[bouldercouncilhotline] Hotline: Planning Board members for the BVCP update hearings

[cmosupport at bouldercolorado.gov]

Sender: Brockett, Aaron

Hello council members and others! I hope you are enjoying your snowy Tuesday.


I have a concern about Planning Board's under-representation in the BVCP hearings that we begin tonight. As you know, my former seat on the Planning Board is empty until new appointments are done in March. In addition, Planning Board chair Bryan Bowen is unable to attend the Planning Board deliberations on Thursday.


Planning Board's rules require an affirmative vote of four members to act on a proposal. This means that for the Area I and Area II enclave properties, it would require four out of five members to move a proposal forward. For the Area II/III hearing in February (assuming all board members can attend) it would require a vote of four out of six members. Given that a major update happens only every five years and each proposal requires the approval of two bodies (within the city) or four bodies (for county properties) in order to be considered, I see a significant fairness issue with the situation.


For the record, I have no particular proposal or proposals in mind as I bring this up. I will note that there are requests to change properties to both more and less intense land use designations, and all of those requests are more difficult to move forward because of the lack of Planning Board members.


If it is amenable to the mayor and council, I would like to discuss the problem under matters tonight. A solution would be to appoint alternate Planning Board to the meetings. We have a code provision that gives us that ability, but the advice of the city attorney is that it does not apply in the current situation. A fairly easy change to improve the situation would be to reschedule Thursday's Planning Board meeting to a date that all current Planning Board members can attend. I would also be interested in exploring if there is a way to have a full board for February's meetings, or at least to cue up a long term solution for future comprehensive plan updates.


Thank you for your consideration.


Best,

Aaron Brockett

Boulder City Councilperson

brocketta at bouldercolorado.gov