Title
Consider Reforming the Council Review Process of Planning Board Decisions. (Councilmember Oddie)
Body
COUNCIL REFERRAL FORM
Name of Councilmember requesting referral: Jim Oddie
Date of submission to City Clerk (must be submitted before 5:00 p.m. on the Monday two weeks before the Council meeting requested): May 5, 2016
Council Meeting date: May 17, 2016
Brief description of the subject to be printed on the agenda, sufficient to inform the City Council and public of the nature of the referral:
Consider Reforming the Council Review Process of Planning Board Decisions
Calls for review represent an important check and balance in the City process and ensure that a majority of the elected City Council have the ability to ensure that the work generated by the Planning Board and other bodies rise to the expected quality and appropriateness.
Of late, this process has been increasingly used by a minority of Councilmembers with little impact on the final outcome. These calls for review not only cost applicants money, but also tie up staff time and diminish the ability of our planning staff to address priority items such as the city's Universal Design Ordinance and other long-term planning efforts. And, members of the business community have begun to express concern that Alameda is garnering "a reputation for decision-making that cannot be predicted, cannot be counted on, and cannot be depended on." [See attached letter from Chamber of Commerce.] The Chamber also noted that these frequent calls for review are detrimental to their daily efforts to recruit and retain businesses.
As such, I propose that we adopt a reporting and call-for-review process that will both keep the City Council better informed about the actions that our Planning Board takes, and provide a call-for-review process that ensures that actions that are called for review rise to a level of concern for a majority of the Council.
In approving this referral, staff...
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