okay is everybody ready great i will now call to order the june 2nd reno city planning commission meeting we have the pledge of allegiance from commissioner commissioner johnson i pledge allegiance thank you very much can we get a roll call please taylor is absent at this time draculich here gower here johnson here munoz is absent delta villanueva here you do have a quorum thank you so much i will now move on to public comments uh this item is for either public comment on any action item or for any general public comment do we have any requests to speak for forms it should be noted for those in the audience that comments are to be addressed to the planning commission as a whole comments heard under this item will be limited to three minutes per person and may pertain to matters both on and off the planning commission agenda please note that the planning commission may not take action upon any matter not agendas for possible action on today's agenda when you are called on for public comment please state your name for the record and begin speaking the timer will begin when you say your name and you will be afforded three minutes lastly while in this room please be respectful warnings will be issued by the presiding officer if there is disruptive behavior you will be asked to leave chambers if the behavior continues with that being said we did receive correspondence that was distributed to the planning commission uh prior to the meeting we do not have any requests to speak forms and we do not have any voicemails thank you i can't really see in the room right now but is there anybody in the public that would like to speak okay seeing none and hearing none we'll close public comment move on to approval of the minutes item 4.1 approval of reno planning commission regular may 4th 2022 meeting commissioner villanueva for the record i was absent for the may 4th meeting so i will uh abstain thank you so much mr chair mr johnson i will move to approve the minutes commissioner second we have a motion in a second all those in favor say aye aye any nays okay the motion carries unanimously uh now we'll we're going to move a little bit out of order to help out the folks that are here on agenda item 6.1 the agenda says that we can move take items on the agenda out of order uh as such we're going to exercise that ability and move to item 6 which is public hearings and we'll take item number 6.1 which is case number ldc22-00067 do we have a presentation from the applicant yes my name is mark dennison i'm the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints facility manager for about 45 properties across i'm so sorry can you please tilt the microphone up to you a little bit more is that better that's better thank you we have 45 properties across northern nevada and eastern california and one of those properties is our property a church building on neil road where we're having some significant issues with vandalism and misuse on the building and that is why we're here tonight with me tonight is bishop dennis ford who is the bishop of one of the congregations that meets in this building and he will go first and then i will proceed after him and then we will close tonight with uh remarks from our local state president who is i'm sorry president farr who serves as the stake president for the reno mount rose stake my name is dennis ford i'm the bishop for the mount rose ward one of the congregations that meets in the nil road building and i've been in this position for about six years and prior to that for about five years i served as a physical facilities representative for this specific building and many others and over the years i've witnessed a lot of vandalism and and stuff taking place at this building i thought i'd take a minute and share with you some of the things that i've seen and you'll see some of the pictures that we have to offer a lot of things take place in this building things that just come to mind right away are uh graffiti a lot of graffiti um left the church yesterday graffiti on the building again probably on a weekly or bi-weekly basis were removing graffiti a lot of the youth in the back of the church once you see the video there's a little hidden alcove a lot of younger kids congregate there they get up on the roof they break pipes off the roof they skateboard on the roof they try to light the the eaves on fire um they leave trash behind alcohol drug drug deals taking place we even had some sexual activity taking place back there that had to stop with these youth we've had actually a gang shooting in the parking lot we had some ladies in a meeting behind the building there right out that window and there was a gang shooting every saturday our members clean the church they come and volunteer to clean the church and we spend probably a minimum of an hour every saturday just cleaning trash that's been left behind people come in with their cars and spend donuts in our parking lot had a lady the other day i caught her she was taking rocks out of our flower bed to take him home she was an older lady so we've just felt that it's an important thing that we try to secure our property a little bit more so that we can i mean it's and it's been very costly and i think he can share with you some of the the expenses we had a break in uh had a couple of break-ins we have a number of broken windows throughout the years just getting very expensive and we feel putting a fence around one that is adequate that would be a height that would kind of deter people from coming in would be better so i thank you for your time and hope you consider this for us thank you our hope as we present tonight is that you will not think we're just trying to create a gated