2006-10-27 tcouncil - Laserfiche WebLink

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SIRACUSA:Okay. YUEN:There will still be publicly-noticed meetings. You still take public testimony. But you wont have this point where we say, We are closing the public hearing and then voting on it at another meeting. ALAMEDA:Right, which is kind of what we do now. We dont really say were going to close this public hearing. Or we do, the Commission? YUEN:We do not, we normally dont except few things that say youre supposed to have a public hearing. So let me give an example. The SMA permits, you know, some people come in and we dont notice that as a public hearing, that people want to come and testify, they come and testify; and,you know, when theyre done testifying, the Commission takes a vote. FortheCharter,becausetheordinancethatgovernsandsaysyouhavetohaveapublic hearing, it has been advertised as a public hearing, then theres a close of a public hearing, because thats what triggers certain other follow-up dates. And thats what were trying to eliminate, is that question of what does, how come were still taking testimony at the next meeting if we closed the public hearing. It becomes, I think, you know, its confusing even to explain it, but I think its more of a confusion when you have it in there as saying that you have this public hearing. ALAMEDA:I understand. Commissioner Graham? GRAHAM:First Id like to ask sort of like a very background, historical kind of review. What were talking about here is County Council-initiated interim amendments sort of to the General Plan. And back like in the 80s I was more involved in kind of community and environmental issues where theres a lot of developers who come in with a project and the project would require a General Plan amendment, rezoning, SMA, all that kind of stuff. So to us as a community it looked like the developers were initiating the General Plan amendments; but here were talking about the Council. Is that just a technicality or have procedures changed? We dont really seem to get that these days the way we used to get lots of them. YUEN:Well, even in those days, the General Plan, although the idea from it may have been instigated by a developer, the actual amendment was either, theres either a Council resolution or a Planning Director initiation of the General Plan amendment. And if you go down and, even in the current amendment procedures, there is a formal way for an individual or a landowner to make a petition for their amendment to be considered. But if the Planning Director or the Council then dont initiate it, it dies. And, again, the Charter currently says that only the Council or the Planning Director can initiate a General Plan amendment. This is different than a rezoning. The rezoning, the law, part of the Zoning Code governs how you do a rezoning. And if you are a landowner, for example, you can file an application for rezoning. And if the Planning Director, you know, the hair stands up on the back of my neck, I tell them I hate the idea, they have a right to bring that application and they have a right to have it heard here, and you guys can vote nine to nothing against it. They have a right to have that taken up to the County Council. And the County Council, you know, then can vote nine to nothing against it. But they have a right to initiate a rezoning and have it taken through the 5EXHIBIT B