HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Planning and Zoning Commission - 8/1/2006 APPROVED MINUTES
PLANNING COMMISSION
REGULAR SESSION
August 1, 2006
TOWN COUNCIL CHAMBERS
11000 NORTH LA CANADA DRIVE
REGULAR SESSION AT 6:00 PM
1. Call to Order
2. Roll Call
PRESENT: Chair Pete Bistany
Vice Chair Doug McKee
Commissioner Bill Adler
Commissioner Ray Paolino
Commissioner Clark Reddin
Commissioner Teree Bergman
ABSENT: Commissioner Honey Pivirotto
ALSO PRESENT: Al Kunisch, Council Member
K.C. Carter, Council Member, P&Z Liaison
Sarah More, FAICP, Planning and Zoning Administrator
3. Call to the Audience (Non Agenda Items Only) Opened and Closed at 6:02 p.m.
There were no speakers.
4. Minutes
MOTION: Commissioner Bergman MOVED to approve the July 6, 2006,
Planning and Zoning Commission regular meeting minutes with the following
correction (Per Commission instruction: Bill Adler asked that on page 13 of the
minutes, next to the last paragraph, add in before "as an example", that the SIP is
five years of work and we are obligated to update the General Plan every five
years.) Commissioner Reddin seconded the motion as annotated by
Commissioner Adler. Motion carried 6 yes, 0 no.
5. Continued, Discussion and Action on the Planning and Zoning Work Plan.
Ms. More presented the Planning and Zoning Work Plan and priorities. Neighborhood
cleanup, which was not put on the work plan, received funding from Town Council and
will be administered by the Zoning staff. Save-a-Plant will be transferred from the
Planners to the Zoning staff as well. An intern will be hired this fall to help.
August 1, 2006 Approved Minutes, PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION 2
The items below #7 are indicated not for this fiscal year. A possible exception is the
Residential Districts because of concern about compliance with the federal law titled
Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA).
Several items in the medium to low priority were carried over from prior years and
Design Guidelines were added per the Commission's direction.
The SIP is supposed to be looked at every 5 years, but does include 20 years of work.
The Town's perspective on priorities may change and should be looked at every year.
There is a potential for three PAD/GP amendments coming forward in the next year.
Chair Bistany had each of the Commissioners present their ideas of what should be
added, moved in priority, and/or changed so a consensus can be formed of what can be
forwarded to Town Council for approval.
Commissioner McKee:
• Save-a-Plant — Should this be dropped from the schedule entirely? There are
other groups that are doing the same thing.
• Facilities planning —Whose responsibilities is this?
• Recreational areas and trails — Re-examination of in-lieu fees and how they are
calculated.
• Riparian Habitat— Remapping.
• Zoning Code cleanup — This should include references caused by the addition of
the Minor Land Division.
Commissioner Bergman:
• Zoning Code cleanup — Submittal requirements should be separated from the
Code for ease of changing. Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons
Act (RLUIPA) should be moved to a higher priority. Code cleanup is an ongoing
thing.
• Recreational areas — In-lieu fee payments are common and useful and should
not be removed. Size of development and/or number of lots could be used to
determine what in-lieu fees should be.
• Environmental Sensitive Lands (ESL) — This should be done to the extent
needed to properly implement the General Plan. Look at what can be done by
staff and be cost effective.
Commissioner Reddin:
• Save-a-Plant —This should be off loaded to an outside group.
• ESL — Mapping may not be high priority. He did not feel a lot of time should be
invested in 4A-4D but use the boards and commissions to evaluate.
• Open Space —This should be addressed at a later date.
Chair Bistany:
• He felt the most important item is the land to the north of Oro Valley, which will
be ongoing project.
August 1, 2006 Approved Minutes, PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION 3
• Zoning Code cleanup — He thanked Commissioner McKee's for all his efforts.
• ESL— If this is not cost effective, it should be removed.
• In-lieu fees should be reviewed.
Commissioner Paolino:
• He agreed with most of the comments made by the Commissioners who have
already spoken.
• ESL —This is where it should be on the schedule.
• Open Space Preservation Acquisition Plan — State Land will be the big item.
• #5 and #6 overlap each other.
Commissioner Adler:
• Save-a-Plant — Other organizations are operating illegally. He is against
abandoning this program because beneficiaries of the program are the
neighborhoods and communities of Oro Valley. The program could be operated
by volunteers and the Town not even be involved.
• ESL — The four components can be broken up, with #1 and #2 as high priorities
this year and #3 and #4 deferred to a subsequent year.
• Citizen Planning Institute (CPI) and Neighborhood Cleanup — These should be
suspended temporarily so that staffs time can be diverted to updating the
recreational code. The recreational code needs set aside areas for recreational
opportunities. He is against in-lieu fees.
• Recreational areas —This needs to be elevated to a higher priority this year.
• Design Guidelines — This should be raised in priority to this year as it will become
increasing relevant with the State Land planning. We need concepts to reflect
ideas about new urbanism, sustainability and mixed use design.
• Zoning Code cleanup items that should be addressed:
✓ SOB ordinance CUP criteria
✓ Conceptual plan submittal — conceptual needs to be defined. What level
of commitment are we making by approving a conceptual plan?
✓ General Plan initiation process needs definition.
