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Regular City Council Meeting <br /> Monday, October 16,2023 <br /> Page 6 <br /> done or not. He thought that improvement would be helpful and a valuable role for <br /> the Planning Commission to play. He could see how that would work and thought <br /> they would need to think about the parameters around which types of proposals <br /> sketch plans would be done for. He suggested it would be a good idea to get <br /> feedback from staff and a development perspective too. <br /> Mayor Roe wondered if there was a way to have a representative or two from the <br /> Commission, especially on larger proposals that might be controversial, to attend <br /> the Council consideration of that item to make a couple of remarks to summarize <br /> the discussion that the Commission had and some of the issues or concerns. <br /> The Council liked the idea of a tracking report from the beginning of a project up <br /> to the point it is before the Council because it would help the City to see if there is <br /> anything that needs to be looked at and possibly changed in the Code that may not <br /> be working. <br /> Chair Pribyl asked whether there was consideration for what the Planning <br /> Commission was looking at was incentivizing sustainability. She wondered if that <br /> was of interest to the Council, to keep going down that path. <br /> Mayor Roe did not think the Council had a problem with looking at it from that <br /> perspective and it made a lot of sense to do that. He thought there was some concern <br /> about how bonuses worked and how they worked in conjunction with other bonuses <br /> the City already had in the Code. <br /> Commissioner McGehee explained she has a different take on sustainability from <br /> anybody here. For her, if there was a pattern or objections that the City had over <br /> the past year and a half, it was density in subdivisions. If the City looks seriously <br /> at sustainability and realizes that the City has the highest impervious surface of any <br /> of the metro area cities,then when they talk about increased density they are talking <br /> about increased impermeable surface, fewer trees, and more water runoff and <br /> flooding issues, so there are two angles to consider. There is an incentive angle and <br /> there is also a zoning issue where the City thinks about the community at large. <br /> She thought the City should pay attention to both sides of sustainability. The other <br /> one is the environmental side and what kind of environment is the City creating in <br /> terms of air quality, health, noise, traffic, all of those things that are impermeable <br /> surface is a part of that. When looking at the Zoning Code, she was surprised and <br /> thought there were things within the Code that could be looked at. <br /> Mayor Roe thought this was always the challenge because ultimately, even if there <br /> are objections, those objections often do not rise to the level of something that is <br /> actually not allowed in the Code. So,the City is not able to do anything but approve <br /> the project,but the City can try to deal with issues as early in the process as possible. <br />