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"... Because time is of the essence, we commend staff for preparing a Table of Proposed Revisions (TPR), which includes public comments. This table will be very helpful in facilitating the Planning Board's review in a timely manner. However, not all the public comments are being included in the TPR. Instead only those comments deemed as "not too controversial or are not significant changes to the meaning of the objective" are included. (i.e. comments deemed "controversial"are being excluded!) In contrast, the Coalition strongly recommends that all public comments received to date— and for as long as the Public Hearing is open — be included in the TPR. The Planning Board should solely be responsible for selecting which public comments to incorporate into their recommendations rather than for Planning Department personnel to filter the comments that will be considered. Such filtering could all too easily be mistaken as staff censorship and/or usurpation of the Planning Board's role." Personally, I do not think the filtering is intentionally censorious, but rather the result of the work load and time constraints placed on the Planning Board and Staff. Whereas planning department staff unsuccessfully attempted—over a period of four years --to update only the rural watershed, residentially-zoned sections of the county's Land Use element, the Planning Board has the responsibility (supported by staff) to spearhead a complete update of the entire eight-element Comprehensive Plan in less than two years, while also conducting its regular business, reviewing the Buckhorn Village proposal and integrating eight county advisory boards into the plan update process. In this context, it's not unexpected that a time-saving mechanism such as comment filtering was utilized. Still, even if the filtering was done with the best of intentions, the effect is the same—some public comments both from the Coalition and all other concerned parties who took the time to engage in the process are not getting the full attention of the Planning Board during their meetings. Rather, as this process comes to a close some public comments, whether controversial and/or progressive and forward-thinking, will only be taken up by the Planning Board if an individual board member takes it upon his/herself to bring specific items to the board's attention and advocate for changes to the Plan. Therefore the Coalition strongly encourages the County Commissioners to make sure that 1. all public comments are treated equally in the review process, 2. the Planning Board has sufficient time to accommodate an equitable review process, and 3. the commissioners vote on the Comprehensive Plan takes place no sooner than 30 days after the Planning Board's written recommendations are made available to the public.