Homework Assignment - Comp Plan

This is your homework assignment for this weekend (and next):

1.  Call your friends and form a study group of about 5 people.

2.  Each person take a section of the Comp Plan Draft and read through it making notes about items that do not belong in the Plan.

3.  Meet again for the next 2 weekends to formulate a letter to the City Council about what items are problematic.

4.  Make sure you email your letter and list of proposed deletions and/or changes to the City Council with a cc to Scot Siegel, Planning Director, a few days prior to the Council meeting on November 5.  Watch Council Calendar for any changes!

Items to look at:

• What items are NOT land use in nature?  Separate out aspirational from strictly land use related.
• Pay attention to any possible encroachment of higher density and commercial activity next to or within neighborhoods.  
• Pay attention to infill requirements and goals.  Unless it says otherwise, this could be happening in your neighborhood - smaller lots, multi-family housing, etc.  You imagination is a better guide than what staff or others tell you - that your concerns are not valid and to relax.  If the goal, policy and action item can be interpreted in a way you don't like, flag it.  
• Action Measures describe how the Goals and Policies are to be used.  They form the basis for interpretation of the Plan.  Many of the more aspirational items have been put into the Action Measures where they can be drawn from to use as interpretations of what the Goals and Policy Statements mean.
• The structure of the Comp Plan has veered from the State Goals (Transportation, Housing, Natural Resources, etc.) to the less defined "Inspiring Spaces and Places", etc.  Buried within these so called "Action Areas" are the statewide land use goals, but many overlap sections and a reader must have a key to find where goals related to, say, transportation are.  If this is not a good format for you, mention that too.  
• Be on the lookout for any new items that you think are silly or unnecessary.  My personal favorite is "Food Access".  It has been pared down, but still lives on as an Action Measure.  
• Be vigilant about what you would like to see eliminated altogether.  
• Take a look at the newest version of the Comp Plan map and read the definitions for Neighborhood Commons, Neighborhood Villages and Commercial Corners.  These are new uses that bring a new level of commercial activity into residential areas.  Even if some uses sound fine, what can the worst case scenario look like?  Once approved, the city has to allow activities you don't like.
• Remember too, that once approved, the city may NOT be able to change items related to density!!!  Metro does not allow density-related land use plans and codes to be reduced.  If wording creeps in that allows increased density in any neighborhood, watch out!  

Watch for upcoming announcement on the Planning Commission review of the Urbanization section of the Comp Plan on 10/14.  They just keep coming!  We are late to the party, but we still have a chance to put some common sense back into this document.  If you can't make the meetings, your written testimony (be specific about what and why) should be fine. You are writing it, aren't you?