Chair Bistany read a memo from the Legal Department regarding the SOB ordinance
and asked that a copy be attached to the minutes and copies mailed to all
Commissioners.
The Commissioners, with the exception of Commissioner Adler, felt that the CPI is a
worthwhile program whereby citizens can become familiar with the Town and should be
continued.
Commissioner Bergman said there are important things that need to be done, but staff
has limitations. Design guidelines are a huge project and are commonly given to
consultants to do.
Recreational areas are important, but there is a certain size subdivision where
payments ments in lieu of dedication are not optional. Smaller subdivision's payments in lieu
August 1, 2006 Approved Minutes, PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION 4
of dedication are much more useful than odd pieces of land that become maintenance
and insurance issues for neighborhoods and the Town.
Commissioner McKee suggested identifying potential riparian areas that should be
expanded.
Ms. More said the Work Plan should be focused on the fiscal year rather than the
calendar year. Discussion of the Work Plan should be prior to Town Council and staff
working on the budget for the next year. We need to get back on track with the
schedule.
In the Council discussion of Planning and Zoning projects, CPI and neighborhood clean
up were the only two items that generated a lot of questions and concerns to make sure
they were going to be done. That budget is already established for this fiscal year.
The key thing with Save-a-Plant is to make sure whatever is being done is done
correctly and according to State Law. There is some money available that would be
used primarily to provide for supplies and to pay an intern to organize volunteers.
Commissioner McKee shared Commissioner Adler's concern on the conceptual plans.
The code could be written differently, or the Planning and Zoning Administrator and
DRB could refuse to give official approval of conceptual plans.
Commissioner Reddin said conceptual plans are brought to the Town when developers
know there are issues that need to be looked at, i.e. riparian areas, mixed use, etc.
Those items can be addressed before tentative plats are presented. It is a valuable
tool.
Commissioner McKee stated regarding the CUP for SOB, that there is no basis for
when to approve or not.
Commissioner Bergman said from the standpoint of how ordinances should be
constructed, the entire CUP process in our ordinances is way off base in everything
that is permitted as a conditional use, not just sexually oriented businesses. All of them
should have a set of criteria that are used specific for the Commission to consider. This
would be another project.
Commissioner Adler said it is a question of legal defensibility.
Chair Bistany suggested that after the Commissioners review the memo from the Legal
Department if they feel the issue needs to be addressed, it can be brought back at that
time.
Ms. More told the Commission that regarding the General Plan amendment relating to
the State Land, that it will probably be started by late 2007 or early 2008.
Ms. More stated that regarding reusable energy sources and water, such as solar, wind,
etc., that she thinks home owner's association CC&Rs are most restrictive. The code is
August 1, 2006 Approved Minutes, PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION 5
fine. Grey water, cisterns, and things like that may be an issue, but have been
approved by Pima County. Reclaimed water as a secondary source for each house is
not cost effective and does not save enough water. The Town has a very good plan for
reclaimed water. Water harvesting is fine in the code. It might be interesting to have an
audit of the code for that, but it is an overlap with building codes, street standards and
zoning codes.
MOTION: Commissioner Paolino MOVED to forward the Planning and
Zoning Work Plan on to Town Council with the changes as outlined in the
following summary:
• Move Recreation Areas up in priority to this fiscal year in place of Open
Space Preservation and Acquisition Plan. Examine the in-lieu fees for:
How fees are calculated and what the threshold should be.
• Consolidate the Environmentally Sensitive Lands to do the Riparian Habitat
Overlay District and Viewshed Preservation this fiscal year and Wildlife
Corridors and Scenic Corridor Overlay District Revisions at a later date.
Commissioner Bergman seconded the motion. Motion carried 5 yes, 1 no.
Commissioner Adler voting no.
Ms. More will send a copy of the revised Work Plan to all the Commissioners.
6. Planning Update
• Items on the Town Council agenda include:
o A 21 lot subdivision, Sunset Canyon recreation area in-lieu fee and the
companion final plat.
o Canada Vistas' final plat for the Hohokam Mesa single family and Retreat
at Vistoso condominiums.
o A grading exception for an office building off Oracle north of Hardy that is
to appeal a DRB denial.
o A final plat for condominium conversion.
• There will be site tours on Wednesday and Friday mornings at 7:30 a.m. until
September 8th to go through the Honey Bee archeological preserve. In
September there will be a series of three public lectures at the library on this
topic. In late September or early October there will be an open house related to
the preserve plans and implementation.
7. Items for Next Agenda
Commissioner Adler suggested an agenda item be the criteria for recommending
approval or denial of the General Plan amendment, as a discussion item to understand
what the General Plan says are the standards and possibly agree on how those
standards are to be accomplished by the applicant and ourselves.
8. Adjourn Regular Session
August 1, 2006 Approved Minutes, PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION 6
Due to the next regular meeting being immediately after Labor Day and the possible
lack of a quorum, the next meeting will be scheduled for Thursday, September 7, 2006.
MOTION: Vice Chair McKee MOVED to adjourn the August 1, 2006
Planning and Zoning Commissioner regular meeting at 8:15 p.m. Commissioner
Reddin seconded the motion. Motion carried 6 yes, 0 no.
Meeting adjourned at 8:15 p.m.
Prepared by:
Diane Chapman
Office Specialist