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HomeMy WebLinkAbout09/26/1975MINUTES SPECIAL CALLED MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL CITY OF SAN LUIS OBISPO FRIDAY,.SEPTEMBER 26, 1975 - 4:00 P.M. COUNCIL CHAMBERS, CITY HALL Pledge Roll Call ' PRESENT: Councilmen Graham, Gurnee „Norris, Petterson and Mayor Schwartz ABSENT: None City Staff PRESENT: R.D. Miller, Administrative Officer; J.H. Fitzpatrick, City Clerk; A.J. Shaw, City Attorney; Robert.Strong, Community Development Director 1. The City Council met in special.called. meeting to discuss the staff presentation of General Plan revisions scheduled for a Public Hearing before /00, the City Elanning Commission for Tuesday, September 30, 1975. Robert Strong, Community Development Director, reviewed for the City Council, the progress-on the revision of the City's General Plan to date and schedule of the times for completion.of the._plan.. It was his opinion that the entire General Plan and'all its.elements -would be completed by the first of the year;, 1976. He then reviewed the'preliminary.General Plan revision, the outline of Summary Phase II report; the Inventory Interpretations and alternatives to be presented at the Public Hearing on September 30, 1975. Councilman Gurnee stated that he felt..that. what the.Council.must decide at this special meeting was whether the staff was really prepared for a Public Hearing on the land use element and.noise.element as.- advertised for Public Hearing on September 30, 1975. Upon inquiry earlier this date at the Commun- ity Development office, no information was available for public distribution on the advertised meeting and he felt that the meeting should be cancelled as the advertised information was not now available for either the Council or the - public for public discussion at the scheduled meeting. He felt that no purpose would be served by having the Public Hearing without prior public information being available. Robert Strong, on the question,.-stated-that the noise element was being pre- pared by Envicom & Associates and was.due.in July, but they were still prepar- ing some precise information which was now available for discussion and he felt that communication between the staff, Planning Commission and public were needed for continuation of the General Plan studies. Councilman Norris felt that there :was.sufficient•information available for the staff and public, etc. so that a Public Hearing could.proceed as advertised. Councilman Petterson stated that one of.the problems he saw with the present update of the General Plan was that-,no material had peen: si7bmitted, -by:- ;staff to substantiate the recommendations that were making. He_felt that this infor- mation was needed for educated consideration at the:public hearing. Robert Strong answered that no conclusions -had yet been arrived'at by the staff but they were just supplying information'for future discussion with the public and commission. He felt.that only after public hearings.and discussions could the Council and.Planning Commission.come up with the aims, goals and .objectives of the•revised'General Plan.. He.then..reviewed.in.detail the report entitled "Preliminary General Plan Revisions dated October, 1975 ". CITY COUNCIL MINUTES SEPTEMBER 26, 1975 PAGE TWO After the presentation by Robert Strong, Councilman Graham questioned . the lack of information being available to-the public from the Planning Commission and planning staff and whether an intelligent discussion could be carried on at the meeting scheduled for September.30, 1975. He also asked did the Community Development Director.feel that with the report being issued at this.time, Friday evening, that there was enough time for study by the public and Planning Commission. Robert Strong felt that he could.present the information at the public hearing ' which would be used as-the starting point for public. discussion. Councilman'.Graham stated that his.only worry was that with this report being made.available at 5 p.m. on Friday that.the public really would not be very aware of what was being considered at.the.meeting. He felt that either the meeting should be cancelled or just postponed until the information was made available to.-.the. public. Councilman. Gurnee' felt that somewhere in this mass of material just being presented to the City Council was a pre - determined growth;,goals and objectives which :had been arrived at bytthe'staff without any materials being presented to the Council to-substantiate the recommendations. He felt with the.late delivery of:the information to the Planning Commission and City Council that the meeting should be postponed. Councilman Petterson felt the mass of information did not justify the popu- lation conclusion submitted.by staff. He felt that the information should logically come to these conclusions and not be just an estimate. Robert Strong felt if the Council would read what he had submitted they would see the logic.of his position and he urged:the Council to allow the Planning Commission's public hearing to proceed for public input. He felt that the September 30 meeting was only to put out information-to get public discussion; not to arrive at a definite conclusion. Councilman Norris felt the September 30.meeting was just a public input meet- ing, not a meeting for decision. He.felt that the meeting should proceed now that it had been advertised. Mayor Schwartz stated that the Council was disturbed in the time it was taking to come to grips with the General.Plan process and to develop a good general plan and he felt that the lack of information available to the public was a detriment.to.its acceptance. He also..felt:.that not enough information had been presented to him to consider cancelling the meeting scheduled for Septem- ber 30, 1975. Although he did agree with the other Councilmen's comments that a great amount of General Plan information had not been.made available to the public, Council or the Planning Commission, but if the Planning Commission would announce at the start of the meeting that the hearing was being held with full ..knowlege that all the information had-not-been made available to the public for adequate discussion then he would go along and allow the Planning Commission to proceed. Dr. A.K. Settle =, Chairman-of the Planning-Commission felt that he.-and the Planning Commission recognized the lack of information being made available to the public and Planning Commission.but he did not feel that it would affect the quality of the public hearing.they had scheduled for September330, 1975, and he would hope that the Council would allow the meeting to proceed. Don Smith, citizen, felt that the Planning.staff of the City was not doing a good job as there did not seem to be-any control over the comments and reports being dispensed. He felt that:-the public would not be able to participate in informed discussion due to the lack of information, not avail- able to them prior to the meeting. Councilman Gurnee again stated that the meeting of September 30 should be cancelled as no public information.was available in sufficient time for an intelligent discussion. CITY COUNCIL MINUTES SEPTEMBER 26, 1975 PAGE THREE Councilman Norris stated that he was in full support of the Planning Department and Planning Commission to hold the hearing whether there was or was not sufficient information for the public's study. Councilman Norris moved that the City Council allow the public hearing on September 30, 1975 to proceed as advertised. Motion lost for lack of a ' second. On motion of Councilman Gurnee, seconded by Councilman Graham that the public hearing scheduled by the Planning Commission for September 30, 1975 be post- poned or continued to the first meeting in November. Motion lost on the following vote: AYES: Councilmen Gurnee and Graham NOES: Councilmen Norris, Petterson and Mayor Schwartz ABSENT: None On motion of Councilman Norris, seconded by Councilman Petterson that the City Council allow the public hearing to proceed for information only with no decisions or commitments to be made by the Planning Commission or staff. Motion carried on following roll call vote: AYES: Councilmen Norris, Petterson and Mayor Schwartz NOES: Councilmen Gurnee and Graham ABSENT: None There being no further business to come before the special called meeting, the Mayor adjourned the meeting at 6:10 p.m. APPROVED: 1 ,�H.,-Yitzpatrick, City Clerk