07271992 Regular Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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Date: April 24, 1992 To: Members of the Sunset Review Commission From: Ron Patterson, Director of Planning and Development Services Subject: Survey Information Regarding the Viability of Commissions As you will see in the survey fonns returned to your Commission, the Planning and Development Services Depanment currently staffs a total of nine boards and commissions. This obviously requires a great deal of staff time to work with applicants who want to come before the commissions, to prepare staff reports and to prepare minutes of the meetings. In addition to the time spent during the course of the nonnal work week, several city employees are routinely required to provide staff support at evening meetings. For example, I regularly attend the evening meetings of five different boards or commissions and two City Council meetings each month. In evaluating the situation regarding the most effective use of my staff's time in coordinating these boards and commissions, I would like to suggest some possible changes for your consideration. I firmly believe the eventual consolidation of the Planning and Zoning Commissions would result in a more effective review body and significantly cut the amount of time required for staff support. First, let me give you some background infonnation. In 1982, San Marcos' Planning and Zoning Commission was replaced with a Planning Commission and a Zoning Commission. This split was apparently done to reduce the number of cases being heard by the Planning and Zoning Commission. In reality, the total number of cases were not reduced, but were merely split between two commissions. The split did, however, result in an increase in staff time since more Coimníssion meetings were staffed and more agendas were prepared. Today, the case load is somewhat less that it was during the boom years of the mid 1980's and there is less of a need for so many meetings. I am not aware of any other city in Texas that has separate Planning and Zoning Commissions, not even among larger communities with a considerably larger case load. In addition, there are some distinct disadvantages to having two separate commissions hearing planning and land use matters. The primary disadvantage is that the planning and zoning functions are so closely interrelated that the policy direction set by separate commissions can occasionally be in conflict. Most Texas communities have a single Planning and Zoning Commission because such a body is the most effective way of coordinating the community's long-range planning policies with the day to day zoning / land use requests. City Hall. 630 East Hopkins. San Nlarcos, Texas 78666 . 512/353.4444 . FAX 512/396.4656