Wellington Planning Commission 12/4/23

For more information see the full notes document here.*

View the meeting agenda and packet.

A video recording of the meeting is available here.

From the Wellington Planning Commission website: “The Town of Wellington Planning Commission is responsible for developing, adopting, and implementing the Comprehensive Plan to address community development and growth. This includes creating zoning regulations, land use policies, and other guidelines that help shape the community's physical and economic landscape.”

Key Topic from Dec. 4, 2023

Keep the planning department busy during the quiet holiday season.

Planning Director Bird followed up on a suggestion from the Nov. 6^th meeting to prepare Planning 101 training. Commission members want to be better prepared for making town project decisions. They admit mistakes have been made and Planning 101 training could help alleviate those. Director Bird will conduct the training and cover the following topics:

1. Roles in the application process – planning and zoning staff, and commission’s role.
2. Procedures to review development plans.
3. Site plan application materials and requirements. What should be submitted?
4. Instances of conditional approval and what should be considered to add a condition for approval.

The planning team will assist Director Bird with training to begin in January 2024. Commission Chair Sartor asked Bird if he could put the information in Org Chart style with descriptions underneath. Then add recommendations for the commission and Board of Trustees to consider before approving.

Director Bird recommends reviewing the Land Use codes again in 2024 to make sure everyone understands what’s allowed and what’s not allowed. Some codes assigned may require re-zoning, such as industrial land use codes next to residential zoning.

Commissioner Carmen would like to eventually have public education on zoning and land use codes. He thinks there is too much misinformation on what’s allowed within city limits and by land use codes.

Other Topics form the meeting.

A site plan review for The Well (8121 First Street) was tabled a second time from the Oct. 2 meeting to Dec. 4, and now pushed out to March 4, 2024.

A new 2024 meeting schedule and submission dates was unanimously approved. Planning commission meetings will remain on the 1^st Monday of each month at 6:30 p.m.

The meeting was adjourned at 7:14 p.m.

Next Meeting: Monday, Jan. 8, 2024 @ 6:30 p.m., Leeper Center, 3800 Wilson Avenue, Wellington, CO (pushed out 1 week due to the New Year holiday).

Questions:

1. Will this training be required for all future planning commissioners?
2. Will this be available to the public during the planning commission meetings?

*Citizen Observers further the commitment of the League of Women Voters to its principle of Citizens Right to Know, however, we are not acting as journalists. Omissions and errors are possible. It is assumed that users of this information are responsible for their own fact-checking. This could include contacting a government clerk, conversing with an elected official or staff, and/or asking us to speak to the Observer who attended.