Time for Public Input???
The Planning and Zoning Commission (PZC) continued deliberation for another five hours on 1 July. Don Elliott from Clarion was on speakerphone with them for about an hour. The Wildlife Overlay Committee has provided the lion’s share of the input. Other areas have been addressed including natural resources, transportation, wetlands, hillside overlays, scenic corridors, nutrient-pathogen studies, wildland fire mitigation, and many other topics. Needless to say, the document recommended by the PZC will be very different from the original Clarion Draft.
The PZC Game Plan:
2. 10 July: PZC receives recommended-changes draft from Don Elliott, Clarion, before he goes on vacation.
3. 15 July: PZC continues their public hearing deliberation by reviewing the Clarion recommended-changes draft with the hope of being able to finalize the PZC recommendations and forwarding this on to the BOCC for public hearing.
So here’s the rub: The BOCC has set this up so the next public hearing will be on the original Clarion Draft as the basic core document. It is the Clarion Draft that the BOCC will give a thumbs up, a thumbs down, or a thumbs sideways (change the document or remand back to the PZC). While the BOCC says they will consider all PZC recommendations, it’s a shame the basic document for the hearing is the original Clarion Draft which generated all the uproar and concern in the community in the first place. When Commissioner Trupp recommended the BOCC withdraw the Clarion Draft as the basic document and have the new PZC improved version become the subject of new hearings, Commissioners Young and Stevenson would not hear of it. Why? It would require another hearing of the PZC and delay the process. When you want something bad, you get something bad—just like when the BOCC wanted the Clarion Draft badly, what did they get? A Draft that appears no one had even read. The PZC has spent many man-weeks fixing this Draft and by all appearances have come up with a much superior document—time will tell, as we have yet to see the final recommendations.
Would it not make more sense for the PZC who has done all the work in correcting the Clarion Draft to get feedback from the public on their work? No one is more familiar with what they have done. The PZC would best understand the comments and would be in the best position to make fixes. If this goes before the BOCC, the PZC would not even be in attendance to hear the public comment on their recommendations. One P and Z Commissioner said it best, “The PZC should have another public hearing to get the blame or the credit for what has been done.”
Who is afraid of more public input?
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P & Z Continue to Deliberate
