Oakley Nixes Reviving Planning Commission, May Seek Council “Assistants”

During Tuesdays Oakley City Council Meeting, the council discussed the idea of bringing back a planning commission or revamping its Planning Commission Advisory group which had only a single applicant.

City Manager Bryan Montgomery explained that it was determined back in 2014 the idea of an advisory committee was a less costly approach to getting more public input and encouraging more input into planning through the Planning Commission Advisors.

City staff estimate that bringing back a formal planning commission would cost the city around $125,000. He estimates that within 2-3 years, they will be hiring another planner as staff capacity is currently between 80% to 110% depending on the projects at hand.

However, during Tuesdays meeting, it was stated by Montgomery that the real cost of a planning commission would be dropped by $100,000 to around $25,000 if Oakley already had the staff.

According to the staff report, the concept of the proposed “Citizen Planning Advisors is as follows:

• With more apparent interest in serving, the number of Advisors may better be placed at five, but no more than seven
• The scope of projects for the Advisors’ review would be similar to that of a separate Planning Commission (Conditional Use Permits, Design Reviews, Variances).
• Comments and suggestions should have the same time set forth in the initial routing of a project (typically 30 days or less). The input would be submitted by email.
• Staff wouldn’t necessarily respond to or include all suggestions in the Staff recommendations, but all can be listed for City Council’s information.
• The applicant(s) would have an opportunity to respond to the Advisors’ comments and suggestions.
• The comments would be provided to the City Council as part of the Staff Report. The comments would be grouped together to remove the names of the Advisors.

He further highlighted that when we looked at this originally we had additional staff.

“I was reminded today by the Mayor who sat on the planning commission we had a community development director, two planners, an intermittent planner, and a administrative assistant. Right now, we have two planners who are near their capacity so if there is additional impact and work we are going to have to hire more staff, that is just the reality,” explained Montgomery. “If we are going to implement a formal committee, then we are going to need to follow that process and hire staff.”

Montgomery noted that one idea to get more people involved is expand their noticing requirements on a Conditional Use Permit on projects from 300 feet to 500 feet. The idea would be to get more discussion from folks in the area where the project will occur—this cost would be placed on the applicant.

“These chambers are not full unless a project impacts them directly,” said Montgomery. “We can work to broaden our notification and outreach other than have just a city council meeting. As you know, anyone from the public can come speak at the city council meeting on any agenda item or planning issue, we just simply do not get a lot of interest.”

Montgomery touted the Citizens Academy having strong participation which is causing more interest for this planning commission with four people already expressing interest.

“It’s unfortunate that whether it be online or with you, that we as staff sound defensive. That is not our intent,” said Montgomery. “Each one of us has our own budget at home and we have to decide what are our priorities. If something new is going to be added to the family budget, we have to look at how we are going to accommodate that. By me stating that this is going to cost over $100,000 to accommodate this is just the facts.”

In public comments, Oakley Resident Dawn Morrow encouraged the City Council to form a “real” planning commission after questioning the cost and highlighting how Oakley has streamlined the application process which speeds up the approval process without little to no citizen input.

She highlighted how the City Council, who appear sometimes in over their head on city planning, typically defer items back to City Staff on important decisions.

“The council frequently defers to staff when deciding on important matters that may be out of their area of expertise such as City Planning and Development. This shows a disregard for public input, and is a vulnerability to our City,” said Morrow.

She further questioned Oakley’s processes in streamlining items online with little or no opportunity for the public to chime in before decisions are made.

“Why are we streamlining? Why are we in such a hurry to shove things into open spaces without asking for any input,” asked Morrow. “if a business is a good fit” it will be accepted.

Oakley resident Angela Lowrey spoke about the staff report and how it only provided two options which was a high end commission or something very small with advisers.

“I can’t help but wonder if we can’t just create some sort of hybrid here in our community where we are seeking input which could include a committee with a chairperson who speaks for the group so the council is not being bombarded with emails and questions,” explained Lowry. “Even if tonight its too big on whether to form a commission or a committee, think about implementing something for one year and at least giving it a try. I would hope you have met enough people in this community where 5 people can come in and help Josh (McMurray) and the city. You have committed people who care and want to be part of the process.”

Mayor Kevin Romick stated he was a Planning Commissioner for four years before being elected to the council. He proceeded to read a column he wrote years ago as to what he interpreted what a planning commission is.

He then highlighted what transpired between the City Council and Planning Commission.

“When I sat on the Planning Commission, the city council would ask to review our decisions because they did not agree with us and they would make changes once it got up to the council,” explained Romick. “So to say the Planning Commission has the power to veto projects is not true because everything can eventually be determined by the city council. The other role is to advice the council on legislative decisions which will ultimately be determined by the council.”

Romick noted that while he was on the planning commission for four years, there was a tremendous amount of work to be done because they had just become a city with the housing market going “nuts” as opposed to now. They had zoning ordinances, a general plan to be created, and approve specific plans.

“There will be a time in the near future where the development cycle will reach that critical mass again that the city council will need the assistance and sharing of the load with a planning commission. I have no doubt about it,” said Romick. “I am not afraid of a planning commission. I am not intimidated by a planning commission. Personally right now, I don’t see the need for one because the work just isn’t there.”

