Planning Commission Agenda and Packet 2021 11 11

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Planning Commission Meeting Minutes October 14, 2021 Page 8 of 9 Ritchie shared the 2022 City Council Work Plan, including roll-over items and new items. Diehl asked if the streetlight process was separate from the Dark Sky Lighting ordinance. Ritchie replied that they were separate since Xcel owned the streetlights but staff was working with Xcel on the streetlights. She and the commissioners discussed the Xcel process, which Director Ritchie described as limited by what Xcel offered but staff was working with them on the streetlight update process. Howe stated that he felt the Design Guidelines were applied subjectively in the Commission and it would be helpful for sustainability guidelines to be addressed so the Commission was not so subjective with those issues. He asked for some type of guidance from Council on sustainability. Moline noted that it seemed like an ambitious work plan and asked about workload for staff. Ritchie replied that Dark Sky and Old Town Overlay updates would likely be done in the first half of the year. Sustainability and Comp Plan would be especially big lifts for the department. She stated that it was likely that there would be some carryover into 2023. Moline asked about the current staffing level and department structure and Director Ritchie described the job posting and current staffing situation. Hoefner stated that a couple municipalities had purchased or taken city streetlights from Xcel. He added that he would like to see conversations around commercial vacancies and space requirements and how the City is thinking about those issues when new development comes through. Diehl added that he would like to look into the underlying causes as to why some of the commercial developments remain vacant. Williams asked if the City could wait on the Comp Plan update to see how things change after the pandemic in a couple of years to see how things shake out. Ritchie replied that she could send an email with some links about what the Economic Vitality and the City Manager offices had been doing on this issue. She added that the current Comp Plan did connect to some of these issues. Brauneis added that the Comp Plan was generally broad and addressed wishes or goals that could be discussed. He asked how the Small Area Plans would be addressed. Ritchie replied that they had not figured out how the SAPs would be integrated into the Comp Plan. She described the Comp Plan update process from a staff and engagement process in response to Commissioner Diehl's question about what would go into the 10