community but rather an opportunity for us to protect what we have but still make it open and available for those in the neighborhood and any who would like to come our church is one that has on each of our signs visitors welcome and that's not just a slogan it we really do mean it and we have a cross culture of many different types of individuals the demographics are all over the board and we stand ready to assist people as they come to worship and come to find find grace in in the lord's presence um we have congregations three congregations that meet at that building and not just for church services but we do have an aggressive sports opportunity with basketball court pickleball court and designs for all kinds of activities in multi languages about a year ago after the break-in that did a lot of damage in june of 2021 we had the church security do a study and pull this data down from data that's reported by federal and local law enforcement which shows that a safe community is at an average of about a hundred and in the rating in this particular location we came in at 409 which is four times what it would be to be in a safe location we don't want to move we'd like to stay there we're serving people in that area but we do need to find a way to secure our place a little more as bishop ford mentioned we were tagged again last night and we are constantly going through a graffiti cleanup even when it comes on the brick of the building that's very hard to get off we're always finding trash and as he mentioned the the local members will spend nearly an hour each week picking up trash around the building this is pictures of the break-in from last year where actually a man had to be arrested who wouldn't leave the building there we've also had the problem with youth getting on the roof damaging the shingles lighting fire to the fascia and soffit there and also tearing down the gutters and downspouts this building was built in 1975 and serves a good portion of south reno and we do have a a building that is uh is just south of us in the in the area of the edmonton area down in that area but most the people who live in that area attend that building and the people who live up in this area mount rose and lakeside ward attend that area what's not shown there is a spanish branch that reaches all over south reno in that area we are requesting a six-foot privacy fence um that will not just be for security but we'll also add kind of a look to the area and provide a good looking opportunity for us to protect what what we do hold dear the apartment complex to the rear of our property already has that fence up we are looking to install the fence with with driveway gates and um and pedestrian gates so that we can have access as was directed by the staff we have relocated the design to have those gates at least 20 feet off the rear of the sidewalks also we've in we've moved the fence about 18 inches off the back of the sidewalk so we don't encroach on the right away and we've agreed to have the gates open specific times of sunday 6 30 a.m to 3 p.m and tuesday wednesday and thursday nights from 6 to 9 p.m and other times as needed if there's a dinner or an activity we'll make sure that they are opened up but our issue is that while we're not there there are those who come to do harm on the building and we just like to be able to secure it so that when we're not there it is i protected that's all i've got president far good evening my name is brent farr i'm the what they call the state president which basically means i oversee the church and its members in south reno and um i hold meetings in this building and i've had a lot of interesting experiences over the years uh in there and this is as much about protecting property as well as the protection of the members that are there we've had incidents they showed one where a guy broke in he was on meth he came through the one of the windows and you know there's blood all over the walls and he urinated on the floor and just crazy stuff that goes on in there and so really just worried about protecting our members some people not really feeling safe being at the building anymore and our ask is is i think pretty simple i mean a lot of those surrounding gates are six feet like we're right there by pine middle school where my kids went and they're and then the little elementary school across the street they all have six foot fences and that's what we're hoping to get you know just to help us a little bit with protection of the building and safety of our members so thank you okay thank you so much and do we have a presentation from staff yes you do good evening members of the commission for the record my name is leah brock assistant planner with development services city of reno this evening i am following up on the presentation by the applicants i just want to fill in a few of the blanks and provide you guys with some of the reno municipal code analysis on this the applicant has requested a major deviation to allow for a security fence exceeding four feet in height to be located in the required front yard area and within 20 feet of each side of a primary driveway reno municipal code only allows for a maximum four foot height in the front yard setback and within 20 feet of a primary driveway the reason for that is really just visibility this project consists of approximately 700 linear feet of six foot ornamental fencing three rolling vehicular gates and one pedestrian grate the fence will border the two sides of the subject parcel on the northwest corner of the intersection at kneel road and filbert road the key issues that staff analyzed in this request were compatibility with surrounding development and that was really