The dominant attitude at the Twentynine Palms Planning Commission meeting was puzzlement as to why two of the items were on the agenda. Dan Stork explains…
With Chair Cary Alderson missing with an excused absence, the balance of the Twentynine Palms Planning Commission voted to amend the city code to allow the development director to grant time extensions for tentative tract maps, with the understanding that any other changes in tract maps would have to come back to the Commission. For each of the other two items on the agenda, Commissioner Bill Easter wondered why there wasn’t more background documentation. The first was a public hearing on an amendment to change the city code to allow a single City Council member to initiate an appeal of a Planning Commission decision. The current code requires a majority for this purpose, although the de facto practice is to proceed on the wishes of a single council person. The Commission voted 3-1 to retain the “majority” requirement, affirming a consensus it arrived at in a recent study session. The other item was a study session for reviewing all sections of the development code that might be relevant to screening of vehicle tow yards. Acting Development Director Matt McCleary said that he knew some reasons why the City Council wanted the Commission to study the issue, but for legal reasons, he couldn’t say what they were! Given that information, and since the Commission has already reviewed most of the relevant sections in the course of the comprehensive review of the code, the Commission declined to discuss the matter further at present.
MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS AT TWENTYNINE PALMS PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING LAST NIGHT
