December 2, 2008
The Board of Commissioners of the City of Lawrence met in regular session at 6:35 p.m., in the City Commission Chambers in City Hall with Mayor Dever presiding and members Amyx, Chestnut, Hack, and Highberger present.
Consider approving Comprehensive Plan Amendment, CPA-2008-9, amending Horizon 2020, Chapter 14 Specific Plans, to add a reference to and incorporate the K-10 and Farmer’s Turnpike Plan and consider adopting on first reading, joint City Ordinance No. 8358/County Resolution No. _____, amending Horizon 2020, Chapter 14 Specific Plans by approving and incorporating by reference, CPA-2008-9.
Scott McCullough, Planning/Development Services Director, presented the staff report. He said there were two sector plans on the agenda that represented many hours of hard work between staff, the Planning Commission, stakeholders and community members who took time out of their schedules to comment on both sector plans. He said he would do a general recap of sector planning. He showed the document staff used that had the planning efforts they had available. He said sector plans act as future plans for a more specific area. They guide development. It anticipates development over a long period of time. The plan identified future land uses and outlined goals and policies and transitions and buffers between uses. They were careful to inform residents that it did not annex property or change zoning upon adoption. It acted as a first layer of planning in an area that had not developed yet. On top of the sector plan came in transportation plans, revising utility and infrastructure plans, provided a foundation for other agencies to do their planning, such as Fire/Medical and school districts. They used the sector plans as a general plan to do that work and there were several steps they used to process these plans.
He showed an animation of annexation from the 1940s until now. It put into context of why they planned seemingly rural areas. Generally, what they would find was the city had grown by a margin of 7.5 times larger in the last seven decades. They would see the current road systems in place, Clinton Lake, and other items that were not present in 1940. They put them as a constant on the map as a reference. In 1940, the City was four square miles and had a population of 14,390. The largest boom period, decade wise, was between 1990 and 2000 when an additional 14,490 residents came to Lawrence. Today the City was over 30 square miles and had a population of just over 90,000. They had a wide range of types of neighborhoods and within most neighborhoods they had a varied mix of uses in the neighborhoods. He said studies have shown that cities grow as infrastructure was built.
He showed what they currently had on the books for area plans. They had the Northwest Area Plan, the 6th and K-10 Nodal Plan. When he arrived in 2007, staff was completing a revised Southern Development Plan and spent several years completing the Southeast Area Plan and recently they did the Farmland Redevelopment Plan. This left the K-10 and Farmer’s Turnpike Plan and the West of K-10 Plan. They were the areas to the west and northwest area. In the coming months and a couple of years, they were going to look at the North Lawrence/Grant Township area and ultimately the area south of Wakarusa River, when ultimately the new water reclamation facility was built, they needed to do planning for that area. Each of the plans have presented very unique sets of issues and opportunities to consider with the potential of future development. Lawrence was unique in that they had 360 degrees of opportunity so the challenge typically was where they would put resources and concentrate infrastructure, even though demand could be great on all sides. They placed an awful lot of resources and effort in the existing City and downtown and the core neighborhoods. It was important they got out in front of development when they could.
He said specifically, the K-10 and Farmer’s Turnpike Plan entailed approximately 4,000 acres. Portions were currently in the City, including the recently 155 acres annexed. The majority of it was generally unincorporated area. One of the implementation steps would be for the urban growth area. He said the turnpike was built in the 1950s and the interchange of K-10 and I-70 was completed in 1996. It was their third interchange and the only one for Lecompton, which was an important historic center for the region. Based on Comprehensive Plan 2020 goals and policies, there was a need to foster the job creation and industrial space in the community. There was also a need for large tract industrial space. Because of the highway system and because some of the slope and other elements and benefits to the land, it posed good opportunity for uses that were industrial and employment center based.
He said the plan started in February 2008 and completed drafts by the spring. They held a public meeting in which 75 people attended. They ultimately went to the Planning Commission two times with draft plans. 117 people on the list serve signed up to be a part of the plan and received notice of the plan. The Planning Commission directed staff to begin a series of workshops with community representatives. They held three workshops over the course of the late summer. That led to two additional Planning Commission meetings, the last one ended up in November and in November the Planning Commission recommended approval of the draft plan before the City Commission, on a vote of 7-3. They held four Planning Commission meetings, one large public meeting, three small workshop meetings, which were held under state statutes. This was a contentious planning effort and happened with the request for annexation and rezoning of 155 acres they talked about earlier. They felt that the Planning Commission slowed the process down, asked staff to meet with the community and hold those series of workshops. He said the plan itself was pretty typical and standard for their sector plans. There was an introduction section, an existing conditions section and recommendations section. Key issues in this plan was it supported tourism and the Freedom Frontier National Heritage Area and was the first plan document that welcomed this attribute to the area, especially as the commercial center at the interchange of K-10 and I-70 as Farmer’s Turnpike took hold. It supported real character in its design, even though urban densities were designated for the area. It supported the protection of environmentally sensitive lands and encouraged industrial development. They had a number of industrial spots designated as employment centers and this was another chance to provide an opportunity for a state and interstate highway system.
