I agree that the Planning Department must post Comprehensive
Plan amendment public hearing dates and deadlines, which will be done within
the week. Please let me clarify some issues regarding the six-month amendment
process and Comprehensive Plan land use change extension period. I also
copied the City Attorney because the "extension" period recommended
by the Planning Commission (by motion on May 26, 2009) is found in the meeting
minutes, but was not part of the Certified Recommendation (CR) that was
forwarded to the City Council.
Item #1
Staff felt it may be beneficial to have Comprehensive Plan amendments
heard twice a year rather than once of year as stated in the Comprehensive
Plan. There is no requirement in the code as to when plan amendments
shall be heard. The adopted Comprehensive Plan policy states once a year.
Staff suggested July and January to coincide with the established Joint Public
Hearing Schedule as a public benefit. This change has not been published
and staff is working to add this to the web site.
Item #2
The so called "waiver" only applies to an extension
period for those land use changes that missed the opportunity before the
Planning Commission last year when it was deliberating over the Comprehensive
Plan. Please keep in mind that Comprehensive Plan amendment fees are required
pursuant to Section 10-2171 of the Code, which are needed to recover
staff costs for processing and analyzing applications. The Planning
Commission is not authorized to waive required application fees.
The six-month extension was limited to land use changes only.
During the course of the Comprehensive Plan review, the Planning Commission
continued to receive land use changes after the official comment period had
closed. The Planning Commission doubled the number of meetings to handle
the volume of changes, but continued to struggle to complete their review
because the number of new land use changes continued to grow. The chair
suggested a May 19, 2009 cut off date for new land use changes. As a
concession, the Planning Commission asked if the Planning Department could
accept land use changes that missed the cut off date. The Planning
Commission suggested a six-month extension period after plan adoption. Please
note, it will be difficult to determine which land use changes were intended to
submitted before the Planning Commission cut-off date. Only those land use
changes would be considered for an extension. To date, Mr. Brant is the only
citizen to make such a request and his land use amendment, if filed, would fit
the "extension" description. Mr. Brant's request would be
processed similar to the side by side land use comparison used by the Planning
Commission during its review of the Comprehensive Plan last year. There are two
other possible amendments that have been talked about, but have not been filed.
Those requests do not fit the "extension" description and would be
required to pay the $514.00 application fee.
In Mr. Brant's case, he sent an e-mail to the general Comprehensive
Plan e-mail address, which had closed after the public comment period had ended
in March 2009. Mr. Brant was able to provide proof that an e-mail was sent
within the required timeframe.
Item #3
Staff will track Comprehensive Plan amendments as it does with
development plans, text changes and rezoning cases. Due to the adoption of TC-1-10,
staff will enhance the tracking capabilities on our website.
Item#4
Six months from the effective date of the Comprehensive Plan is
May 1, which is a Saturday. Therefore, the deadline is Monday, May 3. Regarding
fees, please see Item #2 above.
Mitchell Silver, PP, AICP
Director,
Department of City Planning & Urban Design Center
One Exchange Plaza, PO Box 590
Raleigh, NC 27602-0590
919.516.2625 phone
919.516.2684 fax
e-mail: mitchell.silver@ci.raleigh.nc.us
Department: www.raleighnc.gov/planning
Comprehensive Plan: www.planningraleigh2030.com
Zoning Code: www.NewRaleighCode.com
From: Ana Duncan Pardo
[mailto:acpardo@gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, February 18, 2010 12:51 PM
To: Silver, Mitchell; Meeker, Charles; Crowder, Thomas; McFarlane,
Nancy; Baldwin, Mary-Ann; Gaylord, Bonner; Odom, John; Allen, Russell; West,
James P.
Cc: RCAC; Patterson, Dwayne; Puckett, Debbie; Rosselli, Kristen
Subject: RCAC Resolution re: Public Notice of Comp Plan Amendment Period
Dear Councilors and City Staff:
Please see the resolution below, passed at yesterday's Raleigh Citizens'
Advisory Council meeting, regarding public notice of the Comprehensive Plan
Amendment period.
We have learned since last night's meeting that the cut-off date for
amendments has now been properly established as May 1, which addresses one of
the requests in the resolution. However, we ask that you also honor our
related requests for proper and adequate public notification of the amendment
period, as detailed in the resolution below.
Respectfully,
Ana Duncan Pardo
Chair, Raleigh Citizens' Advisory Council
--------------------
Resolution
regarding proper public notice of the Comp Plan amendment period
Raleigh Citizens' Advisory
Council meeting, 2/17/2010
Background: On May 26, 2009 the Planning
Commission passed a motion that all future comments (concerning the new
Comprehensive Plan) be reviewed six months after Plan adoption. There was an
indication at that time that Mitchell Silver, the City Planning Director, had
provided staff’s suggested recommendations for new request submittals.
On Feb 10, 2010 a new
Comprehensive Plan Amendment Petition form and process was published on the
City web site without announcement or links from any other web site pages.
On Feb 16, 2010 during a
related Citizen Petition item Mitchell Silver indicated requests using the new
form could be made without the customary development fee of $514.00 but would
need to be received by April 1, 2010.
There is some confusion as
to the specific dates associated with the Planning Commission’s motion to
establish a 6 month window for new comments, the process forms involved or that
it was without charge. Very little public awareness of this process has been
made available.
Resolution: As advocates for Raleigh citizens,
the RCAC requests the City Planning Department take the following action:
1. Make the process for
petitioning to amend the Comprehensive Plan more visible on the City web site
with appropriate links to ensure easy public access.
2. Request Public Affairs
to announce the amendment process by Mar 1, 2010 indicating clearly the closing
date for input, the waiver of customary fees during this window and the dates
of the Public Hearing where these new requests will be heard.
3. Establish a web based
log to track these Comprehensive Plan Amendment requests from Nov 1, 2009
forward with the location linked from the Comprehensive Plan web page and
similarly related city web site pages.
4. Confirm the cutoff date
as May 1, 2010 for submitting no-charge amendment requests.
Approved unanimously on Feb
17, 2010 by RCAC motion.
Ana Duncan Pardo
RCAC Chair