The City’s Planning Commission met Tuesday for a meeting regarding some issues in the community. Firstly, the city is considering re-evaluating the section of the city code regarding signs for businesses along frontages. The current city code only allows one sign per frontage. Originally, this was intended to prevent overburdening of advertisements in our city, but some in the community believe this now to be an unfair limit at the current rate of development. The commission was fairly receptive to the proposed change, however brought up the point that window signage should be considered for the code changes as well. Interim Community Development Director Angela Gemmer informed them that the current limit on signs in business windows is to primarily allow police officers a way of observing the inside of the buildings. The commission set July 28th as the date for a public hearing to be held regarding this manner.
The commission also considered the previously discussed Critical Areas code update to come into congruence with the state’s recent changes. Both the commission and Director Gemmer decided that the updates were not complete enough to warrant a public hearing yet. The commission has gone back to the drawing board until a better solution can be found.
Finally, the commission discussed the possible repeal of the 116th Street Master Plan. As discussed in a previous meeting, this plan was what brought the area where what is now the WinCo up to modern standards. It is the opinion of several in both the development staff and city government that this plan has reached its full potential, with the exception of one small street that could possibly be added to run parallel with, and between State Avenue and I-5. While this would aid in travel to both the existing, and a future subdivision in the area, it intersects with tribal land, and the city would have to acquire frontage rights for part of it, leaving a headache for the engineers and developers to deal with. After a long discussion, the Commission set July 28th for a public hearing regarding this matter.