looking at the height of fences in the area and also parking access and circulation because the height of that fence is directly related to the line of sight regarding access and circulation but i think it's worth pointing out here that the real key issue is health welfare and safety these even though i wasn't able to fully analyze that aspect within reno municipal code i do believe that the exhibits that were provided by the applicant show that there is a need for this fencing and that the real key issue here is the safety and health and welfare of these of not only our applicants but all of their people who visit this establishment the subject 2.56 acre site is located in the multi-family residential 30 units per acre zoning district adjacent uses include a small private school to the northeast an apartment complex to the west and northwest and public schools both an elementary school and a middle school to the south and southeast the proposed deviation would allow for a 50 percent increase in the maximum height of the fence which the applicant is allowed to ask for under a major deviation application the again the maximum height allowed is four feet and this would allow for a six foot fence the proposed fence will adjoin an existing fence at the southwest corner of the property run along filbert road and then around the corner and north um i'm sorry around the corner and then north up neil road and it would connect with the existing fence that's on the northeast corner of the parcel outside of the front setback where that little private school is located there will also be the three rolling gates which you can see here in yellow and the pedestrian gate where the sidewalk where the existing sidewalk connects to the walkway on filbert road you can see it in blue on the south side of the property there in discussing the compatibility with the surrounding development it was really just about whether or not there are six foot fences or similar fences in the area to the west of the property where the apartment complex is you can see up here on the top left corner this photo shows that existing fence this is very similar to what the applicant is proposing the difference in that fence being allowed in the front setback and the applicant's fence not being allowed in the setback is that that fence swoops down to a four foot height with six foot posts which is technically allowed uh the applicant was given that option i believe before he applied and it was determined that that wasn't going to be secure enough for their property down on the bottom right hand side here you can see the little private school and just in the corner there you can see that that six foot chain link fence that they have the applicant has proposed to wrap around that corner and connect to that existing fence here this is across filbert road this is the elementary school the elementary school is in a different zoning district so they are allowed to have this six foot fence and they do have that six foot chain link fence all the way along that side of the road in discussing the conditions that we have suggested the rolling gates at each of the three driveways will need to be set back a minimum of 20 feet from the sidewalk this will allow a vehicle to exit the roadway and safely stop while the gate is opening the gates will need to remain open during business hours so it doesn't cause congestion on the roadway that's condition five um this the site plan submitted does not depict the actual location of the fencing the fencing shown on the site plan could possibly be encroaching into the public right-of-way and it appears that the fencing and vehicular gates may block access to existing parking spaces including the ada parking space that you can see right near the corner by that rolling gate right there the applicant will be required to either obtain a survey to verify the location of the property lines and place the fence on those property lines or they would need to obtain an encroachment permit from the public works department to encroach into that right-of-way which the public works department does offer those encroachment permits for fencing also the fencing in our gates will not block access to any existing parking spaces unless a striping plan is submitted and approved with a fence permit and the reason for requiring that is not that there's not ample parking it's just we want to make sure that we end up with the correct number of ada spaces should that ada space need to be moved or taken out the project was reviewed by various city divisions and partner agencies courtesy notices and hearing notices were sent to the surrounding property and no comments were received the project was reviewed and presented to the ward 3 neighborhood advisory board but no comments were received from them either with all the recommended conditions of approval the proposed security fence not only appears to meet or exceed code standards but it also addresses the applicable findings staff recommends approval subject to the conditions listed in the staff report and that concludes my presentation the recommended motion is on the screen and i am available for questions thank you thank you okay we'll come back to the condition for disclosures we'll start with commissioner johnson thank you mr chair i visited the site commissioner dracula i'm familiar with the site commissioner villanueva i uh visited this site and drove around it thank you commissioner gower thank you commissioner gower familiar with the site thank you commissioner melton familiar with the site as well now we'll open up public comments do we have any requests to speak forms we did not receive any requests to speak forms uh we did not