City of Newcastle, WA -- Planning Commission Meeting of
10/17/12
John Drescher was sworn in as the new Planning Commission chairman at the September 27th, 2012 Planning Commission meeting, taking over from Rob Lemmon (who is still on the Commission), as he transitioned into presiding over his first full meeting last Wednesday, October 17th. The meeting, similar to the last one, focused on setting the 2015 Comprehensive Plan (see Sept. 28th post: Paraphrasing Lee: "I Make the Recommendations, the Council Gives Guidance"). Much of the meeting, if not entirely, was about process rather than the actual specifics regarding the Plan. Associate Planner David Lee said that the Department of Commerce checklist included 82 regulatory items for the various cities and municipalities in Washington, and that 25 of those were statutory requirements, and of those 25, Newcastle has thus far fulfilled about half of them. Rob Lemmon said that there were three main considerations, and that meeting the remaining statutory requirements should be the city's priority as relating to the Comprehensive Plan, and money considerations and Council direction were the next priorities. It was not clear whether he meant the latter two focus points or considerations as being together as one (with presumably the third focus point not mentioned in his list) or as respective categories.
Apparently, wanting to counteract high-priced consultants with the spirit of local volunteerism or cut-rate salaries and stipends for the best interests of the city, Vice-Chairman Allen Dauterman said that the city should reach out to Newcastle's own residents for the expertise needed to achieve the objectives of the Comprehensive Plan. Lemmon, who played, in a round about way, the David Letterman role at this meeting, chipped in that the University of Washington would also be a good resource to get some of that low-pay or no-pay energy. Drescher took the conventional viewpoint in this discussion about personnel, stressing the need for expert consultants ($$$).
Attendance: all Planning Commissioners were at this meeting except Elizabeth Thompson.
Previous post: there was a corrective update in the previous post, "Chastening at City Hall."
[revised on 4/27/13]
Copyright 2009 - 2012, Party of Commons TM
John Drescher was sworn in as the new Planning Commission chairman at the September 27th, 2012 Planning Commission meeting, taking over from Rob Lemmon (who is still on the Commission), as he transitioned into presiding over his first full meeting last Wednesday, October 17th. The meeting, similar to the last one, focused on setting the 2015 Comprehensive Plan (see Sept. 28th post: Paraphrasing Lee: "I Make the Recommendations, the Council Gives Guidance"). Much of the meeting, if not entirely, was about process rather than the actual specifics regarding the Plan. Associate Planner David Lee said that the Department of Commerce checklist included 82 regulatory items for the various cities and municipalities in Washington, and that 25 of those were statutory requirements, and of those 25, Newcastle has thus far fulfilled about half of them. Rob Lemmon said that there were three main considerations, and that meeting the remaining statutory requirements should be the city's priority as relating to the Comprehensive Plan, and money considerations and Council direction were the next priorities. It was not clear whether he meant the latter two focus points or considerations as being together as one (with presumably the third focus point not mentioned in his list) or as respective categories.
Apparently, wanting to counteract high-priced consultants with the spirit of local volunteerism or cut-rate salaries and stipends for the best interests of the city, Vice-Chairman Allen Dauterman said that the city should reach out to Newcastle's own residents for the expertise needed to achieve the objectives of the Comprehensive Plan. Lemmon, who played, in a round about way, the David Letterman role at this meeting, chipped in that the University of Washington would also be a good resource to get some of that low-pay or no-pay energy. Drescher took the conventional viewpoint in this discussion about personnel, stressing the need for expert consultants ($$$).
Attendance: all Planning Commissioners were at this meeting except Elizabeth Thompson.
Previous post: there was a corrective update in the previous post, "Chastening at City Hall."
[revised on 4/27/13]
Copyright 2009 - 2012, Party of Commons TM
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