Planning Commission Training

1. Planning Commission Training Municipality of Skagway Division of Community and Regional Affairs • Peter McKay • Nicole Grewe • April 17, 2009

3. Community Benefits • Shapes the future • Identifies local issues • Identifies public values • Ties programs together • Promotes public involvement • Attracts appropriate development Planning benefits communities in the following ways: • Increases certainty • Protects natural resources • Improves public service efficiency • Minimizes land use conflicts • Promotes good design

4. Planning Characteristics • Creates order and predictability • Promotes efficient use of resources • Identifies alternatives and procedures • Promotes community health and future viability

5. THE PLANNING COMMISSION

6. What is a Planning Commission? • Is an advisory group to the governing body on issues and activities related to planning, platting, land use regulation, and community development. • Has limited decision making power, but can have considerable influence. • Is responsible for keeping planning and land use related issues in perspective for the community.

7. Welcome to the Planning Commission An Effective Planning Commissioner Knows: • Planning commission authority and duties • How a planning commission operates • Standards for commission decision-making • Legal aspects of commission conduct • Comprehensive and other types of planning • Zoning, platting, and land-use regulation

8. Planning Commission Authority • AS 29.40 and local charters or ordinances define the authority and responsibilities of commission members. • Commission duties vary from community to community depending on factors including support for planning, community growth rate, prospective infrastructure development, and responsibilities prescribed by ordinance.

9. Planning Commission Authority (continued) • Prepare and submit to the assembly (city council) a proposed comprehensive plan in accordance with AS 29.40.030 for the systematic and organized development of the borough (or city). • Review, recommend, and administer measures necessary to implement the comprehensive plan including measures provided under AS 29.40.040. • Other duties as prescribed by local ordinance.

10. Planning Commission Duties • Prepare a comprehensive plan • Act as the platting authority • Review and recommend land use regulations • Review and recommend property rezones • Act on variances and conditional use permits • Review land acquisitions and disposals • Hear appeals from administrative decisions • Review and recommend capital improvements

11. Planning Commission Duties (continued) • Review annual planning budget • Approve planning department’s annual work program • Initiate planning projects • Coordinate with other agencies’ plans • Conduct public meetings and hearings • Other duties as authorized by ordinance

12. Municipality of Skagway: Planning Commission Duties • 19.02.040 Planning commission. • Prepare and recommend: • A comprehensive plan • A zoning ordinance • A subdivision ordinance • The official map of the city • Act as the platting board • Act upon requests for variances and conditional uses • Serve as the zoning commission • Hold a regular monthly meeting, open to the public

13. Balanced Skilled Understands community Understands public process Committed to planning Maintains objectivity Declared conflict of interests Balanced special interests Characteristics of an “Ideal” Planning Commission

14. HOW A PLANNING COMMISSION OPERATES

15. Planning Commission Roles It is [or should be] a panel with knowledge of community character, local regulations, and community development practice. • Advisory Role - Advises the council or assembly. • Regulatory Role - Administers local land use regulations including zoning and subdivision ordinances. • Procedural Role - Conducts fair meetings and makes fair decisions.

16. The Commission’s Relationship with Elected Officials The most important aspect of the relationship between the planning commission and the governing body is the is the planning commission’s advisory role. The council or assembly has the authority to approve, deny, or change commission recommendations. A commission that has a good working relationship with the council can play a key role in keeping the council informed and educated about planning and community development issues.

17. The Commission’s Relationship with Planning Staff Planning staff play a critical role in the planning process and effectiveness of the planning commission. • Administers land use regulation • Prepares reports and posts meeting notices • Researches planning and land use issues • Advises commission • Educates and assists the public • Knows and interprets laws and ordinances • Conducts community and capital projects planning • Negotiates – agencies, developers, and public • Enforces code and conditions of approval • Provides continuity

18. The Commission’s Relationship with Public Public involvement gives the commission opportunity to educate, build support, and encourage ownership. • Improves trust in government. • Taps local knowledge and talent. • Creates sense of ownership in plan and regulations. • Creates a constituency in planning. • Ensures plan remains intact over time. • Increases overall plan quality. • Improves enforcement of land use laws • Streamlines planning process and development.

