March 25th 2010 6pm
City of Daphne Planning Commission Meeting
City Hall

Members Present : Fred Small, Mayor; Frank Martin, Secretary; Ed Kirby, Chairman; Larry Chason, Cathy Barnette, Councilwoman;

Members Absent: Joe Lemoine, Victoria Phelps, Chief James "Bo" White

Staff Present: Adrienne D. Jones, Director of Community Development; Jan Dickson, Planning Coordinator; Nancy Anderson, GIs Manager; Jay Ross, Attorney;

Staff Absent: Ashley Campbell, Environmental Programs Manager; Missty Gray, Attorney; Erick Bussey, Associate Attorney.

Others Absent: Rob McElroy, General Manager/Utilities Board of the City of Daphne; Danny Lyndall, Operations Manager/Utilities Board of the City of Daphne.

Chairman: Please let the record reflect Mr. Lemoine, Ms. Phelps, and Chief White are not present. Ladies and Gentleman, we have enough Planning Commission members present to constitute a quorum, but we do not have enough members present to review the subdivision items on the agenda. It requires six affirmative votes to approve a subdivision, and six members present to hold a public hearing for subdivision review. What that means is the subdivision review we have on the agenda tonight will have to be held over until the next scheduled regular meeting which is Thursday, April 22, 2010. I would ask that you come to the work session because that is when we sit down and try to work out any details on the plans. More information is discussed and is available at that meeting than the regular meeting.

Chairman: That meeting will be held on Wednesday, April 14, 2010 at 8: 30 a.m. Our regular meeting will be held April 22, 2010 at 6:00 p.m. With that being said, I know there are a lot of people that would like to speak on the subdivisions, but we are not going to be able to do anything with them tonight. That is why I wanted to bring it up in the beginning of the meeting. You are welcome to stay to see what else is going on. Since we are not going to be able to do the subdivisions if
you do not wish to stay, you may be excused.

Mr. Ross: Mr. Chairman, that would be related to the TimberCreek and Caroline Woods, Two Subdivision matters. Is that correct?

Chairman: The TimberCreek and Caroline Woods, Phase Two subdivisions will be the two subdivision items we will not be able to hear.

Public Comment: Where are your people? Who is missing?

Chairman: Mr. Lemoine, Ms. Phelps, Chief White are not present, and we are short one member.

Public Comment: Aren't you elected officials here to represent the public?

Ms. Barnette: No. The only two elected officials on this body are Mayor Small and I. The other members are volunteers.

Public Comment: I stand corrected. Will we receive another letter regarding the meeting?

Mr. Ross: You could.

Ms. Jones: Not another certified letter.

Chairman: Not another certified letter.

Ms. Jones: You could send one by regular mail if you wanted to.

Chairman: This is the notice which will be given. There will not be another certified letter sent.

Public Comment: You did not give us notice. You did not give us the date of the meeting. Can you verify the date?

Chairman: Ok. The date of the work session is on Wednesday, April 14, 2010 at 8:30 a.m. This meeting is in the morning.

Ms. Jones: It will be held here in the council chambers.

Chairman: The regular meeting is Thursday, April 22, 2010 at 6:00 p.m. Both of the meetings will be held here in the council chambers.

Public Comment: What assurance does this group of people have that it will not be the same case in a month?

Chairman: We will hear it at that time. We do not have any choice.

Public Comment: It may be the exact same situation thirty days from now.

Chairman: It may be, but I cannot do anything about it tonight.

Public Comment: Does that mean you cannot vote or that you cannot hear points of view on it?

Chairman: I would rather hear the point of views at the site preview meeting at which the subdivision will be heard so we can address them at the regular meeting.

Ms. Barnette: Mr. Chairman, can you also point out that the Planning Commission also accepts letters. We have a lot of correspondence in front of us. We can certainly accept those comments throughout the next month until the work session. If you want to stay although the work session is not a formal meeting, we do have public participation at the end if you are present and would like to make comments. It is not going to be heard tonight. I think, Mr. Ross, we need to take action to defer or table it to waive the thirty-day rule so people will leave the room with some assurances because it was on the agenda and no action is taken.

Mr. Ross: That will be fine. You can table them until the next regular meeting for the reason you stated. They are being tabled due to the lack of a quorum to vote on the subject.

Chairman: Do any of the Commissioners have any questions or comments? If there is no objection, the Chair will entertain a motion.

