04/03/2000 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Memo re Request for Special Use Permit at 731 Beta &om Mayor Rinker 412-00 Page 2 Overview• Most city planners advise that a municipality should upgrade and evaluate its comprehensive zoning plan-some communities have a master plan-every 5 to 10 years in some objective fashion. Generally speaking, communities should consider short, middle and long term planning and zoning goals, by identifying issues that can be mere trends versus true shifts in the overall commuauity environment. There is little question that the long term economic health of a community, its quality of }ife characteristics, demands placed on services, and sunilar factors are all in some fashion related to the success, or lack tttereof, of a viable planning and zoning code and its administration In a number of areas, we have been constrained to consider in a variety of ways several of these issues, typically as they arise in conjunction with projects. From the time we began working to resolve the long-stancling conflict with the LaConte family and Parkview Golf Course, up to the present, we have paid increasing attention to these isstxes. The Beta Complex, for the most part, has remained pretty much at status quo. I , suggest it is appropriate for us to look closer at Beta to see whether or not we want to make any adjustment to it. Simply evaluating it does not mean we will make any ? change--but it does mean we will at some future point be able to say that we considered unportant, objective factors thoughtfully be£ore we conclude one way or the other. I firmly believe that one tasic of municipal government is to engage in this evaluative process collectively on an ongoing basis. In such fashion, the municipality sustains its constitutional burden of avoiding decision-making that is "arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable," as individual constitutional challenges to municipal decisions are typically couched, and instead demonstrates that it has reasonably acted in the best interests of the "health, welfare and safety" of our community. We should not be afraid to ask the questions first. The answers can come later. In the specific permit and variance issues before us, I think we have a good opportunity to promote a viable, useful and non threatening use. We should understand the limited scope of the request being made. The medium and long term issues are secondary, can be handled effectively over time and need not be decided now. But I think they are worth noting, because the immediate, specific issue before us is one that we may be facing again; in fact, we A-MY want to face it again We should consider developing strategies for Beta with better sophistication. _?I