He highlighted how Oakley was “lean” and hire staff when needed versus going out and hiring another city planner because a few members of the public want a planning commission.

Councilwoman Vanessa Perry disagreed with the Mayor saying the time is now to create a planning commission.

“We have a lot of people who are ready to be involved. We do not want our staff to be overworked. If they are close to being at capacity, then it probably is time to think in the shorter term of hiring additional staff,” explained Perry. “It’s also about public involvement and citizen engagement while having people who want to be involved.”

Perry questioned the cost estimate of $125,000 for a planning commission about how the number was created and if the Finance Director performed a cost survey.

Montgomery admitted the finance director was not directly involved but the cost outlined the cost for an associate planner salary is approximately $65,000 with benefits it’s about $101,000. An assistant planner could total about $75,000.

Montgomery further highlighted that current staff in the planning department are running between 80%-to-110% workload depending on the projects at hand.

Perry requested a more in-depth look at the numbers highlighting she look at comparable cities that Oakley typically uses and found the following:

• Pittsburg provides $2,000 a year in miscellaneous costs for a planning commission
• Pleasant Hill provides $5,100 for planning commission training and approximately $800 in stipends.
• Antioch stated there is staff time associated with planning commission but that cost is passed on directly to the developer of the project they are working on plus cost of minutes clerk to attend meeting and transcribe the minutes of the meeting. This year $125 to $225 per meeting with business cards at $35 per commissioner.
• Hercules pays $50 per meeting to a planning commissioner and estimate $6000 a year spent on planning commission.
• City of Brentwood pays $28,500 per year for their 2-meeting a month planning commission.

Perry again questioned the cost Oakley staff is stating.

“I am just wondering how they can all do that for so much less,” stated Perry.

Montgomery tried to explain.

“With all due respect, you did not share those figures with me previously and I do not know what questions you asked them. What is there staffing load. Every city you spoke to has a full planning staff, we do not,” said Montgomery. “If we already had a planning staff, these cost would be cut by $100,000 to about $25,000.”

Montgomery noted that in an apples to apples comparison, you have to look at the staff load because someone is doing that work. He noted that in 2-3 years, the City hopes to have a planner and that the cost would be much less than what is currently being proposed.

City Councilman Doug Hardcastle suggested that those who go through the leadership course the city provides, that they pick one person to be their “assistant’ and look through documents like they get to do for a different perspective.

“We can explain what we are seeing and they can go out and look at projects and ask the staff questions during the meeting,” said Hardcastle. “I’d be very worried if no one from the council asked staff questions because they already have their mind made up. I ask questions that I already know the answer to so the public can see a different perspective.”

Montgomery stated that the idea Angela Lowrey proposed could be that saying maybe each councilmember could get 2-people to trust as residents.

“As the packet is sent to council, it’s also sent out to them and ask them to review it because you want to get their input. Can you go talk to some residents and assist me in my job,” explained Montgomery. “They could consult you on matters beyond planning on other issues.”

Montgomery further highlighted the council would then be grooming people for when the time comes to have a planning commission because they could see the work of these individuals.

“They would be trained and better equipped to serve,” said Montgomery.

Councilwoman Sue Higgins highlighted she liked Kevin Romick’s idea of looking at it in our budget and like the idea of assistants.

“I would like a mixture of looking at both ideas,” said Higgins.

Councilman Randy Pope highlighted he was a big advocate of the concept of a planning commission.

“I brought this issue up as Mayor as one of my items and we had this same discussion a couple years ago and that is how this interim citizens planning advisor concept came up. I was very disappointed that up until the leadership academy, only 1 person expressed interest,” explained Pope. “I know its not a big and sexy and powerful and maybe that is what dissuaded people from participating but there is a lot more enthusiasm now and people do have an interest.”

Councilman Pope noted he doesn’t believe right now is the right time for a planning commission but does want to have something more than the hybrid proposed a few years ago calling it “really watered down”.

“I love Mr. Hardcastles idea about having assistants advise on a one-on-one with a councilmember. Whether that is part of the commission hybrid plan or not. I would like to have something like that regardless to have more minds, more ideas and more people giving input as that is one of my biggest frustrations which is the lack of that from everybody,” said Pope. “I get a couple emails. A couple people come to talk to me sometimes. Unless it impacts you, you don’t have that impetus to get involved.”

Councilman Pope again stated his support for a planning commission.

“I am a big supporter of a planning commission, but as far as cost goes, those are legitimate necessary cost when the time comes, we need to pay for that and we need to mandate the training the league offers. I think that is the responsible and necessary thing to do,” said Pope.

Pope said the council needs to decide how to empower the advisory committee and prepare for the day when they can go live with a full commission.

“We run tight ship and if we have to, reduce our city council to one meeting a month and have the planning commission meeting on the alternate meeting, that would be a way to save costs, money and staff time to get that commission up and running,” said Pope. “I do believe in it and want to get it.”

Mayor Kevin Romick stated the council will look into a hybrid and including a planning commission in their April-May Budget Planning Session. They will also look into increasing notifications on planning items from 300 to 500 feet.

Romick noted this was a work session and the items will come back to the council for future council decision.