On Tuesday, the Oakley City Council will discuss the idea of bringing back a Planning Commission to the City of Oakley which the Council assumed the role in 2009 due to budgetary reasons.
The idea of bring back a Planning Commission is nothing new for the City Council to discuss, however, bringing it back to life was listed as a major goal of Mayor Randy Pope who is set on providing more opportunity for civic involvement in 2014 during his term as Mayor.
According to the staff report, the costs to solicit candidates select and then train new Planning Commissioners and the Staff costs (Planning, Engineering, Legal and others) are significant. Depending on the frequency of the meetings and the items discussed, the cost of reinstating and operating a new Planning Commission is likely around $40,000 for the first year and about $30,000 per year thereafter.
The staff report indicates there are multiple options for the council to discuss including what type of Planning Commission they would create. Here is a look at the options.
- Continue with the City Council acting as the planning Commission –essentially there would be no change to the current process.
- Re-establish the Planning Commission as a separate body—this would mean they would have final say to approve or deny Conditional Use Permits, Variances, Tentative Maps (Minor and Major), and Design Review without ever making it to the City Council.
- Form a design review Board or similar Planning Advisory Committee – as a way to get committee input without a formal structure.
- City Council Planning Subcommittee that would “staff” meetings with citizen advisory committee and report back to the full council the input when the items are on the City Council Meeting Agenda.
According to the staff report, it states there are not enough items on the horizon to warrant a separate Planning Commission as well as the fact the City Council would still want to weigh in on the likely matters to come forward.