19. Practical Advice for Commissioners • Read packet before meeting • Seek staff assistance before meeting • Know comprehensive plan and zoning/platting codes • Be familiar with sites and projects • Share information • Focus on facts, not opinions • Summarize what you have heard • Participate in discussion • Be practical • Be a problem-solver, not a problem-maker • Be probing, but not argumentative • Respect your associates • Treat everyone equally • Attend meetings • Come on time to meetings

20. Do Not Fight Do not fight with the city council, assembly, or each other!

21. PLANNING COMMISSION DECISION-MAKING

22. How Does the Planning Commission Make Decisions? • Using common sense • Thinking about what is in the best interest of the larger community • Considering the rules • Using persuasion or arguments based on testimony • Interpreting the comprehensive plan in accordance with legal requirements

23. Types of Commission Decisions Legislative Decisions make or interpret policy. Broad ranging and affect everyone in general and no one in particular. • Substantive due process (reasonableness of decision) applies • Examples: recommend to adopt a comprehensive plan, recommend capital improvement priorities, recommend code amendments. Quasi-Judicial Decisions have direct affect on rights and liabilities of a single person or small group. • Procedural due process (fairness of process) applies • Examples: granting zoning variances, issuing conditional use permits, issuing encroachment permits

24. Findings • Are a statement of the evidence and reasoning used by commission to arrive at a decision. • Must be supported by facts. • Are a “road map” that details the commission’s reasoning process used to progress from evidence to decision. • Typically include request description, statement of facts, reasons for approval or denial, and conditions of approval.

25. Findings Should do the Following: • Set out the relevant facts from the evidence presented. • Relate these facts to the conditions that must be proved, or the standards that must be met. • State whether the relevant standard or condition is shown to have been met or not by the identified facts. • State whether all the necessary elements have been sufficiently shown. If there was no evidence given to prove one or more of the necessary elements, this lack of necessary evidence must be shown. • State whether the permit is granted or denied.

26. The Record • The Record is a collection of all the evidence presented to the commission during proceedings. • Is the foundation upon which the commission’s decision rests. • Findings and the record protect the commission from legal challenges and explain commission decisions - even unpopular ones. • Is there substantial evidence in the record to support the commission’s findings?

27. The Record Contains: • The application • Correspondence between applicant and staff • Written comments submitted by neighbors and other members of public • Oral evidence presented at hearing • Plats, plans, drawings, photographs, deeds, surveys, and consultant/expert reports • Written testimony • Records of mailed or published notice • Municipal records and other documents submitted during proceeding

28. LEGAL ASPECTS OF COMMISSION CONDUCT

29. Ex Parte Contact • Occurs when a commissioner has private communications with someone who has an interest in a quasi-judicial matter before the commission. • Provides a commissioner with information not available to other commissioners. • It can (or is meant to) influence decisions outside public session. • Violates “due process” in quasi-judicial matters. To correct ex parte contact: • Disclose contact and substance of conversation at meeting. Get the evidence on the record! • State whether you can still provide unbiased input.

30. Conflict of Interest • A person has a conflict of interest when he or she has a substantial financial interest in a matter before the commission. • State law does not define the term “substantial financial interest”. Local code of ordinances should define this term. • A planning commissioner cannot vote on any matter in which he or she has a substantial financial interest [AS 29.20.010 (a)(4)].

31. Municipality of Skagway: Conflict of Interest • 3.01.120 Conflicts of interest. • Any officer or employee shall disqualify himself from participating in any official action in which he has a substantial financial interest.

32. Open Meetings Act AS 44.62.310 (a): All meetings of a governmental body of a public entity are open to the public [with certain exceptions]. Ensures public has reasonable opportunity to observe governing decision-making. In general terms, the act requires: • Open forum for decision-making • Reasonable public notice of meetings • Teleconferencing for public meetings • Voting publicly on the record • Executive sessions

33. THE COMPREHENSIVE PLAN

34. What is a Comprehensive Plan? • A blueprint for guiding community development. • A flexible document, not a uniform template. • A visionary document attempting to anticipate future events and needs. • A statement of policies, goals, and standards. Comprehensive Plan

35. What is a Comprehensive Plan? (continued) • Provides a policy framework for decision-making regarding land use, transportation, housing, public facilities, and economic development. • Includes information on the many facets of a community including demographics, physical conditions, land use, environment, transportation, legal matters, and fiscal conditions. Reflects the vision and direction of residents!

36. Municipality of Skagway:Comprehensive Plan • 19.02.040 Planning commission. A. Duties and Functions. 1. The planning commission shall … prepare and recommend to the city council: a. A comprehensive plan consisting of maps and related texts for the systematic development of the city consisting of a compilation of policy statements, goals, standards, and maps for guiding the physical, social and economic development, both private and public, of the city and may include, but is not limited to, the following: a land use plan, a community facilities plan, a transportation plan and recommendations for plan implementation.

37. PLAN IMPLEMENTATION

38. Plan Implementation Includes: • Zoning regulations • Zoning authorizations • Subdivision regulations • Additional implementation tools

39. AS 29.40.040 Land Use Regulation In accordance with a comprehensive plan adopted under AS 29.40.030 and in order to implement the plan, the assembly by ordinance shall adopt or amend provisions governing the use and occupancy of land that may include, but are not limited to, zoning regulations restricting the use of land and improvements by geographic districts.

