Merging of planning boards criticized

<p>Arguments over whether the combining of the city’s planning and design-review board would improve the development process or stack the new body with people who support the City Council majority’s views went past midnight and into Tuesday morning.</p><!-- Nothing to do. The paragraph has already been output --><p>At about 12:30 a.m., the council decided on a 4-3 vote that the Planning Commission and Site and Plan and Architectural Review Committee would be merged, and a new round of members appointed in time for the new body’s first meeting in August.</p><p>The split vote reflected a sharp difference of opinion over the motives behind the merger.</p><p>“This process is going to be better because we won’t have projects jumping back and forth between SPARC, the Planning Commission and the City Council,” Mayor Pamela Torliatt said.</p><p>But council members Mike Healy and David Rabbitt said they believe the move is designed to replace members of those bodies with people who think like the council majority, which took over in January.</p><p>“This has all the hallmarks of a naked power grab,” Healy said. “It’s very sad and it’s very unprecedented.”</p><p>“This would be a huge mistake,” Rabbitt said. “You’re pulling the rug out from under people who are serving the city, whose terms aren’t over yet.”</p><p>Members of the council’s environmental majority bristled at suggestions that they were attempting to reshape the Planning Commission’s political makeup. They said they are responding to concerns that the city’s development-review process is inefficient.</p><p>“This is an efficiency grab, Mr. Healy — it’s not a power grab,” Councilmember David Glass responded. “What we are doing is not working; isn’t there a better way?”</p><p>“I think there’s a lot of hysteria here,” said Vice Mayor Teresa Barrett, who said she was offended by a comment Rabbitt made suggesting that the majority’s goal is to “streamline denials” of projects.</p><p>“There’s no secret agenda here,” Barrett said.</p><p>“The public’s not buying that,” Rabbitt responded a few minutes later.</p><p>Some members of the public who spoke said they were concerned about how the new Planning Commission would operate.</p><p>Architect Mary Dooley said design-review and land-use decisions require “completely different skill sets” and said she isn’t aware of other cities that operate a similar commission successfully.</p><p>Another speaker, Dave Alden, said the change would slow down the project-review process for developers and “completely change the game they’ve been playing so far.”</p><p>Bruce Qualls, a spokesman for Regency Centers, which is planning a Target-anchored shopping center on East Washington Street and Highway 101, said he was concerned that opponents of the project could be appointed as commissioners to “stack the deck” against the proposal.</p><p>But members of the council majority said the development process would be improved with a single review board making recommendations to the City Council.</p><p>Under the new process, projects would be sent to the Planning Commission after neighborhood meetings and environmental reviews are completed, and then forwarded to the council with a recommendation for approval or denial.</p><p>Glass and Barrett suggested appointing the new commission’s members for one-year terms initially, but Councilmember Tiffany Renée said the city should stick with the traditional four-year terms for planning commissioners, which a majority of the council ultimately approved.</p><p>The new Planning Commission would have six members appointed by the council, plus one council member serving as a liaison. For reviews of projects involving historic buildings, two additional members — selected by the Petaluma Museum Association and Heritage Homes — would join the panel.</p><p>The first meeting would be Aug. 11. Current members of both boards were asked to apply for the new Planning Commission, along with members of the public.</p><p>So far, applicants for the new commission include current commissioners Christopher Arras, Spence F. Burton, Kathleen Miller and Jack Rittenhouse, whose terms don’t expire until 2010 or later.</p><p>Current SPARC members Dennis Elias, whose term expires this month, and Ray Johnson, whose term expires next year, also applied.</p><p>The other applicants are Melissa Abercrombie, Ross Jones, Jasper Lewis-Gehring and Jennifer Pierre. The council is accepting applications until June 29.</p><p>(Contact Corey Young at corey.young@arguscourier.com)</p>