone
discussion, March 1st - hearings, March 15th - planning, possibly
presentation on public participation.
I am not on Net. Please contact me through Fritz. or at PO Box 8665,
Moscow, ID 83843 or 882-4785.
P.S. I learned at the meeting that Cameron "Farms" has reapplied to
create subdivision of 5 acre lots on Idler's rest Road, in addition to
having sold off much of the land in forties. I pray that the new
Commission and the new Plan are strong enough.