Minutes 11-06-2014 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Commissioner Pelissier said she would like to find a way to do this. She would like to find a way to have the legislative public hearing items be more frequent than just quarterly. Perdita Holtz said it would be possible to have a section of the website that would allow for complete items to be listed ahead of the agenda. Commissioner Pelissier said she would like to try the new process with the 8 public hearings and see how it goes. Commissioner Gordon said it seems to her that Commissioner Pelissier's comments about the notices for public hearings are well taken. She said it is important with legislative items, like re-zonings, to give 10 days of notice for the public hearings. Commissioner Rich agreed with Commissioner Pelissier. She said there are some public hearings that can be added to agenda items. She would like to leave this option open. Chair Jacobs summarized that there had been comments and concerns regarding the following items: - Timing of public hearings - Provision of advanced notice of public hearings - Capturing public comments - Number of public hearings - Rendering of decisions subsequent to public hearings -Advertisement comments from Board of County Commissioners Chair Jacobs said Commissioner Gordon made good points about giving notice and having a deliberate process. He said there needs to be more discussion about time between public hearings and rendering a decision. Chair Jacobs said Commissioner porosin made some good points about the public engagement and the improvement in this. He referred to the final blue box in the flow chart and said this reminds him of the concept plans that are sent to the Planning Board for preliminary analysis and report. He said the Planning Board sends this report back to the Commissioners, and then if it is straightforward there is no need to send it back to the Planning Board. He said there are some items that are just very clear, and those could be on the regular Commissioner agenda. Chair Jacobs said Commissioner Rich and Commissioner Price were both talking about thinking through what we hear as part of the public hearing process, and whether people have had an adequate opportunity to address the Board. He said the flip side is that we don't want to ask people to come more times than necessary. He said this needs to be combed out a little more. He said his recollection is that staff reported that Orange County's review process is not any slower than neighboring jurisdictions. He said this process would potentially allow the Planning Board to take itself out of this process, but there is nothing that precludes that. Chair Jacobs said this proposal is generally an improvement but there have been some points raised that the Board may want to isolate more. Chair Jacobs said he is most concerned about there being more public access to the decision making process as well as the Board receiving that information in order to know what people are thinking. Commissioner Rich referred to Chair Jacobs comment about the option for putting a public hearing on the agenda. She asked if this has ever happened, where it has come from the Planning Board. Chair Jacobs said none have come from the Planning Board. He said he is saying that box 5 on the flowchart would accommodate a way to do this.