receive any voicemails or correspondence for this item would have any public like to speak seeing none we'll close public comments uh we'll now come back to the commission for questions mr chair commissioner johnson i have a quick question for staff just as a point of understanding and i so is it for a standard fence permit um a survey is not required is that why it's been added as a condition here that is correct a survey is not required for a fence permit anyone can come down and apply for a permit just requires a site plan showing where that fence is the site plan that will be required is going to be required to be more detailed than what was provided with this application it's just that there's been some some back and forth on um where that fence is actually going to be located in relation to not just the property line but the sidewalk as well so we just want to make sure that it gets placed in the right spot okay thank you thank you that was the other question ahead thank you mr chair thank you commissioner villanueva i just have comments not questions i just want to thank staff for recommending that the gate be pulled in so that the vehicle can fit in and get out of the roadway and then also um thank the applicant for for the request for an ornamental fence and not just a chain link fence i think it does fit in better with the area and the neighboring site which has a similar offense thank you for your comments tuition bonueva um is there any more discussion mr mr johnson i'm gonna make a quick discussion and then emotion if that's acceptable i i do think i did want to follow up on commissioner villanueva's i think actually just driving down neil road i think there's just a this is probably one of the few sites that doesn't have a fence around it which i think is probably what's contributing to some of the issues so as far as all the compatibility i think it's it's pretty easy to make that finding both immediately adjacent to the site and in the neighborhood so based on that and seeing no further discussion in the case of ldc 22-0067 the lds church security fence based upon compliance with the applicable findings i moved to approve the major deviation subject to to the conditions listed in the staff report and based on those conditions i can make all the findings thank you we have a concert we have a motion is there a second commissioner dracula second and can make all the findings uh motion in a second all those in favor say aye all right any opposed okay the motion carries unanimously uh thank you so much and good luck hopefully uh this all stops happening at the church thank you thank you [Music] okay since we went out of order we'll go back to item number five which is the planning commission training series american planning association video presentation on managing the planning commission and jason i'll turn it over to you to get that started thank you jason garcia-labou planning manager for the record we have another video presentation today i think it's about 27 minutes or so um it's on managing the planning commission this is the fourth video in the series so enjoy and we'll be back afterwards yes uh yes [Music] hello i'm michael blue i'm here with stan popovich from the village of downers grove and we're going to talk about how to run an effective commission meeting so dan thank you for coming thanks michael if we could get you to maybe tell us to kick off um why isn't why is it important to run a good meeting or maybe you've got an example of a meeting that maybe didn't run so well that could kind of help us understand that well i think we've all been in the meeting where we have a lot of public members come i'm not sure if chambers can hear me but i'm not hearing anything of the public speak about the same topic i'm glad you said something competitive and i think it's really important to have us okay the video doesn't have sound in the beginning okay [Music] checks out strong chairperson and council members or commission members that know how to run a meeting and move the meeting along and make sure that everybody has an opportunity to be heard while still getting through the meeting absolutely and just to be clear that we know we're talking about what's the difference between a public hearing in a public meeting is there a difference there is a difference michael public meeting is whenever a quorum of the public body is present but the public may not be invited to participate a public hearing invites the public to participate and there's a specific time that they can participate in a public hearing okay so it's possible that a public hearing could be part of a public meeting that's correct okay so there can be some overlap yes there is okay um so every meeting every meeting i've been to has got some sort of agenda right it gets posted ahead of time and so on and so forth where does that agenda come from is that something that the staff creates something that gets created by the the chair of the commission how do you put together an agenda the staff creates the agenda it's based on applications that come into staff and typically it's on a first come first serve basis staff looks at the agenda and tries to make sure that there's not too many items on the agenda we try to anticipate potential items that could be controversial or might have an interested neighborhood there that we would anticipate a lot of people coming out if we do see an agenda that seems to be a little more crowded we talked to the planning commission chairman to have their ideas about which items should be on the agenda which items should not be on the agenda for a specific meeting so is there a case where an applicant may want to be on an agenda but you