AGENDA #9b

MEMORANDUM

TO:                  Roger L. Stancil, Town Manager

FROM:            J.B. Culpepper, Planning Director

                        David Bonk, Long Range and Transportation Coordinator

SUBJECT:      Calling a Public Forum for the Revision of the Comprehensive Plan

DATE:            October 23, 2006

PURPOSE

This is Part B of a two-part item. It responds to Part A, the report of the Planning Board.

The memorandum proposes that the Council receive the report of the Planning Board and call one or more public forums inviting citizens to provide additional input in the review process. The attached resolution would schedule a Council Public Forum for November 20, 2006 and also direct the Planning Board to hold a Public Forum prior to November 20, 2006, to receive additional comment.

BACKGROUND

On January 12, 2006, the Council endorsed a process for revising the 2000 Comprehensive Plan. The Council requested that the Planning Board oversee the process as outlined below:

• Request Town advisory boards to review and comment on possible modifications to the adopted Comprehensive Plan. All comments and recommendations are to be forwarded to the Planning Board.
• The Planning Board is to review comments and recommendations from advisory boards. The Planning Board is to then prepare a recommendation to the Council, identifying areas for possible revision or new sections to be added to the Plan.
• The Council is to consider recommendations of the Planning Board for revisions to the Comprehensive Plan and receive public comment on the proposals. The Council may approve an outline highlighting sections to be revised or added to the Comprehensive Plan.
• The outline would be referred to the Planning Board and the Planning Board would initiate work on revisions to the Comprehensive Plan.
• The revised Comprehensive Plan would then be submitted to the Council for review and adoption.

During the spring of 2006, advisory boards reviewed the Comprehensive Plan and during September, the Planning Board reviewed and compiled those comments into a report for the Town Council. Part A of this agenda item is the Planning Board report, which has been forwarded for the Town Council’s consideration.

On October 9, 2006, the Downtown Partnership forwarded to the staff comments on potential revisions to the Comprehensive Plan. Please see Attachment 1. These comments were not incorporated into the Planning Board Report.

The Community Design Commission is scheduled to hold a work session on the Comprehensive Plan on October 19, 2006, and we expect the Commission to provide comments at that time.

DISCUSSION

We believe that advisory boards and commissions have identified the following matters which could be the basis of additional themes in the Comprehensive Plan:

• Environmental Protection,
• Health Promotion,
• Sustainability, and
• Public Art

The review has also identified modifications and revisions to existing themes expressed in the Plan. In particular we believe the Plan theme of Community Character should contain a discussion about redevelopment and infill development, and about density in relation to the downtown and other locations where there are opportunities for transit oriented and transit supportive development.

At the beginning of this review process staff advised that the scope and process for the revision of the Plan would depend on the nature and extent of the comments received during the review. We suggested that comments of a minor nature could be addressed by simple adjustment to the Plan. Alternatively, comments of a major nature may require the development of a new community vision and mean undertaking a new plan preparation process.

The Planning Board considers that the current review process has revealed a need for something more than a minor adjustment of the existing Plan. The Board believes that the importance of the Plan in guiding the future of the community warrants publicity and additional opportunities for public input at this stage of the review process. The Planning Board has recommended that the Council hold more than one public forum to receive citizen input. It suggested that the Council hold a public forum on the weekend for those citizens who may not be able to attend an evening meeting.

The original process and schedule for this review process included a public forum when the Council received the Planning Board report. The public review process to date through town advisory boards and commissions has provided opportunities for citizen input and identified many items for potential inclusion in a revision to the Comprehensive Plan.

We believe that if the Council agrees that an additional forum is necessary, it could be sponsored by the Planning Board and should be held prior to the November 20, 2006, Council Forum.

NEXT STEPS

Following the Council Public Forum staff will prepare a report discussing how to address the suggested revisions to the Comprehensive Plan.  We anticipate that this report could be a topic for discussion at the Council Planning Session in January 2007.

Thereafter, staff could prepare a process and schedule for the Council’s consideration to revise the Comprehensive Plan, beginning in spring, 2007.

RECOMMENDATION

We recommend the Council adopt the attached resolution which would schedule a Public Forum for November 20, 2006. The resolution would also direct the Planning Board to hold a Public Forum prior to November 20, 2006, to receive additional comment.

ATTACHMENTS

1. Downtown Partnership Comments on the Comprehensive Plan, dated September 10, 2006 (p. 5).