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HomeMy WebLinkAbout07/13/2020 - Regular Minutes - Comprehensive Plan Evaluation Committee MINUTES COMPREHENSIVE PLAN EVALUATION COMMITTEE Monday, July 13, 2020, 6:00 PM Virtual meeting via Zoom COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT: Brian Bochner, Brad Brimley, Michael Buckley, Elizabeth Cunha, Shana Elliott, Joe Guerra, Lisa Halperin, Linda Harvell, Dennis Maloney, John Nichols, Jeremy Osborne, and Julie Schultz COMMITTEE MEMBERS ABSENT: Clint Cooper CITY STAFF PRESENT: Assistant City Manager and Interim Director of Planning and Development Services Jennifer Prochazka, Transportation Planning Coordinator Jason Schubert, Long Range Planning Administrator Alyssa Halle-Schramm, Staff Planner Jade Broadnax and Staff Assistant Robin Macias 1. Call the meeting to order. The meeting was called to order at 6:02 p.m. 2. Consideration, discussion, and possible action to approve meeting minutes. The committee had no corrections to the minutes. 3. Update and discussion on the public input process. Long Range Planning Administrator Alyssa Halle-Schramm stated that the virtual Community Choices Workshop website was launched this morning. She sent links to the committee so they could share with their personal networks. Committee member Cunha asked if there was a link for the Census in the workshop. Planning Administrator Halle-Schramm stated that the Census information was in two different places during the workshop to help cross-promote Census participation. Committee member Cunha thought the workshop was a time commitment, which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. She also stated that there are places where you are required to put a comment in some of the fields. 4. Presentation and discussion of the Evaluation and Appraisal Report working draft with focus on the chapter goals and actions. Committee member Harvell brought up concerns regarding the City’s future due to COVID-19. She would like the report to address some of the situations and problems we are currently facing. Planning Administrator Halle-Schramm explained to the committee that there are initiatives through Community Services and Economic Development to help get federal relief funds to the community. She stated that the chapter regarding Economic Development tried to capture the economic impacts. There was general discussion regarding COVID-19 planning. Are there ways we can update the document that help the city be more prepared for unknown circumstances? Is there anything in the Comprehensive Plan that we are missing? Planning Next consultant Jamie Greene recommended we look at resiliency and what are we doing to promote resiliency planning. Planning Administrator Halle-Schramm discussed that there may be an opportunity to add new actions that aren’t within the current document by keeping an eye on trends and data as it becomes more available. There was concern that if the City does not do something to address COVID within this document it may appear that we are ignoring what people are going through. This could be done as a statement in the beginning or through other action items. We may also want to look at economic input and update what our plans are. Staff discussed that the Economic Development Master Plan was just updated in May 2020 and they are closely monitoring the impacts COVID may have on the five year plan. Planning Next said the City should be sensitive to what is going on while also being confident in the City’s future. The City will still have a future after COVID and it’s prudent to plan for that future, despite the current unknowns. It may be appropriate to monitor changes/track data in transportation, work environment and recreation and how the Comprehensive Plan can accommodate changes in these patterns in the future. There was discussion amongst the committee regarding each chapter. Chapter 2 Planning Next consultant Michael Curtis explained the formatting of the chapters. He stated that within each chapter there are a series of action items. The strategic action section of each chapter are a combination of new items or items that should be priority going forward. The ongoing actions are things the city is doing and will continue to do to implement the Comprehensive Plan. Planning Administrator Halle-Schramm highlighted the following items: 2.2 – Prioritize Detailed planning efforts for specific areas - The scenario planning activity may help determine which areas should have future planning efforts - This item could possibly be considered for COVID related changes or priority areas 2.3 – Revised version of existing item. 2.6 – Current concept map within the plan hasn’t been fully utilized in its current capacity; many of the concept map features are incorporated in the proposed future land use categories 2.8 – Continue to evaluate the effectiveness of UDO standards - This item could possibly be a COVID related discussion regarding the regulation of businesses. Committee member Schultz stated to consider expediting processes or looking at reductions in requirements. 2.10 – Encourage parking alternatives and structured parking 2.11 – Continue proactive zoning map updates and City initiated rezonings. Planning Administrator Halle-Schramm stated this could also be used to help businesses by taking the cost and time of rezoning the property away from the developer. There was concern about the vacant tenant spaces. Maybe there could be incentives given to businesses to reuse current vacant space. We should be more concerned with redevelopment versus new development. We should bring some type of family activities to the area. Chapter 3 Planning Administrator Halle-Schramm highlighted the following items: 3.1 – Continue to look at UDO to look at compatibility standards 3.2 – Create a neighborhood planning toolkit for neighborhood-initiated items. These are smaller action items that a neighborhood wants to take on and the City would support it. 3.5 & 3.6 – Data monitoring and looking at trends, will be particularly important as more COVID impacts are felt and tracked. 3.7 – Evaluate the relevancy of current neighborhood plans • There was concern about what will happen when a plan is beyond it’s planning horizon. This is a new action to address that concern and formalize a process. There was concern about the Wellborn Community still wanting to be rural and if their plan is expiring a new or updated one should be implemented. There was concern with the neighborhood plans not being fully implemented which can be discouraging to citizens. The committee felt it was important to involve the neighborhoods in neighborhood planning and to manage expectations let them know why it may take a long time to get things done. Chapter 4 There is a new write up regarding the economic impact of COVID-19 and a paragraph that summarizes the current Economic Development Master Plan. • The committee recommended adding one sentence or clarification to support, retention and development of local existing businesses. We may need to focus on businesses that aren’t dependent on the university and students. Chapter 5 5.1 – Making connections between parks and recreation facilities 5.2 – Feasibility of riparian buffer standards along waterways • There was concern that the buffer along floodplain may be redundant. • There was concern that the floodplains may be outdated and that protection against flooding events may not be sufficient. • May want to look at sentence following the statement and make some changes 5.3 – Combination of two items in the current plan to highlight more investment in our existing parks specifically smaller neighborhood parks • Move this item to ongoing 5.4 – Committee member Cunha likes the idea of volunteers. Would like to see some language on how volunteers are utilized to help with city functions and events. 5.7 – Continuing to secure land for parks and protect sensitive areas 5.10 – Amending ordinance to protect natural features and set aside parkland 5.15 – Arts and tourism. Experience BCS is splitting and tourism functions will be within the city’s Economic Development department • There was some concern with perception that we are only going to be promoting College Station and not the region. We will be doing regional marketing. • Promote Wolf Pen Creek and Northgate as live music destination. Group them together instead of as separate actions. • We should utilize what we have. Bring in our own festivals and entertainment is a good option. Good use of hotel occupancy tax funds to bring someone into town that will bring visitors. • We should also use Wolf Pen as a way to promote local talent. • Move this item to strategic There was concern that recreational programming wasn’t mentioned much. There should be more emphasis of parks programming into goals. Planning Administrator Halle- Schramm stated she would speak with the Parks department regarding if programming can be better incorporated into these goals. 5. Presentation and discussion outlining next steps in the Evaluation process. The next CPEC meeting is tomorrow night, July 14. The discussion with continue for Chapters 6-10. 6. Adjourn. The meeting was adjourned at 8:10 p.m.