My Locally Grown blogging buddy Griff Wigley notified me that my character was being defamed in the first couple of comments on this Northfield News article. (“Defamation of character” is the communication of false information stated as a fact which brings harm to an individual or an entity.)
I’d prefer not to dignify the comment by repeating it here, but this post won’t make sense if I don’t. A commentor who calls him- or herself “missionaccomplished”, whose anonymity is being protected by the Northfield News, wrote in part:
Great, the planning commission throws away our money. Then we’ll get our water and waste rates raised to pay for it.
I think the “zoning czarina” has thrown the city’s budget under the bus by spending possibly as much as $200,000? The real question is, having spent this money and wasted 2 years, what do we do? . . . wait another year and spend another 100,000. . .
I can only imagine that the genesis of this bizarre and frankly libelous statement came from the budget-cutting suggestions made by Noah Cashman in a previous article, in which he recommended that the City “terminate the profligate waste of $200,000 and counting by the planning commission”.
My first impulse (surprise!) was to respond with something like, “DAMN! Now where did I put that money?” But this really is much more serious. Ignoring the advice of my attorneys, I’ll overlook the personal aspect for the moment, and also not make a big deal out of the fact that I’ve only been Chair of the Planning Commission for seven months. What can’t remain unchallenged is the false, destructive, and totally unfair crack at my colleagues on the Commission.
Here are the facts. … [read more]
The most significant event of the month was Greg Colby’s resignation from the Planning Commission. (Et tu, Colby?)
Seriously, though, while we’re sorry to see Greg go, we know all good things must come to an end, and we wish him well in his future endeavors. Since Greg spent time in the 90s on the City Council, and a good chunk of the aughties on the Planning Commission, his commitment to the community is well known, and I suspect Northfield hasn’t seen the last of Greg Colby.
In terms of Planning Commission business, March’s weekly meetings and work sessions continued the Commission review of the draft Land Development Code. The first portion of the final draft of the LDC (as it relates to current/built residential districts) will be presented to the City Council at their April 13 work session.
The meeting dates and materials for March were:
The most current version of LDC (3/4/2010) can be found here.
Oops…. I forgot to publish this.
There’s not much to report for the rest of February; the Planning Commission continued its weekly review of the draft LDC. From the Planning Commission portion of the February Boards & Commissions report:
As noted in last month’s report, in February the Planning Commission continued its arduous weekly meetings on the review of the draft Land Development Code. The Commission is now finalizing the site development standards for residential zones which apply to the current built environment (not standards for currently undeveloped areas, which will be different). We hope to get this section finished and on the council’s agenda for their work session in April.
During the review process we’ve had the benefit of some excellent research and information provided by City staff, including statistical analysis of the current built area ratios on residential lots, and estimates of lot coverage of impervious service; information on performance standards and best practices for managing surface water runoff; and examples from different cities around the country as to how they handle various aspects of neighborhood compatibility standards.
We’re tired, but hopeful.
Here are the meeting agendas, materials, and minutes for February:
I’ve gotten behind in my detailed logging of the weekly happenings. The last two weeks have primarily been about continued work on the review of the Land Development Code at the 2/11 work session and the 2/18 special meeting.
I also attended part of the business park Master Plan Steering Committee meeting on 2/18. Unfortunately, Thursday meetings now conflict with the Planning Commission meeting schedule, so I wasn’t able to attend the whole thing.
I hope to be able to post an update about the business park master planning process Real Soon Now.
The Planning Commission met on 2/4 to continue our review of the Land Development Code. I have some supporting materials to post, but won’t be able to do it for a couple of days; or perhaps I’ll include it with the update at the end of this week.
The Planning Commission/Zoning Board of Appeals page on the City website now has a link to a press release (PDF) which I believe was written by Brian O’Connell. I don’t know when or if it was sent out – when I asked Scott Peterson at KYMN if he’d seen it yet, he hadn’t as of this morning. I’m posting it here in its entirety:
The Planning Commission of the City of Northfield has made significant progress
on the revision and re-writing of the Land Development Code of the City. The
Land Development Code is an important series of rules that will serve to
implement the recently adopted Comprehensive Plan.
