Plano's Planning and Zoning Commission is set to decide Monday evening whether to stop producing the zoning impact table, a summary meant to help residents follow complicated rezoning cases, or to swap it for a simpler questionnaire that applicants would fill out themselves.
The item is on the agenda for the commission's preliminary open meeting at 5:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 2, in Training Room A of the Plano Municipal Center, 1520 K Ave., ahead of the regular 6 p.m. session. Votes may be taken at the preliminary meeting.
How it got here
According to a memo from Assistant Planning Director Mike Bell, commissioners discussed a staff recommendation on Sept. 8 to discontinue the table, formally the Zoning Impact Site Data Table.
The memo says commissioners agreed the table was not doing what it was meant to do, but several asked staff to come back with something simpler for applicants and staff and easier for the public to use. Staff showed the commission a draft questionnaire on Oct. 5 and folded commissioners' feedback into the version now before them.
Staff still recommends dropping the table with no replacement. The commission is being asked for a majority position on whether to end all zoning impact summaries or adopt the questionnaire.
The director's case
In a separate memo, Planning Director Christina Day wrote that the table was intended to distill complex zoning cases into the issues the community cares about, but that there is little evidence people use it and few cases take advantage of it.
She wrote that Plano's planning staff already produce documents more detailed than is typical for planning departments in the area, an effort she said was needed to rebuild public trust in zoning and development after the last decade.
Day called the table something of a "luxury item" and said the time spent on it takes away from work such as quicker ordinance updates and faster customer service. She praised Bell's compromise but said the new form, while simpler, could take applicants nearly as long to complete correctly.