decide no you know what this isn't the right meeting and then you have to tell them you're going to have to wait a couple of weeks and have you ever done that and how does that go of course of course we always do we always tell people it's important to tell people when they apply that this is the meeting we're aiming for but inevitably something may come up if you're third in line and we have two other cases that are in line and we just know that these other cases are going to be long into the night we don't want to start a meeting in the evening and go to late in the hours when people have to go to work the next day we want to make sure that the neighbors and the community have an opportunity to speak as well without running the meeting too long um so as a plan commissioner or as a staff member working with plan commissioners what what's the commissioner's responsibility uh regarding the hearing and also too how is the chairperson's role different than the regular than the other commissioners well i'll start with the chairperson because that's probably the most important member on the commission i think the chairperson really needs to set and run the meeting and preserve decorum we've all probably been in the meetings where the public starts clapping about one item or another and i think that really could in essence hinder somebody with a differing opinion come up so it's important for the chairperson to set that meeting set some ground rules the chairperson also runs the meeting via robert's rules of order and then he ensures that deliberation occurs that there's discussion that we talk about the standards there as well now while he can't vote or well he can't make a motion he can vote and he can break ties as well the commission members it's important that they support the chairman in their role of setting the expectations from the public and when they can and how they speak in their decorum with the meeting they're there to listen to testimony to ask questions of staff the public and also the applicant as well and to base their opinion and their findings of the case on the testimony that's provided based on the standards that are provided by staff for the zoning ordinance or whatever ordinance is applicable at that point and then they can also make in second motions so we've only just started to dive into the runnings of a of a meeting but it already sounds kind of complicated and if i'm a resident sitting in the audience i may not know what's going to go on is there value or do you have an introduction or something that gets read at the beginning that says here's what's going to happen yes i think that's very important to have that at the beginning of all the public hearings because like you did mention there's a lot of people that this might be their first time coming to a plane commission meeting or zoning board of appeals meeting and so it's very important that the chairperson lays out sort of the order that things go into so people understand that and also to allow people and tell people when they have an opportunity to speak so there's generally a specific point in time where the public's afford an opportunity to speak and that's a great time for them to know that okay i'm going to be the third or fourth opportunity to speak here and these other people are going to go before me so is there a general order to a typical plan commission yeah there's a typical meeting order to it we generally call to order the meeting the chairperson will call it or the meeting uh explain the rules and how the meeting is going to work uh a point let people know where information is can be found whether it's in the side of the council chambers or the chambers and if it's online if they can find it where they can so if they want to follow along with the meeting then they generally review minutes and then they go into the agenda portion of the meeting where they will open a public hearing or specific case that they're talking about in the evening swearing the audience members i like to have staff give a presentation to present the case there and to explain the standards that are required to be met the applicant then typically presents and at this point the plan commission or whatever commission it is can ask the applicant questions and then it's open to the public where the public can ask questions or make comments about the petition in the application at that point the after that's all done and the questions have been asked the commission members will typically ask any questions back to the applicant themselves so if the public had questions this is an opportunity to get those answers from the applicant or if there's clarification that staff has to provide generally the public hearing is then closed so there's no more uh public comment at that point and then the board deliberates and they look at the standards and they discuss it throughout the each member has an opportunity to speak at that point and discuss the meeting board typically will make a motion and then the hearing will be closed and then the we always like to have the commission uh the chairperson tell the public what the next steps are in the meeting so if that was the final decision or if there's an additional opportunity for them to comment at a village council meeting for example so if if not all the information's available or there's more discussion is it possible for the meeting to be continued to another meeting where there needs to be more opportunity for input or information answered and how do the residents know that they can come back to that meeting of course so if there's then ever an opportunity where more information is needed or there's questions that are raised that need to be