MINUTES OF THE STRASBURG PLANNING COMMISSION WORKSESSION HELD ON THURSDAY, MARCH 13, 2008, AT 7:30 P.M. IN THE COUNCIL CHAMBERS OF THE TOWN HALL.
Planning Commissioners present: Chairperson Smith, Commissioners Cromer (arrived late), Davis, Kepler, Terndrup and Council Member Whittle. Others present: Planner Amos.
The only item on the agenda was the proposal from Herd Planning and Design, Ltd. Much of the information was given to Mr. Herd by Planner Amos and Chairperson Smith.
Commissioner Davis spoke about some to the wording he did not like in the proposal such as in section 2.9 Implementation. He does not want this to be just like all other Comprehensive Plans, but to be especially for Strasburg.
Commissioner Terndrup said she had gone to the County Planning Commission meeting where Chris Price, from the Regional Planning Commission, was present who said much of the information Mr. Herd had said he would be getting could actually be gotten through the Regional Commission for free --- she does not want to pay for information we can get for free. Planner Amos will get in touch with Mr. Price to see what we can get from them and Chairperson Smith said he will see Mr. Price next week and discuss this with him at that time.
Council Member Whittle asked if the money to pay for the work would come from this year’s budget or next. The entire fee for Mr. Herd’s proposal would come from this year’s budget and if the Town decides to hire Mr. Herd to coordinate the Zoning Ordinances with the Comprehensive Plan, that will come from next year’s budget. Commissioner Davis would like to see this done in-house, but this would be a very lengthy process and Planner Amos said she could not do this. Commissioner Davis asked if the Commission had to use Mr. Herd or could they chose some other firm. He also feels the Commission should do this work themselves and not use the consultant.
Planner Amos said Mr. Herd has already been approved by the Town Council as the consultant for the Comprehensive Plan and the funding has been approved by Council. If the Commission does not want to use Mr. Herd, it would have to go through the procurement process to pick a different consulting firm.
Commissioner Davis said he feels the Commission is just “patching” the current plan and waiting for the next five years to do an entire revision. Council Member Whittle said he does not think the entire plan needs to be thrown out, but just needs to be refined and focused; Chairperson Smith agrees with Mr. Whittle. Commissioner Davis stated he does not think this is the way to go. He also spoke about other sections he did not like the wording of:
1.2 within the Town --- should focus on areas outside of the Town. The Commission needs to make sure Mr. Herd is aware the growth area includes areas outside of the Town.
1.3 second and third sentence --- Commissioner Davis does not like the wording of these.
Planner Amos explained Mr. Herd will come back and meet with the Planning Commission periodically to review his findings and the Commissioners will be able to discuss his work then.
Commissioner Davis said he does not think this is the way to do the Comprehensive Plan. Council Member Whittle said it has already been decided by the Commission to use a consultant, but he does think Commissioner Davis has brought up some valid points that Mr. Herd should consider.
Planner Amos is to telephone Mr. Herd about getting some of the items in the proposal clarified and then have the proposal revised and signed. The proposal had a start work date of the beginning of March and we are already into the month so work must commence if the deadline of October is to be mete.
Chairperson Smith would like to have the voting session be used as a session to review the sign ordinance.
Commissioner Davis read from the Zoning Ordinance about an official zoning map and said he and Planner Amos are working on this.
Being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 7:56 p.m.