Council votes to speed up development
Story by Kendall Jones (Contact)
10:24 p.m. Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Tonight, the city council voted to reduce the number of members that need to be present at a Planning Commission meeting to approve a project.
Council members lowered the number from seven commissioners to five.
The planning commission is made up of nine members so the idea behind the change is that absences will still allow the commission to approve projects in Topeka.
A developer spoke before the city council tonight in favor of the ordinance.
He said he'd lost more than $35,000 because the planning commission didn't have enough members to vote on his project and his costs increased.
Planning Commission Chairwoman Michelle Hoferer was also at the meeting and spoke before the council. Even though she admitted some development projects in Topeka were delayed because of absences, she said she was opposed to this ordinance.
"I just didn't see it as being necessary to change," Hoferer said. "I thought we were probably a better judge of what quorum should be than city council since we know what we deal with on a regular basis."
The planning commission meets about three times per month.
Their next meeting to talk about zoning issues in the city and decide on development projects will be on October 20th
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