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January 18, 2006
COMMISSIONERS PRESENT
Bill Marino, Chair
Bunny Malm
Rich Urbanowski
John Plotkin
George Brown III
Michael Rohr
Tracy Simmons
STAFF PRESENT
Becky Clark, Community Planning & Development Department Director
Paul Rice, Senior Planner
Joyce Wayman, Secretary
Following are the minutes of the January 18, 2006 Lakewood Planning Commission
Public Hearing. A permanent set of these minutes is retained in the office of
the City Clerk and a tape recording is located in the Department of Community
Planning and Development, City of Lakewood.
The roll having been called, a quorum was declared. The Chairman gave information
on public hearings before Planning Commission. The following business was conducted:
ITEM 1: Election of Officers
COMMISSIONER BROWN made the motion to keep the current officers in place. They
are: Bill Marino as Chairman, Bunny Malm as Vice-Chairman, Rich Urbanowski as
Secretary.
COMMISSIONER PLOTKIN seconded the motion.
Motion passed by a vote of 7-0.
ITEM 2: APPROVAL OF MINUTES
Minutes from the December 7, 2005 Planning Commission Public Hearing were continued
to the next meeting.
ITEM 3: GENERAL BUSINESS
COMMISSIONER MARINO said he is eager to get the Planning Academy reinstated.
He said it was a great program and extremely helpful as a prerequisite for Planning
Commissioners. Commissioner Marino asked Becky Clark if there was going to be
a Planning Academy this quarter or next quarter?
BECKY CLARK explained that the City of Lakewood created Planning Academy 101 because the city was finding a lot of people did not understand the planning process in Lakewood or in general. The thought was to get citizens involved before the Planning Commission, at the neighborhood level and often one-on-one with the applicant. The Academy trains regular citizen's to understand the planning process from a conceptual vision of community planning to a mock hearing before Planning Commission. In the past, invitations were sent out to Homeowners Associations, Business Groups, individuals, etc. letting them know the academy was starting. The city could then consider applicants who came forward for Board of Adjustment, Planning Commission, or City Council from the academy. In addition it has been helpful to citizens and applicants alike who are involved in a controversial case. Carol Kesselman is an example of a citizen who went through the academy and then sat on Board of Adjustment, Planning Commission and City Council. There are also refresher courses and graduate courses. Becky said the hope is that the Academy will start again in the spring or fall.
COMMISSIONER MARINO said he and Becky were looking at getting the Board of Adjustment and Planning Commission together once or twice a year to jointly review the Lakewood Comprehensive Plan.
BECKY CLARK said it would also be helpful to get to know each other and consider the options of switching from one board to the other. For example, the Chairman of the Board of Adjustment now has expressed interest in eventually becoming a Planning Commissioner.
COMMISSIONER MARINO said he would like the Planning Commission to evaluate the Zoning Ordinance, given the changes to the Comprehensive Plan and some of the changes from 2005 - specifically the Performance Based Review Process.
BECKY CLARK said the Planning Department is going through some minor changes and reorganization and Staff is very busy concentrating on that right now. Many times a Planning Department will realize that their Comprehensive Plan is out of sync with their Zoning Ordinance. They will then either completely change their Zoning Ordinance or just change parts of it. The Zoning Ordinance will need to be evaluated and a determination made about how much, if any, needs to be changed. I anticipate the process beginning in Fall 2006.
COMMISSIONER MALM said they were very careful as they rewrote the Comprehensive Plan to keep in mind how different areas read in the Zoning Ordinance.
BECKY CLARK also mentioned that there would be a Joint Study Session with City Council on March 6, 2006 to discuss light rail and the Rooney Valley.
COMMISSIONER MARINO said, to his knowledge there is no one on the Planning Commission who is a professional planner, perhaps the commission might benefit from having someone to refer to as an advisor, someone who has a career in Planning and Land Use that could attend the Study Sessions.
COMMISSIONER PLOTKIN said he thinks the proper person would be a useful and knowledgeable tool to assist the commission.
COMMISSIONER MARINO asked for a motion saying he would like to get the position formalized at the next Planning Commission meeting.
COMMISSIONER MALM said she would move that the commission consider establishing the roll of a "Commissioner Emeritus", a person independent of Staff and independent of the Planning Commission, an individual with "to be determined" qualifications to serve as an advisor to the Planning Commission and to Staff.
COMMISSIONER BROWN seconded the motion.
COMMISSIONER BROWN wondered if there would be a term for the Commissioner Emeritus?
COMMISSIONER MARINO assumed that the person could be removed at the commissions will. The Planning Director would also need to approve the person.
COMMISSIONER PLOTKIN asked what about council's approval?
BECKY CLARK said it is not necessary to have council involved.
COMMISSIONER PLOTKIN said he is concerned about setting up a position that needs to be filled and have a person who feels they are needed at every meeting. He thinks he would prefer to have someone he knows as opposed to someone unknown.
