Minutes - 05/11/2006 Spokane Valley Planning Commission
Approved Minutes
Council Chambers — City Hall 11707 E. Sprague Ave
May 11, 2006
I. CALL TO ORDER
Chairman Kogle called the meeting to order at 6:02 pm.
II. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
The Commissioners, Staff and Audience stood and recited the Pledge of
Allegiance
III. ROLL CALL
Commissioner Beaulac — Present Commissioner Kogle — Present
Commissioner Blum — Present Ian Robertson — Present
Commissioner John G. Carroll — Present Marcia Sands — Present
David Crosby — Present
Staff attending the meeting: Marina Sukup, Director of Community Development,
Mike Connelly, City Attorney, Deanna Griffith, Administrative Assistant
IV. APPROVAL OF AGENDA
Commissioner Crosby moved that the May 11, 2006 agenda be approved with
the following amendment, moving old business before new business. Second by
Commissioner Beaulac. Motion passed unanimously.
V. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
Commissioner Beaulac moved that the April 27, 2006 minutes be approved as
written. Commissioner Robertson seconded the motion. Motion passed
unanimously.
VI. PUBLIC COMMENT
No Public Comment
VII. COMMISSION REPORTS
Commissioners Kogle, Blum, Crosby, Sands and Carroll all attended an afternoon
gathering to honor the City and the City staff for the completion of the
Comprehensive Plan where the Mayor and Commissioner Kogle spoke and
awards were presented to the staff. Commissioners Beaulac and Robertson had
nothing to report.
VIII. ADMINISTRATIVE REPORTS
Director Sukup reported that the community meetings with the consultants
would not be held until after summer, but that the stakeholder meeting would be
held in July. Director Sukup stated that during her recent trip to the national
APA conference a considerable amount of discussion was about redevelopment,
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walkable communities, and people places not driving places, that shopping malls
are a thing of the past. She also reported that this will probably be a theme of
the Sub-Area Plan and that more information will be provided to them in the
future as we proceed into these projects.
IX. COMMISSION BUSINESS
OLD BUSINESS: Rules of Procedure — Mr. Connelly spoke to the
Commission about issues that the Commission needs to keep in mind as
they conduct their meetings. The Commission will want to make sure
that they use the same processes for each meeting and keep them the
same every time.
o With regard to the chair abstaining from voting. Unless the Chair
has a personal/conflict reason for doing so, legal does not
recommend the Chairman do so. As a general rule, everyone
votes. It can create a quorum problem, which the Commission
would not want.
o Stick to the agenda. If council asks the Commission to look at
two things on a four page ordinance, please do just that. If the
Commissioners have other topics from that ordinance, they are
welcome to look at those, just bring them back on a different
agenda.
o Only take testimony when the meeting is open for that. Do not
go back and forth, it creates a problem with due process if the
Commissioners are asking questions and inviting more testimony
after the hearing process has been closed.
o The Commission's role is advisory. You have a wide issue of
things you can look at but in the end you are still only making
recommendations to the legislative body and they can/will make
judgments and changes to the documents you send them. The
Commission could always send a representative to the Council
meeting to add emphasis to your position but you still have to
accept what the Council does.
o Open Public Meetings Act. This is very strict and very black and
white. The Commission can not conduct any business outside of
this meeting room. No meetings, lunches, gatherings, conference
calls. There can be no polling and there can not be a meeting of 3
and then another meeting of another 3. All meetings and
deliberations are done in the open, the Commission can not retire
into executive session, the Commission can not turn off the
recording, and the Commission can not exclude things from the
minutes. If the Commission forms a sub-committee and it has
more than 3 Commission members on it, the Commission need to
make it a public meeting.
o Public Records — everything is a public record. Every written
document, every email is subject to disclosure based on the public
records act. Minutes are public as soon as printed, even if they
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are drafts. If the Commissioners are using your home email then
everything on your home email is subject to disclosure. The City
has a retention policy and Mr. Connelly will provide it to the
Commissioners in order for them to know how long they must
keep things from Commission business. Once a document has
been downloaded from the website, it is a public record, once a
document has been altered with notes of any kind, it is a public
record. Public has a right to not only the decisions but the path to
the decisions.
o Appearance of Fairness. Try to remain above reproach, you can
not accept gifts. Except in quasi-judicial decisions, street vacations
are the only ones that the Commission handles, the
Commissioners have the right to do all the research you would like
and speak to ask many people as you would like in order to make
a better decision, yourself. If the Commissioners have a personal
gain in the outcome of a vote, then they should recuse
themselves from the vote and the discussion on that matter.
There was then discussion of several questions: Whether a Commissioner
could go to Council and express a different opinion than the forwarded
decisions? Yes, Commissioners could if they felt that strongly, anyone
can speak before the Council. How could Commissioners add information
to what they send to Council? It can be added to the Recommendation
for Council Action. Mr. Connelly will discuss with City Staff as to how to
segregate the City business and the personal business the Commission is
doing on their computers. Can the Chairman restrict Commissioners from
asking questions during testimony? Yes, the Chair can make that
decision but the Commission can then vote to override that decision.
Minutes are public records even before they become official. Is it ok to
ask a Commissioner who has decided to run for a political office to excuse
themselves from the Commission until after the election? No, you can
not ask them to step down temporarily however there can be no
campaigning from office on City property or at a City meeting. If a
Commissioner took on a��pet project" is this ok? It would be ok but it
would probably be proper to recuse yourself from the vote. You can not
work both sides. All Commissioners thanked Mr. Connelly for his time
and the information.
NEW BUSINESS: Exterior Lighting Discussion — Director Sukup shared
a new version of the lighting standards than the one the Commissioners
received in their packet. This standard does not address single family
housing, the City does not have any street lights and we will only put in
the standards what the staff can enforce. The lighting standards must
meet the energy codes. The City is proposing to not regulate the height
of lighting poles but rather to have a formula to establish height based on
parking lot size. Commissioner Beaulac stated that the first document
seemed similar to the City of Redmond, there were things he did like in
the first document and he did not see any of that in the second
document. Commissioner Beaulac asked for a copy of the City of
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Redmond ordinance and possibly Ames, Iowa where he had seen
grandfathered luminary addressed. Staff will provide those documents
and bring this item back for a future agenda.
Aesthetic Corridors & Billboards Discussion — When the Council adopted
the Comp Plan it has a policy of cap and replace for billboards. It is now
the Commission's job to determine how far apart those billboards should
be on the same side of the street and the offset on the opposite sides of
the street. Director Sukup made a presentation and afterwards printed
off the slides for the Commissioners for them to use for review, with
ideas of 1000 feet apart, 250 offset on the opposite side of the street.
Commissioners had a discussion over how many existing billboards,
location, grandfathered places, replacement permits. Commissioner
Crosby asked if the Commissioners could get a reference map of
distances from the front of the building so they could go outside at a
future meeting and try and get a visual on the street. This subject will be
addressed again at a future meeting.
X. FOR THE GOOD OF THE ORDER
There was nothing for the Good of the Order.
XI. ADJOURNMENT
There being no other business the meeting was adjourned at 8:17 pm
SUBMITTED: APPROVED:
Deanna Griffith, Administrative Assistant Gail Kogle, Chairperson
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