Rehearing limits favored

June Casagrande

A plan to limit council members’ power to override Planning

Commission decisions passed its first test, but at the same time drew

some serious concerns.

“In my experience, to create a policy or law just to address the

actions of one individual is a bad idea,” Councilman Gary Adams said.

The individual in question is Councilman Dick Nichols, whose

record of revisiting Planning Commission decisions prompted his

colleagues to consider changing city policy.

A council member can “call up” any decision by the Planning

Commission for reconsideration by the council. Doing so nullifies the

commission’s previous decision and treats the matter as a new

hearing. A planning commissioner has the same power to call up

decisions by the city’s Modifications Committee, a group of staff

members who rule on property owners’ requests for minor exceptions to

city design and building guidelines.

After Nichols called up five planning decisions in seven months --

more than any other sitting council member -- some of his colleagues

suggested changing the rules to require at least two council members

to call up commission decisions.

“The idea was not to limit the number of call ups,” Adams said. “I

think the objective is to limit the number of indiscriminate and

foolish call ups.”

Councilman John Heffernan suggested that future call-ups should

focus only on the specific details of concern to the councilman who

calls them up. That way, he said, staff members don’t have to spend

as much time preparing staff reports

“If you’re only contesting three items, to save staff time and

money, maybe we should only look at those three items,” Heffernan

said.

Adams disagreed, arguing that the only way to have a fair hearing

is to revisit the entire issue. The rest of the council sided with

Adams, voting 5 to 1 to bring back the matter at a future council

meeting without Heffernan’s provision. The item will probably appear

on the next council agenda for a final vote.