A Motion was made by Ms. Barnette and Seconded by Mayor Small to table the preliminary/final plat review for TimberCreek Golf Course Subdivision and the master plan, preliminary plat and administrative review for Caroline Woods Subdivision, Phase Two until the next regular meeting of April 22, 2020 due to the lack of a quonun (six members present) to vote on the subject.

The Motion carried unanimously.

Chairman: Thank you.

Public Comment: I had asked a question. Is there any reason?

Chairman: At the end of the meeting, we will allow public participation. You need to attend the work session.

Mr. Tom Or Hare, adjacent property owner and attorney: Mr. Chairman, can you explain to them what a work session is, and what you will be looking for when discussing the subdivision so they can prepare and come to that meeting. Can you explain this for us?

Chairman: The work session is where we will sit down with the engineers, developers, etc. and hear ahead of time what they are proposing to do. It is open to the public and anyone can come. The Planning Commission can make suggestions regarding what we would like to see corrected prior to the regular meeting. It gives them a heads up on what we are going to be looking for.

Mr. Tom O'Hare: And will people have an opportunity to speak then?

Chairman: Normally at the work session you don't, but if we have someone at the work session that would like to speak they can.

Mayor Small: Mr. Chairman, if I may. Just so you will know, this is the first time I know of in six years we have not had six members present here. It has nothing to do with you or the situation we are in. It just happened like this.

Public Comment: Is there anyway to get a copy of what they are proposing for the preliminary plat review? Is there a copy somewhere?

Chairman: Ma'am? There is a copy of the proposed plan in the Planning office.

Mr. Gus Palurnbo: Mr. Chairman, may I speak. The Planning Commission members know me. I am the Councilman for District 7. I represent most of the adjacent property owners which are not going to get a chance to speak tonight. I do want to let the Planning Commission know. I have notified you by email. The reason they are upset is because they received a notice affecting their property after the meeting was held. I realize it was done with good intentions, but the road to hell was paved with good intentions. Had that notice been sent properly and in a timely manner, they would have had time to come down on Wednesday, March 17, 2010, and there would not be this confusion. I hope in the future the adjacent property owners will receive their notices on time.

Chairman: Mr. Palumbo, please understand the notices have to be sent five days before the regular scheduled meeting. We can try to get them out earlier, but the law says five days prior to the regular meeting.

Ms. Jones: It says mailed from here five days prior to a regular meeting.

Mr. Palumbo: If you look at the letter, it was dated March 15, 2010. The meeting was the morning of March 17, 2010. They were registered letters.

Chairman: I understand, but we do not have to notify a resident of the work session. We have to notify an adjacent property owner of the regular scheduled meeting.

Mr. Palumbo: My point is if the notice had not been received after site preview meeting, then they would not be upset. I realize notice of the site preview meeting was not required. It was meant to be two notifications in one, but the procedure is flawed. You have to understand these people have received notification of a meeting that had already taken place. That is the main reason they are upset tonight.

Ms. Barnette: If I may point out for those of you that are still here, there is no action taken at a work session. It is truly what the word says. It is a work session for the engineer to present information to the Planning Commission, but no formal action is taken. That is what this meeting tonight is for. As we stated early, no action will be taken tonight due to the lack of a quorum of members to vote on the items. Although there is no action taken at that meeting and many may not be able to attend, your comments, letters, phone calls can be received in the Planning Office in preparation for the next meeting on April 22, 2010 at 6:00 p.m. here in the council chambers.

Public Comment: Mr. Chairman, in the previous letter mentioned that meeting. If you do not intend for us to attend that meeting, it would help if you did not include that meeting date in the letter.

Mr. Tom O'Hare: Mr. Chairman, it would help if you would have the owner there.

Chairman: I cannot require the owners to be there.

Mr. Tom O'Hare: It does not help to have the engineer to come to this meeting to say I do not know what the owner plans to do with this property. I think the Planning Commission has the right to express a desire to have an owner or an ownerfs representative present at that meeting.

Mr. Ross: They were here tonight.

Mr. Tom O'Hare: If the Commission will express that desire, then maybe the message will get to the owner.

Chairman: Thank you.

Mr. Palumbo: The Planning Commission members serve with absolutely no pay on the behalf of the citizens. I think a lot of what you are hearing tonight is simply frustration due to a late notice. I think at the work session a lot of the information- will be given, and they will be satisfied with the project at that time. Thank you.