The hard and persistent work of this group has resulted in changes to the initial
draft code that has created a greater degree of clarity and usability of the code by
builders, developers, citizens, Commission and Council members as well as
administrative staff. The Planning Commission continuously refers to the
Comprehensive Plan to ensure that the Land Development Code reflects the
Policies and direction established in the plan.
The Commission has sought and obtained numerous comments from builders and
Developers in the Northfield area along with representatives of Boards and
Commissions of the City and the public in general. Armed with this input, the
Commission has been able to complete the review of three of the six articles of the
document and is making clear progress on the remaining portions of the Code.
The Commission is working on a review schedule that involves weekly meetings.
The Commission anticipates completing their review of the Code in the
next several months at which time discussion with the City Council and the public
at large will begin with the goal to adopt a new Land Development Code later in
the summer of 2010.
The Planning Commission continued its weekly meetings to review and revise the draft Land Development Code (LDC); at Thursday’s work session, commissioners also gave brief updates on any meetings they attended (Rholl – EDA; Thomas – Council goals meeting). Councillor Buckheit, the City Council liaison to the PCZBA, reported that completion and adoption of the LDC is one of the Council’s top goals for 2010.
I provided a summary of Planning Commission activities for the City Administrator’s monthly Boards & Commissions report, which I believe will be include in next week’s “Friday Memo”; most of what I wrote for the report has already been posted here in some form.
Earlier in the week, Griff Wigley, Ross Currier, and I had Councillor Erica Zweifel as our guest on the LocallyGrown audio show. (Earlier in the month Councillor Betsey Buckheit and Councillor Rhonda Pownell were also on the show; Locally Grown is doing a series, trying to have each councillor as a guest for a review of the past year, and looking forward in 2010.)
After the show I talked a bit with Tim Freeland of KYMN Radio about their ability to stream and store City meetings in the Council Chambers, and asked about doing the same for the Planning Commission (and possibly the EDA). Tim said that technologically there is no obstacle, that everything is set to go, but that there may be some City Hall bureaucracy to work around regarding security and access to Mission Control behind the door in the Council chambers. Erica heard some of this discussion, and I hope will bring it forward to staff/Council for a solution.
… [read more]
On Monday I met with Joel Walinski, Brian O’Connell, Dan Olson, and Betsey Buckheit in advance of the City Council work session on Tuesday, 1/12. Both Betsey and I had expressed concerns about the original staff report provided to the Council for the work session, so the meeting was held to clarify everyone’s understanding of what would be discussed.
At the 1/12 City Council work session, input and direction on the LDC review process was given to the Planning Commission by the Council. From the Northfield League of Women Voters Observer Report of the meeting:
The Planning Commission has been working for over a year on the ordinance creating regulations to implement the comprehensive plan. According to Councilor Betsey Buckheit, who has been the commission’s council liaison, the planning commission felt that the version of the ordinance which the consultant provided was not aligned with the comprehensive plan. This work has been difficult and time-consuming for both staff and commissioners who have met weekly for a year to work on this.
Buckheit, Planning Commission Chair Tracy Davis, and city staff met yesterday and agreed on a new way of approaching the requirements for commercial and residential zones. Zones will be considered in “chunks” rather than in more global form. At issue is how much mixture of land use is acceptable in an area and where the city wants to have in each zone. Buckheit believes the new approach will not only make the work more efficient, but will result in better regulations. It should also improve communication between the staff and commissioners. At each stage of the process, the commission will ask for council review to assure that the regulations are consistent with the comprehensive plan. Before the final adoption by the city, the regulations will be brought to the public for information and response. The commission will take up the new approach at the Thursday meeting.
… [read more]
