Agenda - 02-19-2015 - E1 - Laserfiche WebLink

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95 Approved 2/4/15 216 Laura Nicholson: I brought it up in a previous meeting and the consensus was it is easier to fix it this way. Judging 217 by the push back I think there are things going on the new members don't always get. 218 219 Lydia Wegman: I am stating for the record my main problem is having the Planning Board offer its view before the 220 public hearing is problematic. The Planning Board will never be sufficiently informed to offer a well- considered view 221 without having heard the presentations at the BOCC meetings. 222 223 Pete Hallenbeck: I understand, we are all wrestling with this problem. At least this mechanism has a way where the 224 Commissioners can identify that this one is going to take a while, etc. 225 226 Perdita Holtz: In this process it would also allow the lay person to actually speak to the Planning Board, in a lot of 227 communities if you are not an expert at the quasi-judicial hearing, you don't get to speak. If Orange County were 228 ever to perhaps be sued over that, we might adopt that type of attitude about it too. This process would allow the lay 229 person to come to the Planning Board and speak their concerns and why. 230 231 Lydia Wegman: You're right Perdita but I'll just note that because of the public hearing, the layperson's testimony is 232 irrelevant. It would have to be made very clear to the lay person that while they might speak at the Planning Board 233 that because it is quasi judicial, by the time it's before the Board of County Commissioners, only expert witnesses 234 can give testimony. 235 236 Pete Hallenbeck: Again, with the solar project as a reference, if there were interaction with the Planning Board while 237 the developers were here there are a lot of questions, answers, interchanges that just can't happen at a quasi-judicial 238 setting and the resident have an opportunity to get better organized so that when you went quasi - judicial and you 239 have to swear in you have experts and it's much more focused. 240 241 Lydia Wegman: The three most critical elements in that was the staff could not make a recommendation. 242 243 Craig Benedict: Nor the Planning Board. 244 245 Lydia Wegman: Nor the Planning Board, they are the most critical ones and they are the only ones in fact which the 246 case if it ever went to court would be considered. The key one was `the use will maintain or enhance the value of 247 contiguous property'. In the case of the solar application, there was an appraisal offered by the solar company and 1 248 bet that appraiser, even if he showed up, would have come and said whatever he was going to say to the Planning 249 Board and at the public hearing they have a new appraisal and a new appraiser which no one had seen before. And 250 there would be nothing that could have been done. 251 252 Pete Hallenbeck: There's another example, they showed this picture of these panels that were further away than 253 what was planned with trees there and claimed that was equivalent and so to have that opportunity to do that in 254 advance... 255 256 Lydia Wegman: The advance doesn't necessarily stop the applicant from showing up with new information that is 257 crucial to the decision. 258 259 Pete Hallenbeck: I think it is a great way to think through the ramifications of the process because we have an 260 example to look at. Those are the discussion you can have when you're not constrained by the quasi-judicial 261 process and the benefit there if we had this discussion is the residents would have an opportunity to see and get 262 feedback from the Planning Board and staff and all of that would help them to make a better presentation. 263 264 Lydia Wegman: It is disingenuous to the community to pretend that what the Planning Board and staff can offer an 265 opinion on the 3 most crucial elements. I think that is a flaw in the process. 266 267 Perdita Holtz: That's under state law, it's not something we can change. In some communities the Planning Board 268 doesn't hear the quasi-judicial matters at all. 269