|
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
COMPREHENSIVE
PLAN AMENDMENT REPORT
To
DUNES
CITY COUNCIL
June 13, 2013
Good
evening Mayor Ruede, Councilors and concerned citizens.
Thank you for allowing us to share our thoughts for the record.
According to City Code the Comprehensive Plan controls development
and use of all land and waters within the physical boundaries of the city1.
As Council President Mills observed, “It is a very lengthy
process to amend the Comprehensive Plan.”
2
On
January 12th of last year, City Recorder Fred Hilden, reported that staff
assisted the Planning Commission in preparing materials to begin the
process of amending the Comprehensive Plan relative to Goal 1. ..3,
[Citizen Involvement]. Four
days later the City’s Ordinance Review Committee4
released a proposed ordinance amending the Comprehensive Plan.
This ordinance represents that
Dunes
City
has historically
mistakenly interpreted the CCI’s function and. the Comprehensive
Plan’s Citizen Involvement Policy A.1 is incompatible and contrary with
requirements of Oregon State Law.5
It is our understand that local governments are allowed and even
encouraged to have a deeper and more comprehensive citizen involvement
policy than is required under state law.
On
February 9, 2012
, the Council, after
hearing Council President Mills say the Comprehensive Plan is “outdated
and erroneous”, appointed the Planning Commission as the Committee for
Citizen Involvement (CCI).6
The first meeting was held in February and a second meeting was
held on March 6th.7
While minutes of these meetings are not available on line, Mr.
Hilden told the Council in April of 2012, that the Planning Commission had
asked the Ordinance Review Committee to review feedback from the City
Planner and City Attorney before moving forward.8
During the October, November and December Council meetings, Mr. Hilden
reminded the Council of the need to schedule a CCI meeting.9
Apparently the Council never took action that resulted in a CCI
Meeting being scheduled as the Council had done in February of 2012.
Furthermore, evidence that the Council had authorized the City
attorneys and City Planner to be facilitators at the
May 15, 2013
CCI Meeting could not
be found. It is
interesting to note that during the May 15th meeting, Mr.
Hilden told the committee, “I guarantee the Council is intimately
familiar with the process that has gone on, and the process that is going
on tonight.”
In
January of 2013 the Mr. Hilden reported to the Council that during
meetings with the City Planner and the City Attorney, “We developed a
clear strategy and plan to move ahead with an update to this process [the
CCI Process] and the DLCD notice should be submitted during February.”10
The DLCD Notice was submitted with an Ordinance Amending The Citizen
Involvement Provisions of The Comprehensive Plan specified a first
evidentiary hearing date as
April 9, 2013
.11
The ordinance ordains that Comprehensive Plan Policy A.1 is deleted
in its entirety,12 forestalling the
continuation of our town hall meeting atmosphere whereby any resident who
shows up can vote on proposed Comprehensive Plan amendments.
The meeting did not occur as specified, so the City Planner sent
DLCD a revised Notice indicating the first evidentiary hearing would be
May 15, 2013
.13
The
Public Notice of the May 15th hearing announced, “The Dunes
City Citizen Involvement Committee, also known as the Committee for
Citizen Involvement (CCI) will meet on
Wednesday May 15, 2003
at
6:00 P.M.
. . . The City is seeking public input and ideas on ways to involve
citizens in land use planning. [And]
Concepts for purposes of discussion are available for review at City Hall
and on the City’s website.“14
Neither the Concepts document,15 nor the
Agenda
16
were incorporated into the May 15th meeting.
While the Comprehensive Plan specifies that, “The CCI will include the
City Council, the Planning Commission, and citizens-at-large.”17
Attendance consisted of one City Councilor, one Planning
Commissioner, two City Attorney’s, the City Planner, the City Recorder
and seven others,18 a total of 13 persons.
Two
attorneys and the City Planner led the meeting.
Attorney Emily Jerome said she and Loren are working tonight and
Jake [City Planner] probably is. She
also said, “The instructions that I understood, that Loren got, was
look, we want to have a meeting where we accomplish at least something . .
. by the end of this meeting, we want to have something that can
definitely be presented . . . That’s the goal.”19
The person(s) who gave
instructions to City Attorney Loren Sommers were not identified.
The CCI Meeting Minutes do not include the discussion of certain matters.20
For example, Attorney Jerome informed members that this is not a
public hearing, nor a first evidentiary hearing.
Rather, we are going to gather a collective statement of everything
we talk about to be presented at the Planning Commission’s Public
Hearing.
Emily
Jerome asked Mary Jo and John to act as our representatives of the
committee and bring the Collective Statement to the Planning Commission
meeting on June 27th. The
footnotes of the Collective Statement say, “This is not a consensus
statement or a majority statement.”
And, “Comments from City Attorneys and Planner are omitted.”21
Respectfully
Submitted,
David
Bellemore,
Peter Howison,
Richard Koehler,
Mary
Jo Leach,
Susie Navetta,
John Stead
1
Dunes
City
Ordinance § 152.01(A)
2
Dunes
City
Council Meeting Minutes,
February 9, 2012
, Page 9
3
Dunes
City
Council Meeting Minutes,
January 12, 2012
, Page 14
4
Ordinance Review Committee established, Ordinance Number 209, Adopted
March 10. 2011
5
Proposed
Dunes
City
Comp Plan Policy A1 Ordinance,
January 16, 2012
, Page 1;
City document: DC_CompPlanPolicyA1_Ordinance_120116.pdf
6
Dunes
City
Council Meeting Minutes,
February 9, 2012
, Pages 8 and 9
7
Dunes
City
Council Meeting Minutes,
March 8, 2012
, Page
21
8
City Recorder Report,
Dunes
City
Council Meeting Minutes,
April 12, 2012
, Page 17
9
City Recorder Report,
Dunes
City
Council Meeting Minutes;
October 11, 2012
, Page 13,
November 8, 2012
, Page 15, and December 13, Page 9
10 City
Recorder Report,
Dunes
City
Council Meeting Minutes, Special Session,
January 30, 2013
, Page 5
11 DLCD Notice of
Proposed Amendment. Received by DLCD February 21. 2013.
12
DLCD Notice of Proposed Amendment, Received by DLCD February 21.
2013, Attachment, Page 1
13
DLCD Notice of
Proposed Amendment Revision. Received by DLCD
May 2, 2013
.
14
Siuslaw News,
“Public Notices”,
May 4, 2013
; c_public_notice_cci_mtg_20130504.pdf
15
“Concepts for
Dunes
City
’s Citizen Involvement Program”,
dc_cci_concepts_201305.pdf
16
Dunes
City
Committee for Citizen Involvement, Agenda,
dc_agenda_cci_20130515.pdf
17
Dunes
City
Comprehensive
Plan, Policy A1, a., Page 4
18
Minutes of the May 15th CCI Meeting,
Minutes for Dunes City Committee for Citizen Involvement Meeting
(051513).pdf
19
Electronic recording of the
May 15, 2003
CCI Meeting.
20
ORS 192.650(1)(d)
requires that the minutes shall include, The substance of any discussion
on any matter;
and (e) Subject to ORS 192.410 to 192.505 relating to public records, a
reference to any document
discussed at the meeting.
21
Collective Statement - Committee for Citizen Involvement Meeting
(051513).pdf
|
