Week 3: The Planning Commission

This past week at PV Estates kept me incredibly busy, as Tuesday was my first ever Planning Commission meeting. The Planning Commission meets once a month to review all discretionary-level applications for building in the city. The discretionary building permit process is different from the ministerial building permit process in that it requires a majority vote on a resolution to approve the application based on the commission’s subjective interpretation of the proposal. A ministerial permit is issued for smaller building activities which are considered insignificant and do not require Planning Commission review–it’s more of a check-off permit where, so long as the application meets certain concrete requirements, consent is granted.

My job with the City Planner essentially involves reviewing applications and assembling staff reports in an orderly way so that the Planning Commissioners can make an informed decision during each meeting. For each discretionary application, I reviewed the application materials, ensured that all materials were submitted, and drafted a report which contained all essential facts about the proposal. These reports were drafted a week prior to the meeting to ensure that commissioners had adequate time to review them. I have described this type of work in previous blog posts, and although it is tedious, it does require me to use my brain and be thorough.

I also spent most of this past week reviewing correspondence prepared by the applicant and by community members. As some of the applications to be heard at the meeting are considered controversial, they often spark community interest in the outcome of the decision. During meetings, the applicant is permitted 5 minutes speaking time to explain the project to the commissioners, and then neighbors are granted 2 minutes to express their support or opposition to the project. Written correspondence is also presented at this time. After public comments are made, the commissioners deliberate and then make a decision about the application.

I sat at the front of the room, beside Elizabeth, the City Planner. I assisted her in the presentations for each application and observed the way that she answered questions from commissioners and from community members. Our role as staff is supposed to be neutral, and we are not supposed to give the commission a recommendation. Elizabeth skillfully and tactfully answered all questions on a factual ground and did not inject opinion or emotion into any response, even though it became quite clear in the beginning of the meeting that some residents came in emotionally aggravated. For instance, the commission was reviewing a proposal to build a fence along a bluff to allow residents some privacy on their property. Neighbors opposed the fence on the grounds that it blocked their view and it was not situated on the “least visible” portion of the lot. This term is subjective in nature, and when a commissioner asked Elizabeth where the “least visible” portion of the lot was, Elizabeth simply indicated it was the commission’s job to determine that.

I learned a lot about how local government works after the five hour meeting (I didn’t get home until midnight on Tuesday!). While I expected the commissioners to be the leaders in the room, the unruliness of the crowd made clear that they had less influence than I’d anticipated. In fact, City Attorney John Cotti (a tall man with the build of a linebacker) was the only person able to calm the audience down during a particularly heated exchange regarding an ongoing proposal. The authority of commissioners really only goes as far as the citizens feel it should. Additionally, I’d originally assumed that staff members were viewed as direct subordinates to the Commission. However, it was very clear to me that the Commission depended on Elizabeth’s work to make their decisions. Her influence went much farther than I thought. Leader-follower relationships were not as clear-cut as they seemed when Planning Commission was first explained to me.

My only regret this week is that it was my last one working with Elizabeth. She recently accepted a job in the City of Bellflower and will no longer be working in PV Estates. I’ve had to do a lot of learning in the past three weeks so that I can be useful in the interim while the city searches for a new Planner. In the meantime, I will be teaming up with two temporary Planning Consultants from a firm called Michael Baker, trying to fill Elizabeth’s shoes. They are nice people and I’m looking forward to working with them.