[MissoulaGov] Conservation and PAZ 8-12-07

[Marilyn Marler]

In Conservation we interviewed 3 people for positions on the Greenhouse Gas and Energy Conservation Team.  We have 3 positions open on that committee, we've interviewed 5 people so far, and we hope to interview one more next week.  We have been getting many applicants, and very well qualified applicants for this committee. I've made a referral to discuss expanding the committee by 2 people: 1 more regular member and another alternate. The GGECT is starting to initiate a lot of projects and their energy level is increasing (I'm not trying to make a lame joke there) so it seems that they could benefit from having more volunteers involved.

In PAZ, we had 2 small items before returning to the zoning re-write. We assigned a member of the Historic Preservation Commission to serve as a Northside-Westside representative instead of as an "at large" member. Her name is Bernadine Gantert.  We appreciate her continued service.Then we had a request for a preliminary plat adjustment and condition amendment for the Flynn Ranch Subdivision. This had to do with stormwater drainage, and we passed it unanimously.

Zoning Re-write. We picked up where we left off last week, which was discussing the administrative adjustments that the Zoning Officer can make.  We started with whether the zoning officer should be able to allow up to a 15% reduction in parking requirements for projects that are within 500 feet of public transit.  Jon Wilkins made a motion to take away that decision making authority.  After some discussion, including that it can be difficult for businesses downtown and on the Hip Strip to meet parking requirments, Jon amended the motion so that the zoning officer can make adjustments for commercial projects but not residential projects. The motion passed.

Then there was round of discussion about the Zoning Officer in general. Who is it? If someone has to sue OPG, who do they sue? Who specifically should people be mad at if they don't like a zoning officer decision? Roger Millar explained that he is essentially the zoning officer, but functionally, it is a shared duty of the whole OPG staff with oversight by Roger and by Dave Loomis.  At one point Dick Haines made a motion that would give city council a bunch of authority over who was making these zoning officer decisions. I didn't completely follow the motion. Much discussion ensued.  Jim Nugent pointed out that OPG employees are county employees so really, the motion doesn't make sense. I suggested at that point that Dick meet with Roger outside of the committee meeting and come up with something that addressed Dick's concern, because it was becoming clear that his motion wasn't going to address the concern. Dick and Roger seemed agreeable to this, and Dick tried to withdraw his motion. That is when all heck broke loose.  Stacy and Ed said I could not let someone withdraw a motion and we had to vote on it. I disagreed and said it was chair's discretion.  Ed moved to table. Everyone talked at once. I have never seen so much discussion about how to stop discussing something. So we had a recess because everyone kept trying to tell me how to run my meeting. Good thing I had a gavel.  After the recess things went better.  We tabled Dick's motion. Someone made a motion to clarify in the zoning re-write that in fact, the head of OPG is the zoning officer. That seemed to make almost everyone happy.  Then we voted to take Dick's original motion off the table, and disposed of it.

Then we took up Hillside Height Measurements.  There have been 2 opposing methods discussed for measuring heights of buildings on hillsides.  "Table top" method, which measures the downhill side of the building to the highest point of the building (this is favored by people who don't want their views obstructed by down hill houses), and "envelope method" which allows the height of the building to vary with the grade of the hillside. So a house could be 30 feet high on the uphill side, and step down. remaining 30 feet high at the downhill side (this is favored by architects and builders, and according to them, people who are paying for their products).  We had 3 options in front of us, which were the products of our previous discussion on this 2 weeks ago or so.  Table top, envelope, and a hybrid between the two. My recollection of that meeting, which was supported when I re-read the minutes, was that council had been leaning toward the envelope method. We ran out of time (there was a fair amount of public comment) and we will pick up on this next PAZ meeting.  I would personally like to see us adopt the envelope method for most of Missoula, and then come up with something specifically for the South Hills that meets their needs.  Not all the hillside neighborhoods in town are the same. We need to be more flexible and not try to have one thing for everyone in this case.  

Thanks for your interest. Make sure you thank Bob for writing these each week because it is not that easy or fast.   I got a little side tracked describing all the Mason's Rules of Order chaos, but I find it rather interesting. Marilyn
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