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M I N U T E S

Dunes City Planning Commission
Regular Meeting – April 24, 2008 - 7:00 P.M.
City Hall - 82877 Spruce St.
Westlake, OR 97439

COMMISSIONERS PRESENT:	Lee Riechel, Chairperson; Sandra Jones, Ken Platt, Ron Shearer.

STAFF PRESENT:	Joy Gipson, Planning Secretary; Greg Perkins, City Recorder

I.	CALL TO ORDER
	
	Chairperson Lee Riechel called the meeting of the Dunes City Planning 	Commission to order at 7:05 pm.  Greg Perkins conducted roll call and then 			announced that Troy Ronning had tendered his resignation from the Planning 	Commission and concluded by declaring a forum and added that he along with all of 	the others present appreciated Mr. Ronning's term of service.

II.	APPROVAL OF MINUTES

	Lee Riechel suggested tabling the approval of the minutes from March 27 and 31, 	2008, pending location of the commissioners' written and signed statements about 	desired changes to the stormwater ordinance to be included.  Lee stated that the City 	Council had decided to dedicate a second meeting to the stormwater ordinance and 	that he would like the Planning Commissioners' written comments to be available to 	the 	council-members as soon as possible for them to review as part of their 	deliberations.  Lee invited discussion of tabling the minutes until the statements are 	found vs. approving the minutes with the exception that those statements would be 	added when found.
	
	Ken Platt moved to approve the minutes with the above-mentioned exception and 	Lee Riechel seconded the motion.  The Motion was adopted unanimously 4-0.
 
III.	ANNOUNCEMENTS 

	Lee Riechel affirmed that Troy Ronning had indeed decided to step aside as Planning 	Commissioner.  Lee asked for suggestions of persons to replace Mr. Ronning.  Greg 	Perkins advised placing a notice to interested persons in the following week's Siuslaw 	News and notifying a previous commissioner who is believed to be possibly 	interested in filling the position.

	Lee Riechel added that along with discussions with Sandy Jones resulting in her 	appointment to her Commission seat, he had discussed the position with Dave 	Bellemore and that Mr. Bellemore expressed willingness but a preference not to serve 	at that time.  Mr. Riechel added that he had discussed with both of these candidates 	his desire to add a Commissioner who would be willing to replace him as 	Chairperson when his term ended, and that that had contributed to Mr. Bellemore's 	reluctance.  Mr. Riechel further expressed appreciation for the new Planning 	Secretary, Joy Gipson.  

	Greg Perkins expressed regret that in the turnover from the previous Planning 	Secretary to the new one, documents that the Commission expected to have available 	were not available, i.e. the commissioners' written statements.  Greg stated that the 	responsibility for this oversight is his as the responsible party during the transition.  	He stated that he and Ms. Gipson would continue to search for the statements, and 	asked Lee Riechel if Lee still had a copy of the statement that he had written.  Lee 	stated that he would search for it.

	At this point Mr. Perkins left the meeting.

	Lee then stated that during the public hearing regarding the stormwater management 	ordinance Mr. Norman Martin had introduced references to a number of various 	documents for the record and that Joy Gipson and Greg Perkins had reviewed them 	and would insure that the information would be kept in the record for that meeting 	and available for public viewing.

	This statement was followed by discussion as to whether all documents referred to by 	Mr. Martin belonged in the record.  The consensus was that these documents 	consisted of too many sheets, totaling more than 100 pages.  It was agreed that the 	statement "the material is available" would suffice.
	
IV.	OLD BUSINESS 

	Business Licenses

	Lee stated that he had asked Joy Gipson to

	Ms. Gipson presented information regarding the formation of new business license 	requirements based on an analysis produced in December 2001 by the League of  	Oregon Cities titled "Business License Ordinances:  Policy Considerations and 	examples from Oregon Cities."  Joy presented some of the key considerations for 	deciding whether to form business license requirements and what requirements to 	include.  She also entered into the record two examples of business-license 	ordinances from other smaller cities as a visual aid. 

	Lee Riechel explained that the original impetus for desiring business licenses was 	the Commission's wish to have improved ability to enforce contractor compliance 	with building and development code requirements.  He stated that the desired 	outcome would be business 	licensure tied to business practices, so that the 	Commission could revoke the licenses of builders, contractors and other 	development-related businesses whose operations do not follow the City's building 	and development code requirements.

	Lee added that in his opinion optimal regulation of business licenses would involve 	an administrator for day-to-day processing, but in case of problems would take 	advantage of current procedure using the Site Review Committee or the Conservation 	Committee to investigate and make recommendations to the Council.  He suggested 	that the City of Reedsport's 	license code and requirements be examined as an 	example, because he likes their format.  He stated that an important consideration 	would be to have a code that would be usable when the contractor requirements were 	'plugged into' it.

