A Six-Month Zoning Amendment Moratorium Perchance?

Updated with Curmudgeon's Detailed Planning Commisssion Notes

It appears to us at first blush that Boss Godfrey and Uncle Greg got pretty much everything they were asking for at last night's Emerald City Planning Commission meeting, according to this morning's Scott Schwebke story.

Although the commission wound up amending the proposed Sensitive Area Overlay Zone ordinance language to include a +30% slope building restriction, even that slight concession to popular opinion appears NOT to be engraved in granite. As we learn from Curmudgeon's "quick and dirty report" in last night's lower comments section, the slope restriction prohibition will be revisited by the Planning Commission in the near future, upon presentation to the commission of a new "Hillsides Area Zoning Ordinance."

So as it now stands, we now have 1) an SAO ordinance emerging from the Planning Commission for City Council approval, 2) a yet unrevealed Muxed Use Development ordinance which will be considered by the Planning Commission in about a month, and 3) a new Hillsides Area Ordinance, the apparent hip-shot brainchild of last night's PC meeting. All of these ordinances involve foothill development. And now we find them broken up into three separate PC calendars, with one already headed to the Council for approval.

Oh boy.

And by the way... does anybody know what happened to that Mt. Ogden Neighborhood Plan process, which kept many lumpencitizens busy over the last summer?

While some may conclude that Boss Godfrey and Uncle Greg simply have absolutely no clue what they're doing, the skeptics among us could easily make the argument that Chris Peterson's zoning wish-list is now being craftily carved up into little bite sized pieces to be handed to the council for approval piece-meal. Administration of bad-tasting medicine in small doses is a time honored tradition both in folk-medicine and government. Some of us believe this is exactly what's happening here.

If we had our druthers, we'd urge the council to take the following approach to the flurry of foothill development zoning ordinances which are even now streaming out of the Planning Commission Chambers:

Abstain from approving any of these zoning changes piece-meal. Insist on a comprehensive rezoning scheme. Don't be steam-rolled into altering Emerald City's zoning status in any respect, until all PC recommendations are on the table. Above all, refrain from approving any of these until the underlying Mt. Ogden community plan has been completed, and amended into the general plan. The council demonstrated no hesitation a few weeks ago in imposing a six-month moratorium on River Project Area development, for the purpose of allowing the Emerald City Planning Department to get their ordinance "ducks lined up." We merely propose the same for Emerald City foothill development. What's the big rush, we ask?

Just a few helpful tips from yer old pal Rudi.

The floor is now open for any gentle readers who can explain the meaning of all this.

Update 2/8/07 9:34 a.m. MT: In the interim since the posting of our original article, gentle Curmudgeon has graciously drafted and submitted a detailed and extended article, reporting on the Planning Commission discussion of the Sensitive Area Ordinance portion of last night's meeting. We believe our gentle readers will find the interchanges between and among the various commissioners extremely interesting. Read Curmudgeon's most excellent and thorough report here.

Curmudgeon acknowledges that this article may contain inadvertant recordation and/or transcription errors. As always, readers are thus encouraged to chime in with any alterations or corrections which may be in order.