This has been a long time coming. I’ve seen over the years when I’ve served on Planning Commission and on council that our town model of single-family residential --- our foundation --- has been tremendously successful and appealing”

Jerry Bien-Willner

By Melissa Rosequist
Twitter: @mrosequist_

Some internal planning and zoning changes may be on the horizon, as Paradise Valley officials gear up for an all-day retreat on Thursday, Jan. 30.

The retreat, donning a title of “Planning and Zoning Process Retreat,” has been in the works for some time, as Paradise Valley Town Council has been gathering information from stakeholders in recent weeks.

In addition to presentations from their decision-making boards and feedback from individuals who volunteer for those boards, Mayor Jerry Bien-Willner says consensus has been sought from town staff, residents and those who go through the zoning and planning processes.

“Nothing is broken,” Mr. Bien-Willner said of the upcoming retreat. “But I want to know and hear from everyone and understand what we can be doing better.”

This full-day activity has been on the minds of Paradise Valley officials for some time, both Mr. Bien-Willer and Vice Mayor Julie Pace agree, and now that Town Manager Jill Keimach is on board --- a municipal savant with years of planning experience from previous jobs --- the foundation for the conversation is now set.

“This has been a long time coming. I’ve seen over the years when I’ve served on Planning Commission and on council that our town model of single-family residential --- our foundation --- has been tremendously successful and appealing,” Mr. Bien-Willner said. “How that gets implemented in our standards and processes is always worth looking at.”

Ms. Pace says there has been an ongoing list of items town staff and elected leaders have been discussing, such as how to minimize pass-through traffic in residential neighborhoods, that deserve a full conversation. Many of the discussion topics are submitted by residents, Ms. Pace says, pointing to an email folder full of resident concerns.

“It’s a bunch of things,” she said. “My understanding of how it’s going to go is staff is going to put together a list of what they hear, bring forth guidelines and what needs to be changed whether it’s enforcement, new items being added --- like a native plant list --- I think the goal is to hear what staff has on a list of suggestions for processes, and see if we have anything to add on. Then, we will figure out what there’s consensus to move forward and explore further.”

Ms. Pace added some of their discussions may be looking at past items to evaluate how things are working out.

“Like how is drainage working?” Ms. Pace explained. “It may be things we need to tweak or been kind of pushing off --- we’re adding things onto this list one by one.”

Gaining perspective

During recent meetings, Town Council has scheduled its decision-making committees --- Planning Commission, Board of Adjustment and Hillside Committee --- to give presentations on their inner workings. Additionally, the individual members of these groups have come in one-by-one for a quick sit-down to give their personal views on what is or isn’t working for their committee.

The first group of volunteers went in front of council on Jan. 9, while the second half stopped by on Jan. 23.

The Planning Commission, Board of Adjustment and Hillside committee are all made up of residents appointed by the Town Council. Each group is responsible for various duties to do with the municipal development and happenings --- such as special use permits, hearing variance requests and reviewing land-disturbance applications.

“We’re in great hands with very strong boards and commissions,” Mr. Bien-Willner said. “I’m glad they do share their thoughts and concerns. What I initiated here was somewhat unique; something we haven’t done recently where we have the decision-making boards come in front of us and have a few minutes in front of council.”

Mr. Bien-Willner says he’s happy to have received good feedback from the board members, noting how getting to know each other on a more intimate basis is helpful when choosing future appointments to the boards.

“It helps us understand when having a board or commission vacancy --- to pick vacancies for a group or team, it’s hard to do that if you don’t know who the players are,” Mr. Bien-Willner said. “I think it helps knowing the personalities too.”

Ms. Pace had similar sentiments from her point of view, saying she has enjoyed all of the presentations.

“I think the volunteers were surprised, they didn’t know what to expect,” Ms. Pace said of the committee members being asked to share their thoughts in front of council. “It’s been helpful to get each person’s perspective on what’s going well. One volunteer said we need to think about solar panels; one person said we need to have people trained more and be at meetings --- people had different views. It was actually really helpful. They have ideas and it allows us to think about it.”

Boots on the ground

The input provided by committee members included reflection on process, suggestions and areas for improvement.

Longtime Board of Adjustment member Emily Kile, who has served on the board for 12 years, primarily voiced concern with the training and commitment her colleagues have.

“I had a couple of thoughts --- there have been a lot of changes over time, when I first came on we would have four hearings in a night and we would be there all night long,” Ms. Kile said. “Now we have a meeting maybe four or five times a year, and it’s one property. I have to say that I’ve been disappointed that the board members seem much less engaged than they seemed in the past.”

Ms. Kile said at a recent meeting, she was the only member of the board who visited the property in question.

“I don’t know how you can make an assessment as to whether or not to say, ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to a variance --- which is completely dependent upon the property --- if you don’t go to the property. It’s impossible,” she said, pointing out that every property in Paradise Valley is unique.

Secondly, Ms. Kile said there has been a lack of attendance.

“You apply, you go through the interviews with everyone here, and then to go through all of that and not attend meetings, seems again, not helpful,” she said. “I don’t know what the vetting process is, but it would be super helpful if during that process it’s clear you have a requirement.”

Planning Commissioner Tom Campbell, like Ms. Kile, has spent a lot of time volunteering for Paradise Valley. Mr. Campbell, a registered architect and licensed general contractor, has been on the Commission for 20 years.

“Obviously, I enjoy it, and I’ve seen a lot of different commissions and been on a lot of different Hillside committees as a rotating member,” Mr. Campbell said. “In contrast, I think we’re functioning extremely well. We’ve got a real wide variety of personalities and expertise. I think they’re all valuable.”

The Planning Commission has been working on a formal list of recommendations to submit to the council to discuss during the retreat.

One of the ideas they have talked about at length is how the Hillside Committee operates, where members of Planning Commission serve on the Hillside Committee in rotating phases.

“We’re talking about whether it should be a different composition, as far as the rotating members of Planning Commissioners, or the number of us,” Mr. Campbell explained. “Or maybe it’s the length of our terms that we serve, so we might be there longer for someone to get through the process without us rotating off, and someone new rotating on and they have a whole new set of items to deal with in their design.”

The Planning and Zoning Process Retreat will be 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Jan. 30, in the Town Hall Community Room. A quorum of council members will be present, but no policy matters will be decided and no votes or legal action will be taken.