He said when they build sector plan maps, they start with base maps that might include physical elements such as streams and the highway system. Then they brought in what the Comprehensive Plan already had designated for commercial centers, whether they be neighborhood or community commercial centers. They looked at slopes and topography of an area and then the long range transportation plan elements. They did this to build concept of what they thought was benefiting of community’s goals as outlined in Horizon 2020. They had some existing development in the southern portion of the planning area and topography south of the highway. There was also residential development scattered throughout the northern portion. Their plan for urbanization, the first draft had a lot of industrial and employment center uses to take advantage of the highway system. They then provided high density residential and mixed uses as transitions. It originally included a transition area because the transition between industrial and lower density residential to the north was concerning. The next draft the Planning Commission saw was basically the same, but without the transition area. The Planning Commission found that the development code did enough to do transition between those types of uses. They started reallocating some of the employment and office use to the eastern leg to but up against industrial uses along the road. They maintained neighborhood commercial centers within the planning area.
He showed the plan staff proposed to the Planning Commission after the third and final workshop with the neighbors. After Planning Commission discussion and input, they revised this area to go to strictly industrial use as opposed to office use. They then allocated additional industrial use location. They specifically called it a neighborhood commercial area at the southwest corner of the intersection and pulled out a neighborhood commercial center on the north side of Farmer’s Turnpike Road.
He showed the plan that the Planning Commission recommended on a 7-3 vote. This was created at the last workshop they held. It included all of the commercial and industrial office employment and added a little more and designated that a very low density residential designation based on the transfer of rights, which was a tool they did not have at their disposal currently. The key implementation issues if adopted would be to reevaluate and update the urban growth area, adopt industrial design guidelines which staff was currently working on, include the planning area in a future utility master planning updates, and amend T2030 to accommodate streets in the area. They recommended the City Commission adopt the Planning Commission’s recommendation and adopt on first reading Ordinance No. 8357.
Mayor Dever called for public comment.
Marguerite Ermeling said she received a phone call that day from Ron Schneider who represented the general neighborhood association out there. He indicated he placed a phone call to the Mayor on their behalf. There were a number of people who were not aware of the meeting about this item this evening. She believed the notification went out late Wednesday. She knew there was a suggestion that it could be that early by one commissioner, but there was nothing that was followed up with that when she contacted staff. There was not enough time to contact and let everyone know because so many people were out of town. She requested deferral of this item for at least one week because interested persons were not notified this item would be on this evening’s agenda. She understood that after talking to Gwen Klingenberg they hoped to hear from the City because they had some discussion on that issue themselves. They did not have contact between their own organizations because of the holiday weekend.
Beth Johnson, Lawrence Chamber of Commerce Vice President Economic Development, said she wanted to compliment McCullough and his staff for working with the community, the Planning Commission and now the City Commission to bring forward a plan that was worthy of City Commission consideration and approval. They have been talking about this for several months now and had been plenty of opportunity for community comment at different points. There were a number of Planning Commission meetings that this had been talked about and a number of community meetings where they were public knowledge and invited. She thought they were at a point to get recommendations and approval from the City Commission at this point so they could move forward in putting this into the works. One of the things they continually talked about from the Chamber of Commerce standpoint was the need for additional industrial land. It was in the plan not only at the K-10/I-70 Lecompton exit, but also at the Kasold area as well, which would be a continuation of what they currently had in that industrial area. From her standpoint from the companies they heard from, they could never have an optimum number, but there had to be a balance between the residential and industrial and commercial needs for the growing community. She said she went on a site visit and talked to a company that was interested in the 28 acre tract, which was their last one. If they sold that tract to that company, it was the last site on I-70 that had utilities and ready to go as zoned in the City limits. They had the 155 acre tract they were working with to make sure it was development ready to go forward. It was part of this plan and one of the first things a company was going to ask was who the neighbors were. She said it would be nice to have a plan to show them what the future land uses were in that area.
