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Citizens set to tackle new city master plan
Citizens set to tackle new city master plan
By SUE REID
Solon City Council confirmed the appointments last week of a master plan citizens commission.
The commission, which is appointed every six years, will establish the basic general goals of the city's master plan, Planning Director Robert S. Frankland said.
According to city charter, the mayor appoints three qualified electors of the city, and each council member appoints one qualified elector residing within their respective wards to the commission.
The 10 members appointed include: Regina Olbinsky, Richard Perry, Cindy Bomeli, Eugene Kotmel, Eileen Siebert, Teresa Lichtcsien, Marilyn Matia, Roger Newberry, David Gordon and Greg Rosenberg.
The master plan citizens commission will serve as an advisory board intended to represent a broad cross section of the community attitudes regarding the present and desired future physical environment of the community, Mayor Susan A. Drucker said. The commission shall assist the planning and economic development directors in formulating the goals of the master plan and shall provide feedback and direction on the methods by which those goals are achieved, she said.
Mr. Frankland said the commission will review the goals established with the last plan, which was adopted last year. The first meeting is at 7 p.m. Feb. 10.
"They will determine if those goals need changed or whether new goals need established," Mr. Frankland said. That is the primary focus and function of the committee, he said. "It's the prescribed process."
With regards to the master plan, he said, there are some goals that need to be amended. Those are the ones developed by the previous master plan committee, from 2001 to 2005. The reason for changing some of those goals, he said, is because they already have been accomplished.
An example was one of the goals was to rewrite the zoning code, which the planning department has done. Another is to establish building design and material standards for commercial structures, which also already was done by the planning department.
"The committee will need to look at those and determine any new goals that we should be pursuing in the city," he said. The plan then will be written to attempt to accomplish those general goals.
"They also might establish a new goal that wasn't envisioned in the last plan and addendums to reflect those goals," Mr. Frankland said. "They might establish a new goal that wasn't envisioned in the last plan and addendums to reflect those goals."
Mr. Frankland said that any change would have to be voted on by council to be incorporated into the master plan. It also would go through the planning commission, he said.
"Through the process, I would reconvene the master plan commission to explain the direction the plan is taking and get feedback to make sure we're going in the right direction," Mr. Frankland said.
He said it the commission will decide how often it meets. The commission also will come up with rules, he said. There are two phases of the process, Mr. Frankland said. The first, and most intensive phase, is establishing goals. That could take a month or two, and after that, the commission would review and give feedback on the direction the plan is going, he said.
Mr. Frankland said there will be a number of issues he would like the commission to review. "A lot of the topics have come up even since the plan was adopted in 2010 that I need to review with them," he said.
This plan being reviewed is the first in the city in over 35 years and is being developed in-house. The predecessor of the Cuyahoga County planning commission, which was the regional planning commission, prepared the last plan.
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