Commission rejects council’s efforts to merge planning boards

<p>In the latest twist in the City Council’s efforts to combine the Planning Commission and design-review boards, a majority of commissioners on Monday said they could not recommend technical changes to city codes that would reflect the council’s wishes.</p><!-- Nothing to do. The paragraph has already been output --><p>The commission was reviewing “clean-up” language in two city zoning codes that would remove references to SPARC — the city’s Site Plan and Architectural Review Committee — and replace them with “Planning Commiss-ion,” to reflect the fact that design-review duties are now being handled by a reconstituted commission.</p><p>Those code changes have already been adopted by the council, but in response to a lawsuit filed by three commissioners last month, the council decided to refer the matter to the Planning Commission.</p><p>The lawsuit claims the council did not follow its policies by first referring those changes to the commission. In the wake of the lawsuit, the city’s attorney recommended the council “cure” the alleged oversight by referring the code changes to the commission.</p><p>But complicating the issue is the fact that the code changes are already in effect. On Monday, the commission — including the three plaintiffs in the lawsuit, Spence F. Burton, Kathleen Miller and Jack Rittenhouse — said that makes any review moot.</p><p>“I don’t know how we propose any revisions or changes to anything that has already been passed by the council,” Rittenhouse said. “It seems like it is backtracking to fill legal holes.”</p><p>Commissioner Chris Arras said the code change the commission was asked to review “is not an amendment; it’s an re-enactment of existing legislation. It doesn’t smell right.”</p><p>The commission voted 4-1 to not recommend such changes to the council, with council liaison Teresa Barrett voting to do so. Since the council has already adopted the changes, they will stand.</p><p>Still unresolved is a second claim in the commissioners’ lawsuit, that the council violated the municipal code in appointing new members to the reconstituted commission.</p><p>The city has delayed seating those new members while the lawsuit is active, which is why Burton, Miller and Rittenhouse ( who were not chosen for the new commission) are continuing as commissioners.</p><p>(Contact Corey Young at corey.young@arguscourier.com)</p>