Jane Eldredge, Barber Emerson, said she represented several property owners in the sector plan. She urged the City Commission to move forward with the adoption of the plan that staff and the Planning Commission recommended. That plan represented hours of work, lots of contention and it was indeed a compromise. The people she represented would have preferred to see more industrial in the plan as it first had been presented in May 2008. As part of the process and working through with the Planning Commission and through those workshops, much of the industrial was reduced in size and some industrial was moved to the eastern end. She said it was a compromise that worked for most of the people involved and most importantly worked for the entire community. She did not think there was anything to be gained by delay of this plan. She asked the City Commission to move forward and adopt it.
Lynn Ward, area resident, said she did not know of this item until Dave Ross called to let her know about it. She asked the City Commission to postpone this item until they could get their information together. Normally they had a lot of people present from the neighborhood and did not tonight. This was a very important item to the neighbors and to them it was their future.
Dave Ross, President Scenic Riverview Community Association, requested a deferral for one week. Many of the neighbors did not know that this item would be on tonight’s agenda and had prior commitments. Although he said he was not as fully prepared as he would like to be, he could explain why his Association supported Option 2. Option 2 gave 704 acres of office and research. Option 1 gave the City 671 acres. There was more acreage available to market in Option 2. He asked if he should continue or if he should continue to stumble along.
Mayor Dever said if Ross had information available, he should provide it because he did not know what the other City Commissioners would want to do.
Ross said when they worked on this it was obvious that one section was important, so they did not try to make any changes to that. It was already annexed into the City and there was a need for a large tract of industrial. They tried to address the area with Mr. Bob Meier from Lecompton. He was very concerned about the appearance of that as the entrance to Lecompton, the Freedom Frontier Foundation and the movement that was going on there. Meier was unable to attend tonight but was passionate about how it looked and what it might be. He said Meier told him on the phone that the paper on the Freedom Frontier would be released in February and be sent to the National Bureau of Parks for their review and come back. Depending on how that came out, he was concerned the City would want to be careful with what they would do with the red area that might have an impact on the future of that designation. He said the western parking lot of the K-Mart Distribution Center butted up to the Kasold area. There were a few homes in the area and felt the need was apparent that industrial needed to be put in place quickly. The infrastructure was not available for one part but one piece had infrastructure already available to it. They felt as a compromise they would try to use the available infrastructure to allow them to quickly have something available to sell. He found it interesting that when they brought that up at the meeting, there was negative on the other side that it would not work. He did not get an explanation of why it would not work. They moved the neighborhood commercial center down, back to where it was on a previous map. There was a house that the owner was preparing to put on the National Register of Historic Places and he wondered how it would work out with a commercial center adjacent to it. He said office retail adjacent to the interstate would look much better than industrial. It would also provide for well paying jobs. One of the planning commissioners said he did not want to see the industrial and was more concerned about moving the heavier industrial away from the vision of people traveling up and down I-70.
He said a comment was made earlier about why one block was not made heavy industrial, and made a point in that area there were 7 or 8 homes already. It meant that someone would have to buy seven people out and put this back together to give the large acreage needed. He said there was another comment made that by putting heavy industrial in one area would create more traffic on Farmer’s Turnpike. He said as a neighbor coming on the road since the west exit opened, the truck traffic had dramatically reduced. Before when the exit was closed, that was the only way to get off and get into the K-Mart Distribution Center, Lawrence Paper Company and the areas in there. He said they would find that the people using the area, the traffic would feed off of the interstate exit instead of Farmer’s Turnpike.
Commissioner Amyx said he was not opposed to deferring this for one week.
Mayor Dever said Mr. Schneider contacted him and asked to put this item on hold. They had already notified the people who received notification to come and talk and those same people would be put out if they did not talk about it this evening. He said he was not sure if the conversation was about Option 1 or Option 2 or about whether or not they wanted to move forward tonight. If it was about moving forward, he told Mr. Schneider they would discuss and take comment from the people here and probably not take action unless the other Commissioners felt it necessary to do so. He already indicated to Mr. Schneider that it was only fair to give more time to give people the opportunity to come to the meeting and speak to this item. He said if they were going to talk about the two plans and they felt Option 1 was the best plan, he did not know what they should do next because clearly there were people going to be speaking that Option 2 was the best plan and staff recommended Option 1. It was a matter if they wanted to go with the professional staff or some sort of combination.
