Vote saves regional planning commissions

A plan to scrap most of the county planning commissions was killed Tuesday after audience members urged the Tuolumne County Board of Supervisors to spare the land-use bodies.

The unanimous move was met with applause.   

 Eliminating the planning commissions slated for the chopping block — the Jamestown Area, South County and Columbia Area panels — would result in less transparency and less local control, and place an undue burden on the Tuolumne County Planning Commission, which would be forced to take on extra duties, several outspoken audience members said.

Some of those doing the pleading were members of one planning commission or another.

“This is a very dangerous thing,” said audience member Barbara Farkas. “What we’re doing basically is eliminating opposition and public input, and that’s very scary.”

Tuolumne County Economic Development Authority Director Larry Cope was the sole audience member who expressed support for the move, which he said could “streamline government.”

The proposal was brought forth earlier this year by County Administrator Craig Pedro. His reasoning was the additional commissions cost the county money and staff time.

At Tuesday’s meeting, he also expressed concerns about efficiency and discrepancies in the various commissions’ decisions over the years.

“This will simplify and quicken our land-use process, and will give you greater consistency,” Pedro told supervisors Tuesday.

The county’s Community Development Department issued Tuesday’s staff report on the proposal. Department Director Bev Shane recommended that all but the Jamestown commission be disbanded, with the Columbia and South County commissions being turned into advisory committees, which take local input but don’t have the same powers as planning commissions.

The planning commissions are largely advisory bodies to the Board of Supervisors on land-use decisions, though they can make some decisions independently.

Both county and community planning commissioners are appointed by the Board of Supervisors, although only members of the county commission receive a stipend for their services.

Supervisor Dick Pland spoke passionately against the proposal to disband the community panels, drawing applause twice.   

“The savings are minimal if at all,” Pland said. “Are we going to trade a few dollars in savings for the local input and the transparency that we get? Advisory committees ... well ... what are they?”

Supervisor John Gray’s comments were also popular with the audience.

“The people are right there, and they see things in a way that people aren’t going to see it who don’t live in the community.”    

Only Gray’s and Pland’s districts stood to be affected by the move. 

For a while, it appeared as though the board had enough votes to approve the proposal, with Chairwoman Teri Murrison and supervisors Liz Bass and Paolo Maffei expressing lukewarm support for it.

Both Gray and Murrison noted that towns and developments in their districts don’t have planning commissions. Murrison’s district includes Twain Harte and Tuolumne, while Maffei’s district includes Crystal Falls.

“Not all the communities have these privileges,” Murrison said.

But after the passion expressed by Pland and Gray against the proposal, Murrison called for a motion to keep all the planning commissions, rather than disbanding them.

The new proposal passed easily, with little discussion.