SULTAN PLANNING COMMISSION

(updated March, 2005)

PC meetings are held at
319 Main Street, Sultan in the Sultan City Hall Community Room.

RE PC Meeting Schedule: Until 1st quarter 2005, planning commission meetings were held at 7:00 PM on the first and third Tuesday sof each month. THE NEW SCHEDULE of PC meetings (in Word)is now only one meeting a month, at 7:00 PM, the first Tuesday of each month. For information on PC meetings and minutes, click here or call Donna Murphy, PC Secretary, 360.793.2231.

G.R.I.T. Editorials re planning:

• Ordering Up Our Future: "Would you like some Asphalt with those Wetlands, Sir?"
• "Ordering our Future"
• "Back FOR our Future."
• "Rowe Holds Our Future" (in Word)
• Other GRIT Editorials

PC Mtg. Minutes

PC Rules of Procedure

Also see our "Transcription" page, which includes many transcriptions from PC meetings

2004 Anonymous attacks on PC member Josie Fallgatter's character and ethics

What does the Planning Commission do? Read an article by Christine Wakefield-Nichols, a former PC Chairman.

Planning Commissioner Appointments: Should Council and Public be able to "pre-review" nominees?

• How to Contact PC Members
• Annexations
• Updates & Summaries of meetings
• Articles of Interest

MISCELLANEOUS ISSUES:

• Anonymous attacks on Commissioner Josie Fallgatter (personal and otherwise)

• Not-so-anonymous attacks on Commissioner Josie Fallgatter

• Bart Dalmasso's Boycott and Cancellation of 9-21-04 PC meeting

• Should we change the make-up of the Commission and/or how commissioners are selected & appointed? Read a letter on this subject.

• Attendance record of Sultan's Planning Commissioners? - A Study on Planning Commissioner absenteeism (in Word) - (Interestingly, Tom Green, Bart Dalmasso and other like-minded Commissioners argued vehemently in 2002 to relax the rules on how many meetings a commissioner can miss before being removed from the commission for cause. The current rule was then four unexcused meetings. The rule as of Sept., 2004 is basically no limit. Chair Tom Green has taken a two-month leave of absence for vacation in the fall of 2003 and 2004. In 2003, virtually no business was transacted because of the resulting balance of power on the Commission.)

How to Contact Planning Commission Members:

Janie Botting
Bart Dalmasso
Josie FalLgatter
Ray George
Tom Green
Jeff Kirkman

(Donna Murphy issues the Agenda)

READ previous application and letters for Planning Commission hopefuls
READ resignation letters from: Brandt Gerow, Michael Kelly

SULTAN'S BUILDABLE LANDS:
link to county info

• Sign Ordinance (corrected as of 10-19-02) (as a Word doc, as Acrobat)
• For would-be planners, this site is a MUST (plannersweb.com)
• What's the difference between
  a hearing and a meeting?
• Fostering communication
  between government and citizens

PROPOSED ORDINANCES: As of 3/4/02; sorry, we gave up. Too many to keep track of, especially with the dimming-down of the public process and information dribbling in from the city. Also, the city refuses to make drafts available in electronic form for review prior to hearings.

Clusters, Min. Lot Coverage, etc. (poorly-advertised hearing in PC) (GRIT's comments during hearing)

PUD's, Increasing max. parking spaces, home, cubic fill minimums to trigger a SEPA review, etc. (issued 2-14-02; no hearing in PC - GRIT's written comments, sent with very little notice) in Word

QUESTION:
Should Councilmembers and the public have an opportunity to review qualifications for new PC nominees, and to "interview" them?

ANSWER:
RCW 35A.63.010 ...[For non-code charter cities]: "(8) 'Planning agency' means any person, body, or organization designated by the legislative body [city council] to perform a planning function or portion thereof for a municipality, and includes, without limitation, any commission, committee, department, or board together with its staff members, employees, agents, and consultants."

CLUSTERS: What are they?

SNOHOMISH CO. BULLETIN #44 on clusters

Annexations:

• Petition method of annexation struck down by court
• From mrsc website: Re election method
• G.R.I.T. Annexation's Page

DENSITY BANKING: WHAT IS IT?

• Margaret Skogland's comments during 6-19-02 Town Meeting
• PC Dicussion during the 6-18-02 meeting
• INFO ON COUNTY'S TDR (Transfer of Development Rights) Pilot Program.... (What Margaret Skogland has been proposing we do to maximize the city's housing densities, as well as the developer's -- and lanowners selling to developers -- profits.

ARTICLES OF INTEREST ON PLANNING & DEVELOPMENT IN OTHER AREAS (these links are not active, but will give our reader an idea of previous subjects:

Seattle PI, Gordy Holt on Roslyn/Cle Elum (seems sprawl crawl and greed go hand-in-hand, don't it? Whatever happened to impact fees paying for development?)
Seattle PI: More Buildable Land Isues: Farmers & Cities both feel hemmed in
PROPERTY RIGHTS: Oppositional Philosophies:
Times' "Developers win 2 lawsuits against cities" and Washington Post's "Justices Back Regulators in Property Rights Case"
Seattle Times: Fall vote unlikely on regional transportation plan AND
Traffic Woes bring counties together, but...
Also: Study may lead to easing of development restrictions

Growth boundary issues (Will we have enough land for everyone?) Seattle Times: "Snohomish Co. rezoning hinges on which growth forecast is used" and Everet Herald, "Builders primed to fight report"

UPDATES/SUMMARIES ON PC MEETINGS:

1-7-03 meeting (discussion on Morris annexation, impact fees, living wage, etc.)