Commissioner Highberger said having gone through both plans they had in front of them, he was not sure he understood all of the details of both to act tonight. He said his preference would be to have a study session on these options so he could understand the rationale for the decisions a little better and address details because there were a lot of details that were pretty critical.
Mayor Dever said there was a lot of information and there were a lot of minute changes that have occurred. He was not sure if they could address all of them in a two hour study session. There were realistic questions and realistic options they had to put forth and decide. He thought the professional staff had their opinions and the neighbors had their opinions. They had to come up with what was in the best interest of everyone. He did not think they were prepared to move forward today, but wanted to get all the information they could because the more they got, the more they could think about and move forward with making the right decision.
Eldredge compared the Options 1 and 2 being considered. She said McCullough did an excellent job in the reason to have a sector plan was to provide a guide for urban development. It was not to preserve rural development but use some of the rural character in the residential areas. In the City of Lawrence, for instance, they had designations of the housing types they have provided. They have provided low density residential, medium density and high density. It was true throughout the City. The designations were set out in the comprehensive plan and on page 2-4 of the plan that was presented, they were recapped. They could see that very low density residential was a term they used in county zoning classifications, not appropriate for City zoning classifications. One of the things they would notice that was most obvious in the difference between the two plans was that the only residential north of I-70 on option 2 was very low residential county use. In the county that was a 3 acre minimum for one site. That became important when they were doing utility planning in particular and related to Option 1 where north of I-70 they had low density residential, medium density residential, and high density residential. There was traditional planning, step up or down, densities of use. Those densities provided around this terrific access for the highest density uses that come in producing property and that were what allowed them to bring utilities into the sites. If they looked at something like Option 2, in order to bring utilities to the sites, they had to cross the land where they had extremely low density residential and were rural in character for septic tanks and rural water uses. It made the provision of utilities to the other site much more expensive than if they were using the option 1 site. It was one of the differences that had the economic impact of the ability to develop and attract businesses because they were going to want to know what it would cost.
She said the other difference that was important was the change of the neighborhood commercial site. Option 2 had it in an area with very low density residential, abutting up to the Northwest Area Plan which also had very low residential density. That was a problem if they actually wanted a neighborhood commercial site. Commercial users looked at the number of rooftops in an area before they provided it. They have identified neighborhood commercial districts as ones that served neighborhoods. They had an office research neighborhood, medium density neighborhood, industrial neighborhood, and staff recommended that the neighborhood commercial district be on the north side to accommodate traffic on the arterial road. It was neighborhood commercial, but would be more convenient for people coming east bound to turn right to go to the southern one and people west bound to turn right and go to the northern one.
She said the other kinds of differences that were important were the integration of industrial and office research with its own neighborhood commercial center and had low density residential that was surrounded by areas that would remain open because of flood plain and topography. They had high density residential on the other side of the street that also had a buffer from the commercial area. It would not create as an attractive work/live kind of campus when they had only industrial and office residential together. It was the combination of the living and working environment that staff recommended that was consistent with their ideas of smart code, mixed uses and making it possible for people in all economic situations to live close to or near their work environments. They had no other I-70 access that was as good as this one.
She said in terms of process, McCullough identified the huge number of meetings. There have been large compromises made, particularly those advocates for industrial. This was workable and there was a lot to be said for the idea of having this whole thing between the Farmer’s Turnpike and I-70 industrial. The idea they actually had a lot of single family housing in there was not likely. The two roads were pretty close together. After all the hearings they had, they had plenty of input. They were aware that delay had been a pretty constant character in this drama as it had unfolded. The lack of an adopted sector plan was one of the allegations and lawsuits that have been filed by these neighbors who were the ones who continued to ask for the delay in the sector plan and then turn around and say in lawsuits that they did not have an adopted sector plan. She hoped that if the City Commission continued this, they not extend that continuance for more than a week so this could get handled in a reasonable time and get to the county commissioners in a reasonable time because it was something that would need to be approved by both bodies. She said the property owners in the sector plan by and large support this. They were satisfied with the plan and staff had done a very good job not only in terms of planning, but also in mediating.
Commissioner Hack asked Beth Johnson to address Mr. Ross’s comments about the concerns of the cluster on the east side.
