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HomeMy WebLinkAboutRCC AGENDA 1994/08/02MEMORANDUM DATE: August 2, 1994 TO: Chairman and Members of the Resource Conservation Commission FROM: Duane E. Bazze~ Principal Planner SUBJECT: Status of CUP Streamlining Efforts In response to the Economic Development Commission's, the Resource Conservation Commission's and the City Council's concerns regarding the need to streamline the City's Conditional Use Permit (CUP) process Planning Department staff have been meeting with an ad hoc committee (CUP Advisory Committee) for the sole purpose of fmding ways to streamline the City's current CUP process. Membership in this Committee is quit diverse, including representatives from the Planning Commission, Economic Development Commission, the Resource Conservation Commission (Barbara Hall), Chamber of Commerce, South Bay Community Services and prior applicants. The CUP Advisory Committee has been meeting for many months fully analyzing land uses which now are required to process a CUP. The City now lists approximately 200 land uses which currently require various levels of review and approval through the CUP process. The purpose of such scrutiny is to determine how many land uses could be shifted to "permitted-by- right" status (with or without specific performance standards) and how many could be approved at an administrative level. The review is also focussing on shifting the permit track for those uses requiring City Council approval to Planning Commission or even administrative (staff) levels. In addition, the Committee is looking at ways in which the CUP application process can be streamlined through more "user-friendly" application materials and also scrutinizing review and processing time lines. The CUP Advisory Committee feels that by reducing the number of permits requiring the CUP process and preparing specific zoning ordinance standards tailored to certain land uses currently requiring a CUP, that on-going conformance can be addressed through regular zoning enforcement action without time consuming CUP repeal processing now necessary to ensure conformance with conditions. Modifications in this area should go a long way toward addressing the RCC's prior request for improved CUP enforcement. The CUP Advisory Committee and staff wish to forward recommendations to Council that will minimize the amount of time needed to process many CUP's and feel that if: a) ongoing Status of CUP Streamlining August 2, 1994 Page 2 monitoring could be shifted to zoning enforcement efforts instead of the legislative CUP repeal process, and b) the amount of processing time could be reduced by minimizing levels of review prior to approval, and c) initial processing of applications could be made more understandable, then streamlining of the CUP process should be achieved. The CUP Advisory Committee is in the process of aggregating their recommendations, which will be contained in an issue paper then presented to the appropriate bodies prior to further direction from Council on a work program to implement recommendations. Unfortunately, at this point in time a draft of the Committee's recommendations is not available but should be relatively soon. cc: CUP Advisory Committee Members (:Acuprw.mem)