Chairman Saylor called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m.  Commissioners Sheffield, Ottmar, Fialka, and Caplinger were present.  Commissioners Erz, Quick, Ferguson and Rebman were absent.

Minutes

Commissioner Fialka moved to approve the minutes of the September 8, 2010 regular meeting.  Commissioner Sheffield seconded the motion; the minutes were approved unanimously.

New Business

Periodic Review Kick-Off

Staff Report

City Planner Spencer stated that the 2010 periodic review project is a state mandated review of the city’s comprehensive plan and land use regulations.  Under state law, cities are required to undertake this review every 10 years.  The last city’s last periodic review came in 1993 and was a perfunctory review with no major changes to the original 1983 comprehensive plan.

The first step in the periodic review process involved preparing an analysis of the existing comprehensive plan.  The analysis identified areas where the existing rules and policies were either outdated or inadequate for today’s land use processes.  Therefore, the city worked with DLCD to create a scope of work for the periodic review.   It is important to note that not all items in the work scope are slated to begin immediately or even funded in this biennium.  Items relating to traffic and infrastructure planning will not begin until 2011 and finish in 2013.

The scope of work for the 2010 portion of periodic review falls under five statewide planning goals.

City Planner Spencer introduced the two principle contractors who were in attendance – Marty Stiven of Stiven Planning & Development and Jerry Johnson of Johnson Reid.  The subcontractor Martin Schott was not in attendance.

Goal 1: Citizen Involvement

The city’s citizen involvement strategy outlined in the comprehensive plan complies with the minimum statutory requirements for public noticing.  However, the city’s desire to have an informed citizenry participate in all aspects of the planning process means that it is desirable to go above and beyond the minimum noticing requirements.  Often in public hearings, the planning commission has received testimony indicating that greater noticing requirements are needed.  To that end, staff will be reviewing noticing requirements and recommending additional noticing measures.

Proposed measures to add include:

• Requiring a notice of proposed land use action to be physically posted on development sites
• Utilize the city’s website to advertise public hearings
• Utilize the local radio station’s public service announcement times to promote actions which will have broad community impact

Additionally, there are several noticing requirements in the zoning code which are no longer in compliance with the state statutory requirements.  Although the distance requirement for mailed notices is in compliance, not all of the time requirements meet requirements.  The appeal period is shorter than that required as are some of the hearing notice time lines.  City staff follow the statutory requirements now, but the code needs to be modified so that it agrees with state rules.

Goal 2: Planning Process

The community background and profile information in the comprehensive plan was last updated in 1983 when the plan was adopted.  Much of the information in this document is now outdated.  For example, the 1983 plan projected a population of over 30,000 for Hermiston by 2003.  There are numerous other places where the plan references development plans like an aluminum plant which never came to fruition which should be removed from the plan.

Staff will be going over the entire background section of the plan to weed out the outdated and irrelevant information over the next year.

Goal 9: Economic Development

The Goal 9 element of periodic review is the real centerpiece of the work plan.  Economic development is one of the only areas which are mandated by the state to be addressed in each periodic review cycle.

In 2008, the city created a work group with downtown merchants to look at redevelopment options for the downtown core.  The city hired Stiven Planning and Development and Bob Foster for downtown design work.  The approved work scope will fund the implementation of a downtown update plan which will create a cohesive downtown design framework and create new zoning standards for the downtown.  Relaxed parking standards, second story residential uses and other means to streamline downtown redevelopment are also planned for inclusion in the new downtown plan.  The periodic review team will also pursue financing measures for the city to help facilitate the overall process.

Goal 9 requires cities to create an economic opportunities analysis to insure that the city has an adequate plan for stimulating and facilitating economic growth.  This will require the city to create an employment lands inventory and determine if there is adequate land for 20 years of growth.  Some land use designations, such as industrial properties in heavily developed commercial areas will be changed to more compatible commercial designations.  The city’s consultants will provide more background to the planning commission on what is entailed in an economic opportunities analysis.  The final product will likely include a codified downtown plan and standards, an updated opportunities analysis, code amendments and a digitized parcel inventory.

Another requirement of the Goal 9 review is that the city must create a statement of community objectives or a vision for economic growth.  City staff and consulting team have created a draft vision which the planning commission should look at refining.

A discussion ensued regarding what makes up the community vision and what should be in the vision statement.  The group was concerned about how to promote economic growth without having a greater number of citizens with higher education.  It was noted that the basic infrastructure of the city should include quality education which would attract industry.  After reviewing the vision statement draft, it was determined that the vision statement should show more of where the city is going and what the city wants to become.  It was thought that including words or phrases like, enhanced education, livability, and vibrant economy would convey a more robust vision statement.

Contractor Jerry Johnson presented a slideshow which reviewed the following:

• Employment land planning
• Identifying needs of the community through employment forecasting and land needs
• Determining land capacity by using zone change opportunities as well as vacancy levels and redevelopment capabilities
• Reconciliation of demand and supply

Mr. Johnson stated that the City may want to identify target industries for growth.  He also noted that the technical work should be completed in June.

The group discussed ways of getting citizen involvement such as using focus groups, going to senior centers, simplifying the language in notices, adding newspaper articles, a Facebook page, and radio.

Goal 10: Housing

The Goal 10 element will not be as labor intensive as the Goal 9 element, but will still require a considerable amount of effort from city and consultants.  The city adopted a residential buildable lands inventory in 2004 as part of an urban growth boundary expansion.  It has been 6 years since that inventory was prepared and adopted.  In the intervening time, some of the large parcels which constitute the residential reserve have developed.  It is important to update and review the land inventory to see if new lands need to be designated for future residential uses and to remove those properties which have developed.

In order to thoroughly analyze the city’s residential needs, the population forecasts will need to be revisited and revised if necessary.

Additionally, the housing market has changed significantly in the time since the current zoning ordinance was adopted.  Zero lot line development, condominiums, senior housing, group homes and other housing types which are not accommodated in the zoning code.  This is also the area where the city has the opportunity to revise the maximum building height to better reflect the demand for buildings higher than 35 feet.

Goal 5: Natural Resources

The Goal 5 element is required for all cities to identify resource lands such as wetlands, wildlife habitats and riparian corridors.  The city does not have any local wetland inventory at all at this time.  Developing a local wetland inventory will be a multi-year process.  The first portion to be completed in 2011 will be to develop a draft inventory of potential wetlands sites and other resource lands.  There will also be a review of the ordinances governing wetland protection and development.

The second portion of the Goal 5 review will be done in 2011 through 2013.  This will involve a more detailed Goal 5 analysis and on-site analysis by professional engineers.  This information will be utilized to develop a final wetland and resource inventory and to develop code amendments consistent with the Goal 5 rules.

Goals 11 and 12: Public Facilities and Transportation

Updates to the water, sewer and transportation system plans are all planned for periodic review.  However, these updates are not mandatory for the periodic review process.  Therefore, they have been moved from the 2010 work plan to the 2011-2013 time frame.  If funding becomes available in the 2011 biennium, the city will pursue additional grants to review these documents under periodic review.

Planner Comments and Unscheduled Communications

The commissioners would like to look at the impact of the Depot’s closure on the city’s employment and economic levels.

Attorney David Hadley mentioned that the Umatilla County Planning Commission has a vacancy and he believes that it is important to have west county representation.  The commissioners meet the last Thursday of each month, usually in Pendleton.  He also voiced his concern that changing or creating new codes will not necessarily increase the city’s monetary base.  He sited some example cities.

There was no further business and the meeting was adjourned at 8:27 pm.