Johnson said in her opinion, if they put industrial at that east bookend corner that traffic was going to go down Farmer’s Turnpike and not go around Berry Plastics, behind Hallmark and go to that exit. It was going to take the straight shot down and increase the traffic that would go down Farmer’s Turnpike. With the exit they experienced that along there and what that would be like, and knew the traffic would go that way. She said in green were the flood plain areas, and that could cause some concerns because of the topography and sloping in those areas that would make those tracts very small and not large tracts, which was what they were looking for, and would be more available.
Commissioner Hack asked about the I-70 issue. She asked if that was a concern as well to clustering it more towards the west than the east.
Johnson said absolutely for that access. She agreed they could drive around the state and nation and find industrial that was not very good looking, which was why they were working with industrial design guidelines and different things. The worst thing to sell was an industrial park that was ugly. She did not want to do that because there were other areas in the community that were nice and showed very well. She hoped that was what they would get for this area and having something that was an eyesore was not their intentions and hoped that they knew they were planning a nice area and park for future development.
Lynn Ward, property owner in the sector plan area, said at 6:30 p.m., she and her husband put together a quick speech. She said the K-10 and Farmer’s Turnpike plan involved 4,075 acres and affected several hundred families. The planning for this began in February 2008 with the first public hearing in May and 10 months later the plan was being voted on. The City’s own documents stated that this was very long term planning and asked why the City was in such a hurry to make final decisions on an important issue that affected so much acreage and so many people. She said they lived on 80 acres of the office research future zoning, which was approximately ¼ of the space on the west end of the zoning plan dedicated to office research. They were against having the City Commission making decisions regarding their future as the City Commission had no responsibility to rural residents, since they did not vote for them. The City Commission could make decisions they did not agree with, and there was no accountability on their part towards the rural residents. The City stated they wanted to protect environmentally sensitive areas and prime agricultural land in Douglas County. They had 14 acres of virgin prairie on their land, which meant that it had never been plowed and part of their land had been classified by the USDA as prime agricultural. She asked why other properties, like those by the airport, were being protected and not theirs. They were unaware of any studies done by the City to identify environmentally sensitive or prime agricultural land and the K-10 and Farmer’s Turnpike future zoning area as such a study was performed, they were not contacted.
Stan Unruh, property owner in the sector plan area, said he hoped the City Commission could defer this and give them a little bit more time to make their case. He thought Option 2 would be a lot better for the land owners already in the area and much less disruptive. Their land was residential now and should remain residential. It should help their property values. The whole point of this was to get more industrial land and either one of the plans gave them industrial. He said Option 2 would give them a little bit more and hoped the City would consider that option.
Marguerite Ermeling said she knew some of the thoughts that Bonnie Johnson was hoping to bring to this and hopefully she could in the future before things were done. In discussions with her, she presented to all of them that one of the reasons why Option 2 could work and the issue about traffic moving down Farmer’s Turnpike was less of a problem when they did not have the density. It was something she felt became a moot point. If it was more of a rural setting, industrial could be there because it would not have a conflict problem with traffic. She also recalled her saying that the concept of the infrastructure had been hot all along. They knew there was infrastructure to the east and the area in purple was not the flood plain area; it was beyond that and north. Where they recommended putting the purples were not in the flood plain. In addition to that, it was realistic to think they had the infrastructure over to the east and the logic of progression of bringing anything to the other area to the west and north of I-70 would go along 6th Street or the K-10 corridor. That would begin to furnish the basis on where they could afford to bring continuing infrastructure north. They could get that and the idea they were going to only get one into the other was to come across that area was not the only option to consider and it would be costly to do it that way. There were other ways to accomplish it.
Mayor Dever said he wanted to make sure everyone knew that he left a voicemail for Mr. Schneider that they would consider not moving forward with any vote on this matter for one week. He said if that was okay with everyone here, they could defer it for one week and thought it was reasonable because of the Thanksgiving holiday. He wanted to make sure he did not make a commitment without talking with everyone first.
Vice Mayor Chestnut said he supported that, but thought it would be good to hear from everyone regarding where they were at right now. He said the Planning Commission meeting minutes were not posted until the agenda was on. He said he went through the minutes three or four times and still had a lot of questions. He said he would like to ask some questions about both options so next week staff would be prepared to answer them. That might help focus the issues. It was clear that the Planning Commission was all over the place on this deal and opposed it for different reasons. Some wanted more industrial. He agreed that it did not make sense to have a very low density residential in that big of a chunk if they were talking about the idea of a sector plan. He wanted to know if an area was developable or not and needed clarity on that. If they wanted to maximize infrastructure, it seemed like they were not doing that in Option 1 on the east side. If they were going to have that industrial, they should have it in some size. The sliver between Farmer’s Turnpike and I-70 was industrial and in Option 1 that was adjacent and down. It seemed to be a narrow strip and did not know how practical that was for heavy and industrial development between the Farmer’s Turnpike and I-70. He said that was a sliver and not a chunk of land. He wanted an opportunity to speak to some of the Planning Commissioners based on some of the comments that were made in there. The minutes only gave you a gist of what was going on and there was a lot of ambiguity in a number of their comments and wanted an opportunity to speak to more stakeholders and get more depth in this. He said a week was fine and no one was around because of the Thanksgiving holiday.
