PD BACKGROUND AND RECOMMENDATION REPROT

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needed to complete development of a project or subdivision or the Planning Department's best estimates on how long the development process or components thereof would take. Over the years,unless more time was requested by an applicant, Planning Directors would usually recommend a 5-year development completion condition (e.g., time to complete construction for non-residential projects or time to secure final subdivision approval for change of zone applications that would result in a subdivision) with the possibility of up to a 5-year time extension should the applicant meet the criteria for granting one. In most cases this timeframe was sufficient to complete the required action, however, in some cases, applicants were unable to meet the timed requirements, which would require the applicant to apply for a time extension with the Planning Department for recommendation from the Planning Commission and ultimately approval, modification, or denial by the County Council. Until an ordinance is brought current with an amendment, it is considered stale,meaning the Planning Department will not process or issue Final Plan Approval/Final Subdivision Approval or sign-off on any building permits, until an amendment for time extension is secured. Over the last year or so,the current Planning Director has opted to start excluding timed conditions in cases where the proposed change of zone meets the applicable guidelines for granting a change of zone, is consistent with the General Plan (GP) and applicable Community Development Plan (CDP) (e.g. a change of zone from A-l0a to FA-3a outside of the urban area or a change of zone from RS-10 to CN-10 inside the urban area). Conversely, the Planning Director has added timed conditions to change of zone requests on lands in fringe areas between urban and non-urban land use designations typically located around urban growth boundaries. Unlike other Planning Commission permits (e.g., Special Permits, Use Permits, SMA Use Permits, Shoreline Setback Variances, etc.), a Change of Zone does not sanction or compel a specific project or development, thus any land use permitted in the zoning district is allowed,thus while applicant's usually include information on a proposed project in their change of zone application, the Planning Director must consider that other land uses permitted in the zoning district are possible and assess the potential impacts of the full range of permitted land uses accordingly. As such,the Planning Director has been recommending performance conditions which would require an applicant to complete certain tasks to ensure adequate -3-