[MissoulaGov] committee update 5-27-09 [second try]

[Bob Jaffe]

[Having some trouble with the list and spam settings. Apologize if you
are getting multiple messages.] 

 

Greetings,

This morning we revisited the cell phone driving ban in Public Safety.
The same issues from the prior discussions were rehashed. The ordinance
failed on a six to three vote. It will go to the floor on Monday with a
recommendation to deny. Jason, Pam, and Dave voted in Favor. Myself, Ed,
John, Jon, Dick, and I think Lynn voted against. The other folks are not
members of that committee. I can't remember if Renee was there.  If she
was, she voted against it.  I will support the ordinance as a secondary
offence. I will offer that amendment again on the floor.  I also want to
strike the part about applying it to bicycles.  I am not defending poor
cycling behavior but cell phone use by cyclists is not a big problem in
our world. Cyclists trying to talk on the phone are also not creating
the same kind of hazard as someone driving a car.  No matter how many
times some folks say it, a 25 pound bicycle is not the same as a 3000
pound car.

 

In PAZ we took up the matter of setting a public hearing for the zoning
rewrite.  In planning for the meeting we anticipated that the issue of
amending zoning versus rezoning would be important so Roger Millar
prepared a presentation covering this issue. This set the stage for a
fairly heated discussion. Roger gave what I thought was a very clear
explanation of how there are two methods by which zoning can be changed.
You can rezone property or make general amendments to the zoning code.
There are different standards and rules for notice that apply to the
different situations.  We are doing general amendments to the zoning
code and are clearly following the rules. Technically, all we need to do
is put a notice in the paper for two weeks and then we can edit them in
just about any way we want. The public participation component of this
process has been over the top obsessive. At one point in the meeting
Jason challenged the committee members to find any other community in
the country that has had a more inclusive zoning amendment process ever
in the history of zoning. I would agree that we have probably set some
kind of record.

 

But the issue won't die. Folks keep bringing up that they thought it
would only be a cleanup and there would not be any substantive changes.
If there are substantive changes then that makes it a rezone. Roger
explained that substantive changes to the zoning definitions are not the
trigger that defines a rezone of someone's property. Substantive changes
are allowed in a general edit to the code. The difference has to do with
if you are changing the zoning of a particular property from one
definition to another. Not if you are amending the specifics of the
zoning definition city wide. The city attorney has weighed in on this
and supported this position. The opponents want the council to hire an
outside attorney to offer a second opinion.  

John Hendrickson has made a referral to the committee of the whole to
discuss hiring an outside attorney in this capacity.  Ed won't put it on
the agenda. This really steams these guys. Dick had some choice words
today for Ed on this account. I can't really speak for Ed but I suspect
he doesn't want to go forward with this because the OPG position
supported by the city attorney is really straight forward and it just
looks like a red herring.

The motion to set the public hearing passed six to five with Marilyn
absent. There is a short list of substantive issues to be discussed
after the planning board reviewed the document with a fine tooth comb
over the course of seventeen meetings.  Folks are encouraged to notify
OPG if they have additional items to add to that list. We were given the
material as hard copies today but I would suspect that it is available
on zoningmissoula.com and will be linked to our minutes. We will have a
pre-public hearing meeting in a couple of weeks to discuss some of the
issues. After the public hearing we will work through the various issues
during the summer. I'm hoping we will be done by the end of July.

 

In A&F we talked about maintenance districts again. Nothing conclusive
came of it. The committee is looking for some more information before we
direct staff to go forward with anything.

 

In Public Works we discussed speed limits again. We started with George
Elmer Drive off of Mullan. It was engineered as a 45 mile an hour
arterial highway.  But what is evolving out there are relatively dense
(4/acre) neighborhoods with parks and kids and the like. The big street
may work right now since it is still a big field but before long we are
going to have a problem. The city engineer did a traffic study and
recommended leaving it at 45. We didn't change it at this meeting but it
is likely that it will go lower as we find ways to make traffic calming
modifications to that roadway in the future.

We also discussed the speed limits in the rattlesnake. The committee did
pass a motion directing staff to come up with what was needed to lower
the 35 mile an hour zones to 30 on both Rattlesnake and Greenough.

 

Budget committee was a little slow today. I still need a little time to
get all caught up on the reading so I didn't have much to say. Maybe by
next week we'll be ready to get into something substantive.           

 

Thanks for your interest,

 

 

 

Bob Jaffe

Missoula City Council, Ward 3

bjaffe at ci.missoula.mt.us <mailto:bjaffe at ci.missoula.mt.us> 

406-728-1052

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www.cmslists.com/pipermail/missoulagov/attachments/20090528/87251e61/attachment.htm>