Commissioner Hack asked if they would like to know of the area south of the Farmer’s Turnpike that was cattycorner from the 155 acres.
Vice Mayor Chestnut said yes.
Commissioner Hack said the minutes indicate Mr. McCullough saying that those would accommodate East Hills Business Park size lots. She asked what the general size lot was for one of those.
Johnson said 12 acres.
Commissioner Hack asked how many acres that was.
Vice Mayor Chestnut said there was acreage and there was depth, too.
McCullough said they looked at the depth and it was approximately the size of the depth of an East Hills lot. They understood that it was not going to be part of the 88 – 100 acre parcel size the Chamber of Commerce often desired, but offered some variety and could put a substantial size building in there.
Mayor Dever said he thought the topography and access were going to be more severe limitations than the size and knowing whether or not they were capable of being developed.
Commissioner Amyx asked if the sector plan included the Lawrence Energy Center.
McCullough said no, it did not. He said they had to make some decisions about boundaries, and it basically went to the City limits on that side.
Commissioner Amyx asked if the energy center would be prime industrial property and a sector plan that was going to look at a broad range of development in a specific corridor, that area to the east with industrial to the south should be included. As annexation should occur in the future, the area that included the energy center and to the west should be part of that.
McCullough said the area to the west was the energy center and supported the employment center to the west. He said they had discussions with the Planning Commission at the time and whether it should focus on that on the east, west or entire corridor. The Planning Commission directed staff that if they were going to do it, they should look at the entire corridor.
Commissioner Amyx asked when the Farmer’s Turnpike Plan and K-10 area was brought into play and they were looking at boundaries and the extension of utilities from the east through that entire area, why did they not do the plan different and use K-10 instead of Farmer’s Turnpike. It would be easier to get utilities from the south to the north.
McCullough said one of the things they anticipated in updating utility master plans, they would get a sense on how utilities would be raised in the area, what the costs were and water sheds. The first layer of planning helped utilities understands designations and get numbers for their master planning. They wanted to plan for a utility branch and felt like there was a lot of value in this type of planning to get a layer of decisions made about the area and knowing this could take many decades and several updates as the plan evolved.
Commissioner Amyx said there was a lot of work done on both options. In talking to individuals who owned property to the south in the West 6th Street area and the distances to run utilities to the north, it seemed to him the simplest way to run utilities was up the K-10 side. He was surprised they did not include the Lawrence Energy Center and area north of Farmer’s Turnpike because it seemed like a natural extension of area there.
Commissioner Highberger said he already stated his preference for having a study session on both sector plans because of the amount of detail and compromises made during the process so he could understand it. If they wanted to delay a week, he would support that. One of his major concerns with this plan was timing and would like a little bit more explanation of why they were doing urban density planning outside an urban growth area. A lot of the area in contention was outside the urban growth area and did not make sense to him to have urban planning for very low density residential.
Mayor Dever said the plans were almost identical and his assessment was there was not much difference. They were talking about the definition of low density residential and very low density residential. He thought there were good arguments from both sides and as they planned they did not want to use terminology or definitions that did not exist in the City Code. Very low density residential was not something he was in favor of using, which would steer him away from Option 2 but perhaps there was more compromise they could come up with after hearing more comment and given more time to review the plans. He thought they were really close and hated to throw a bunch of time, meetings and assessments on stuff and the area in question was outside the urban growth area.
Moved by Hack, seconded by Chestnut, to defer for one week consideration of the Comprehensive Plan Amendment (CPA-2008-9), amending Horizon 2020, Chapter 14 Specific Plans, to add a reference to and incorporate the K-10 & Farmer’s Turnpike Plan and adopt on first reading, Ordinance No. 8358/County Resolution No. ____, amending Horizon 2020, Chapter 14 Specific Plans by approving and incorporating by reference (CPA-2008-9). Motion carried unanimously. (21)