Development Services Review. Final Report. Zucker July 2016

Maintaining the City’s GIS system is particularly important now because the City has purchased TRAKiT, which is a geospatial-based (e.g., GIS) computer software and data management system to integrate planning, building, fire, public works (e.g., engineering) and business license system permitting systems. We understand the Department has requested a new position for the upcoming budget that will be charged with enhancing and maintaining the City’s GIS system, which is excellent.

See our recommendation under the “staffing heading above regarding adding a GIS position in the Department

Planning Commission

Overview

The Planning Commission (PC) is authorized by Title 2, Chapter 2.36 of the City’s Code of Ordinances. It is a seven-member Commission and each member serves a term of 4 years. The PC has a fairly broad scope of responsibilities including acting as an advisory body to the city council on matters related to city growth and development, a recommendation body for legislative acts such as Zoning Code Amendments, an appeals body for Director-level decisions and a decision-making body on numerous types of planning applications (PA’s) such as conditional use permits and parcel maps. It also serves as decision-making body for the designation of cultural resources and historic districts and permits sought to remove or demolish a cultural resource, cultural resource site or historic district. Appeals concerning cultural resource decision can be made to Council. Meetings are held monthly on the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month at 7:00 p.m. in the City Hal Council Chambers, however, to accommodate lengthy agendas, meetings are advertised to begin as early at 5:30pm, when needed. Additional meetings are held when deemed necessary. Currently audio and video recordings (e.g., Granicus system webcasting) are made of each meeting and summary minutes are prepared by the Municipal Service Assistant. The Granicus system allowed us to review a recent meeting, which is excellent. We also reviewed the most recent set of minutes posted online, which was helpful. In addition, Cable subscribers can watch live meetings in their home on Channel 17. Staff has also included meeting protocol policies on the face of each agenda, which is a good practice.

Morgan Hill, California

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Zucker Systems