5.1. SR 12-10-2007 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Item # 5.1. cty E fiver MEMORANDUM TO: City Council FROM: Jeremy Barnhart, Planning Manager DATE: December 10, 2007 SUBJECT: Propose Policy Extending Approved But Not Acted Upon Preliminary Plats and Conditional Use Permits This information is presented to open discussion. Periodically over the last several months, the City has received a number of requests to extend the approval of a conditional use permit, prelirrunary, or final plat. This is expected to continue and with the downturn of the housing market, may increase in the coming months, most notable for preliminary plats. Per City Ordinance, expiration dates of the various applications: ^ CUP -expires if not acted upon in 2 years, with PC recommendation (30-656) ^ Variance - 2 years unless substantial action has been taken (30-635) ^ Prelim Plat - 1 year to submit a final plat*, three year maximum for phased plats (30-374) ^ *Final Plat - no limit. Typically, there is little cause for concern for extensions if good faith progress is being made on an approved project. There is concern, though, when no action is being taken, often because the applicant is "waiting out the market" ar is having trouble getting financing, etc. Additionally, the longer the time between Council action and developer improvement, the greater potential that an application may no longer meet the goals of the City, or that ordinances or policies could change and these changes may not be implement-able to the unbuilt applications, specifically preliminary plats. A published policy guiding the Council in determining appropriate extensions would be beneficial to both the Council and the applicants, making clear the Council desire for action on these applications while at the same time preventing perceptions of unfair treatment (approving one extension but not another). To safeguard against these concerns, the Council could, by policy, respond to extension requests as follows. S:~PLANNING~POLICY- Approval extension memo.doc