	Lee stated that he did not think that the next meeting would be the appropriate time to 	further address the issue of business licenses, because the Montgomery View Estates 	Subdivision would be on the agenda and would require all the time available.

	Sandy Jones inquired whether the license would only be for contractors, or would	apply to other businesses also -- to home businesses, for example.

	Lee responded that home businesses are already regulated by current City code, 	although it might be useful to include them for purposes of having accurate records 	of them; but that otherwise the issue with noncompliance with building and 	development regulations involves other kinds of businesses in addition to building 	contractors -- tree-service and septic contractors, for example.  He added that the City 	could be held liable if it listed businesses affected in business-license code and 	excluded one or more categories of business.

	Ken Platt inquired whether businesses out of compliance could 

	Sandy Jones inquired who is responsible for code violations by licensed businesses 	operating within the City -- whether the responsible parties are only the businesses, 	or if the responsibility can be attached to the actual persons running each business so 	that they have no opportunity to continue operating in violation under a different 	business name.  Ms. Gipson replied that within the LOC analysis one of the questions 	to be resolved is who the business licenses themselves will be attached to, whether 	to the businesses, the owners, or all persons working in each business.

	Montgomery View Estates Subdivision 01/07

	Joy presented a brief report on the status of the Montgomery Subdivision application.  	She stated that Hilary Dearborn with Lane Council of Governments was still working 	on the Findings of Fact and recommendations for the application, and that Joy hoped 	that Hilary would be able to pass these completed documents to Joy's office within a 	few days.

	Joy added that the area covered by the Subdivision application, which had been 	logged and not yet replanted, had not yet reached the State Forestry Department's 	deadline for re-vegetation; and that if the property was intended for residential 	development then Mr. Montgomery would not be required to plant trees.

	Joy inquired whether the May Planning Commission meeting was too soon to include 	a hearing about this subdivision, given that no one from Dunes City had been able to 	review the information yet.  Lee recommended posting the notices for the hearing in 	order to be able to include it if possible. 

	Lee then stated that he was unsure whether Ms. Dearborn was referencing Dune's 	City's Comprehensive Plan in her analysis of the application, given that the Plan had 	not existed when she processed previous applications for Dunes City; and that he was 	not sure whether she needed to reference the Plan.  Joy stated that she would find out.  	Lee suggested that a table be created to explain which elements of the Plan each 	Code section implements.  Lee mentioned that Joy would need to look at State 	limited-land-use regulations about reference to the Comprehensive Plan, but for the 	time being she should use the Ordinances Code's "Type-III" process as guide.  He 	stated that the new Code ordinance 182 does not refer to Limited Land Use 	Decisions, and relies on the Type II and Type III processes described in the code.

	Lee stated that the lot in question needs a re-vegetation plan, which will have to 	be approved by the Council, not the Planning Commission; and that this requirement 	might add a long space of time between approval of the Subdivision application by 	the Commission and the final sanction for the owner to begin work on the site.

	Lee stated that he would like to handle this application as a Type III change, and 	reminded the other Commissioners that they needed to review Code section 155.4 	regarding Type-III process, Code section 155.3 regarding development in various 	Zones, and Code section 155.3 regarding all zones.  He also reminded them to review 	the staff report and findings of fact in this application.

	Lee stated that unless the hearing for the Montgomery application was delayed they 	would not be addressing business licenses at the next Commission meeting.

	Joy requested confirmation that the Commission wanted her to send out all 	appropriate notices that the May Commission meeting would include a hearing of the 	Montgomery Subdivision application, and Lee answered in the affirmative.

	Sandy inquired whether the Commissioners would receive copies of the application 	materials.  Lee responded that they would receive large packets including all 	pertinent material. He asked how large the lot in question was, and Ms. Gipson 	replied that it is 60.6 acres.  Lee then stated that the division would result in a lot of 	redevelopable lots, and that they would have to request a redevelopment plan 'when it 	comes to that.'  Lee added that he would like to see the preliminary staff report.

	Lee also stated that Ms. Gipson would have to ask for the redevelopment plan.

	Lee asked if Ms. Gipson had anything else to mention.  She replied that she did not 	have anything directly related to the Planning Commission, although she had been 	working on a Comparative analysis of City fees, with an eye to raising ours to meet 	our Planning costs.  Lee stated that the current process of charging a deposit at the 	beginning and then charging costs later on is not working.  He added that to make 	this process work well the actual hours spent on each application would have to be 	recorded.

	

V.	ADJOURNMENT

	Lee moved to close the meeting at 8:01, Sandy Jones seconded and the Motion 	passed unanimously 4-0.

_________________________________      ____________________________________
Lee Riechel, Chairperson			Planning Secretary

Planning Commission Meeting
July 26, 2007		Page  of