COMMISSIONER MARINO said he thinks if they bring forward a nominee and that person has the approval of the Planning Director, the nominee then gets approved by the full commission and is used at the commissions request. Commissioner Marino envisions the person coming to Study Sessions rather than public hearings so that while the commission is learning they could call on the expertise of the advisor.
COMMISSIONER MARINO then asked for a vote on the motion.
Motion passed 7-0.
COMMISSIONER PLOTKIN said he perceived the notification to Planning Commission about the RTD Citizen's Committee to be a desire to have one of the commissioner's sit on the Board for the Citizen's Committee for RTD.
BECKY CLARK said it is the city and the department's intent to get the Planning Commissioners involved in outside curricular activities. The commissioner's input would be appreciated as well as having an open communication with Staff. As a citizen any of the commissioners could attend and be a part of any organization. So the intent of the notification is just to let the commissioners know what is available within the City of Lakewood. As an example, recently there was a committee that formed and had no communication with the city. The city wasn't sure if the committee agreed with the city or not and sought ways to communicate with the group. The committee now communicates with the city and the various positions are understood.
COMMISSIONER MALM asked how many various committees are out there right now that Becky is aware of?
BECKY CLARK said, along with the TLC Committee mentioned above, there are ongoing meetings regarding the light rail stations. The next meeting will focus on the 13th Avenue and Oak Street station. Anyone is invited to attend but especially people who have a stake in seeing what is going on in the area with regard to light rail. The past four weeks have been spent on the 13th Avenue and Wadsworth Boulevard light rail station. The only other group that Becky is aware of externally is the Urban Design Group. There are internal staff groups, one internal group having to do with light rail specifically consist of Roger Wadnal, Dave Baskett, Jay Hutchison, and myself. Dave Baskett used to work for RTD and came to the city from there. He is very helpful because he understands the RTD jargon and the process.
COMMISSIONER PLOTKIN said he understands that the RTD meetings going on right now are the city's effort to shape the look of the stations and asked if RTD is attending these meetings?
BECKY CLARK said RTD representatives do attend every meeting but try not to say anything. However, on March 15, at 4:30-6:00 P.M., at the Clement Center, RTD will have a meeting where questions can be asked of RTD. The commissioners are encouraged to attend so that they have a better understanding of what the neighborhood issues are and how citizens are responding to light rail in their areas.
There will also be a charrette, sponsored by RTD, from January 30 thru February 2 for Staff and the other jurisdictions along the west line.
COMMISSIONER MALM said there would be a workshop sponsored by Citizen's for Lakewood's Future on February 15 starting at 6:00 at the Bel Mar Library.
BECKY CLARK suggested that the Planning Commission consider having a retreat this year.
COMMISSIONER MARINO asked if there were any commissioners who would like to take charge of the retreat?
COMMISSIONER MALM offered to help Staff plan the retreat.
OLGA MIKHAILOVA will be the Staff person working with Commissioner Malm on the retreat.
COMMISSIONER BROWN offered his assistance, as well.
OLGA MIKHAILOVA told the commissioners we now have copies of the Design Manual. Staff has been working on the Design Manual for about two years and finally it is finished. The hope is that it will be really helpful to developers.
COMMISSIONER MARINO spoke about, and showed a Power Point presentation on, the new Creativity Laboratory. Specifically he wants the commission to be aware of the Creativity Laboratory, which will be a place where students at the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design (RMCAD) can give creative assistance to small business developers for a small fee. If a small business owner would like to have a logo printed, for example, right now he would need to go to a specialty store and pay $40,000 to $50,000 for a nice design. But at the Creativity Laboratory the same small business owner could have a student (or students) work with him to create a logo at a much-reduced cost. It's a win/win situation.
This idea began from a comment at one of the Colfax meetings when someone said we need a creative place for business owners to see what Colfax Avenue would look like in time. Working with the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design would give students a forum to show their ideas and possibly get their work into an art and design magazine, it would give small business owners an affordable option to high priced designs and it would then help the entire community. There is about $15,000 in funds committed to launch this program. About 50% of the funds will go back to the project teams that help deliver the solution; 25% will go to lab operations and research; 25% will go to scholarships at the college. Lab services will be straight from the curriculum of the college. This concept was born out of the Planning process and out of Land Use policy. The Creativity Laboratory will launch on February 1st.
COMMISSIONER ROHR would like a heads up regarding what is coming forward to be heard at Planning Commission. He is concerned because he is asked questions regarding his opinion on different cases and then he finds out it is an active case coming before Planning Commission so he shouldn't be discussing it with citizens.
BECKY CLARK said we do need to figure out how to get the information to the commissioners as soon as possible. The Friday Report is a good resource. It would be a good idea to call Paul Rice to find out where a project is in the process.
COMMISSIONER MARINO suggested the commission give Staff time to resolve how to get the information onto the website or somewhere where it can be accessed by all citizen's as well as the commission.
ADJOURNMENT
Meeting adjourned at 8:00 P.M.
Vicki Kaufman, Secretary to the Planning Commission
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