Planning Commission Meeting — 2025-11-13

Detailed briefing

Planning Commission special meeting — November 13, 2025 ATTENDEES: All seven current Planning Commission members were present; city attorney Jim Raymer and city planning staff participated. • The commission held its third public hearing on the proposed zoning code dated October 21, 2025. Several speakers supported the draft and praised the commission’s public engagement, compromises and work to make the code easier to understand. • The commission adopted a resolution concerning the October 21 draft zoning code on a roll-call vote. All seven commissioners voted yes. The action advances the draft for City Council consideration. • Public comments raised several possible additions or revisions. These included historic-preservation language and creation of a historic commission, a maximum ground-floor story height in the Central Business District, minimum residential unit sizes in the CBD and B-1 districts, and a lower threshold than 5,000 square feet for projects receiving administrative review rather than Planning Commission review. • A former commissioner described the draft as the product of more than 1,700 hours of work and said it would improve formatting, add shoreline and dark-sky protections, introduce downtown architectural standards, and prohibit several uses allowed under the current code. Those descriptions were offered as public comment and were not separately verified or voted on during the meeting. • City attorney Jim Raymer advised commissioners to act on the version that had been formally noticed for the hearing. He said that opening the draft to new concepts at this stage would require another public hearing, and that the Planning Commission must hold a public hearing before formally recommending additional zoning changes. • Commissioners agreed not to decide the later suggestions that night. Staff said the November 20 Planning Commission agenda would be revised to include review of a memorandum and table responding to the requested changes. The discussed approach was for the commission to consider having the city planner or staff present those items to City Council without first recommending approval or rejection. Worth watching: 1. Whether the November 20 review results in the requested changes being forwarded to City Council. 2. How City Council handles the October 21 draft and any additional suggestions during its own deliberations and public hearing. 3. Whether historic preservation, downtown scale, residential unit size and administrative-review limits receive further action. Upcoming: Planning Commission review of the response memorandum is planned for November 20; City Council is also expected to hold a public hearing, but no council date was stated. Why it matters: The unanimous vote moves a major zoning rewrite to City Council while leaving several design, preservation and review questions unresolved.

No open public follow-ups are linked to this meeting yet.