40. Zoning Code Components: Map depicting zoning districts including residential, industrial, and commercial. Text indicating permitted, conditionally permitted, and prohibited land uses. Zoning Regulations Zoning is the conventional method of land use regulation that divides a municipality into districts or zones and adopts regulations concerning land use, placement, and building size, and space. It classifies land according to use (residential, commercial, industrial) and establishes standards governing each use.

41. The Purpose of Zoning • Promotes public safety, health, and general welfare. • Segregates incompatible land uses and activities. • Protects property values. • Regulates property use in accordance with community standards and values. • Creates uniform land use regulations. • Establishes ground rules for development through public process. • Prevents or reduces nuisances. • Conserves land for appropriate uses.

42. Zoning Authorizations Zoning ordinance includes: • Minimum lot size, lot width/depth, setbacks between structures, maximum building height, max/min lot coverage, and signage. • Zoning related authorizations including variances, conditional use permits, planned unit developments, home occupations, accessory uses, and non-conforming uses.

43. Conditional Use Permit • Land use not allowed outright in a particular zone, but could be permitted if conditions attached reduce or eliminate negative characteristics making the activity compatible with surrounding allowed uses. • Also called “special exceptions” or “special permits”. • Example: Church in a residential neighborhood. • Municipalities are free to design a conditional use permitting system. Caution: avoid use of vague standards.

44. Variance • A variance is an exception from the strict terms of the zoning (or platting) code. • It is a waiver of the provisions of the zoning ordinance when strict application of the ordinance would cause exceptional, practical difficulties, or undue hardship to the property owner. • Property standards are adjusted because the specific location, topography, shape, size, or other environmental features of the lot make it impossible to comply with zoning regulations as written.

45. Variances Under AS 29.40.040(b) According to Alaska law, a variance may not be granted if: • The special conditions that require the variance are caused by the person seeking the variance. • The variance will permit a land use in a district in which that use is prohibited. • The variance is sought solely to relieve financial hardship or inconvenience.

46. When Can a Variance be Granted? • Variances are granted when some unique condition related to the land (e.g., stream, steep embankment, rock outcrop) makes it impossible to comply with terms of zoning code. • Hardship must be linked to feature of land. • Applicant required to show neighbors will not be adversely affected by granting a variance. • Variances most often granted for relief from setback requirements, building height, or lot coverage.

47. Municipality of Skagway:Variance Summary • 19.04.060 Variances and conditional use permits. • A. Variances. 1. The planning commission shall consider and decide applications for variances. No variance shall be granted because of special conditions caused by actions of the person seeking relief, or for reasons of pecuniary hardship or inconvenience; nor shall any variance be granted which would permit a land use in a district in which that land use has been prohibited. Variances are intended to provide a mechanism for the relaxation of such standards as minimum lot or yard requirements, setback, or building coverage, when the applicant shows, and the planning commission finds, that the criteria in subsection 8 below are met.

48. Municipality of Skagway:Variance Requirements • 19.04.060 Variances and conditional use permits A. Variances. 8. The planning commission must find all four (4) of the following conditions to exist to grant the variance: • That there are exceptional physical circumstances or conditions applicable to the property or to its intended development which do not apply generally to the other properties in the same zoning district; • That the strict application of the provisions of this title would result in practical difficulties or unnecessary hardship. Financial difficulty is not considered a hardship; • That the granting of the variance will not result in material damage or prejudice to other properties in the vicinity, nor be detrimental to the public health, safety or welfare; and • That the granting of the variance will not be contrary to the objectives of the comprehensive plan.

49. Municipality of Skagway: Conditional Use Summary • 19.04.060 Variances and conditional use permits. • B. Conditional Uses. 1. Purpose. A conditional use permit gives site specific flexibility to the zoning ordinance in a uniform and controlled manner. It permits uses that are desirable to the community, but may not be suitable at every location in the zone based on character, intensity, size or impact on surrounding uses. The planning commission may attach restrictions and conditions designed to fit the special problems, which the use presents.

50. Municipality of Skagway:Conditional Use Requirements • 19.04.060 Variances and conditional use permits B. Conditional Uses. 3. Standards… a majority of the planning commission members after a public hearing, must find in writing that: • The requested conditional use will protect the public health, safety, and welfare; and • The requested conditional use will not permanently or substantially injure the lawful use of neighboring properties or uses; and • The requested conditional use will generally be in harmony with the comprehensive plan, coastal management plan, and other officially adopted plans; and • The requested conditional use will not substantially decrease the value of or be out of harmony with property in the neighboring area.