answered the plan commission or whatever board can continue the meeting that is typically continued to a date certain so typically the next meeting on the agenda or the next meeting on the calendar and then what we like to do is we tell people to check the website or to contact staff to see if there's any changes to the agenda if the item is being pushed back even further okay so there's plenty of opportunity for everybody to know what's coming up next there are i like to have people contact staff to stay informed if they need to or to check websites okay that's great and i think that's an important message in general is that staff is a resource to everybody involved in this process of a smooth meeting the commission the applicants and also the residents right staff is definitely working for all three folks for the commission members for the applicant and for the public it's a public hearing it's open to the public we want to keep everybody informed we want to make sure that people have an opportunity to speak so as part of the meeting process that you mentioned you said staff does a presentation on the case and so doesn't it sometimes seem like the staff is just up there making the pitch for the applicant that they're just telling somebody else's story why why does the staff make the presentation well staff has a professional obligation to make a professional opinion and an assessment of the case so staff is going to look at the standards that are required for approval of a certain petition and ensure that those standards are met for the community so staff is looking out for the community on a professional basis and to try to make sure a professional opinion in terms of standards and how the petition meets the standards and also then how and any application that comes forward meets the comprehensive plan or other planning documents that are in play let's talk a little bit about the the testimony the part of the meeting where either the experts stand up and talk or the residents stand up and talk because that can sometimes be a contentious part of the meeting are there ever limits on how much testimony there can or should be or you know how many applicants or how many residents can speak what how does how does the whole testimony thing work well there's never really any limit to the amount of testimony that can be provided we want to provide a open meeting to anybody who wishes to speak i think the important thing is if if we see a large crowd in the audience to potentially set a time limit for each person to limit repetitive items here so if it's a five minute or a ten minute limitation on people speaking that provides them with the basis of how long they can speak for and get their points across if there's not much of an audience then there's not really a need for time limits but if you see a large audience that's a good a good opportunity to have some time limits also the chairperson if he notes that any repetitive comments if somebody if there's a spokesperson that's going to speak for the neighborhood that's important too so the spokesperson come up and say i speak for these fellow 20 residents out here and these are our concerns then the board knows that there's 20 residents out there and they're not each coming to the to the podium to speak which takes time and can add time to the meeting we like to encourage that no public discussion is held after the public hearing is closed that's the once public hearing is closed no discussion should occur from the public no additional comments additionally we don't like to set end times but we do try not to set cases start cases too late in the evening if you have evening meetings it's important the public has jobs and they have things to do or kids to put to school in the morning and so it's important that we maintain our time frames and allow them an opportunity to speak when it's not too late in the evening as well and i think that's a great point i think everybody's got a story about a marathon meeting that went until one or two o'clock in the morning and sometimes those are necessary because a decision has to be made because of some sort of timing matter but but in general you know when people are tired and they've been around a while the decision in the discussion is probably not as good as it could be otherwise correct i would agree it's really important that people tend to get tired they've been sitting at the diets listening to testimony for a few hours there as well and then there's also members of the public that have spent their evening waiting to speak so in in trying to keep the meeting moving along a time limit sometimes necessary and i know sometimes there's discussion about whether the speakers should be one pro and one con person as well and i don't think that's necessary a lot of times you'll have a neighborhood group come out that that's all against the proposal all for a proposal and i don't think it's it's fair to call out a pro versus a con and hear back and forth just let the opportunity for the public to come up that's goes back to meeting decorum so everybody's clapping then maybe that one person has a different opinion is a little uh shy to come up but we always encourage everybody to come up well it's interesting you mentioned a couple of times that some there there can be clapping at meetings and there can be kind of some emotional responses that are that are parts of the meeting um but what's so so that that can play out in the testimony as well some folks that will testify at a hearing they'll be called expert witnesses right there the traffic engineer or somebody with a professional background or the land planner and then there are residents testifying what's the difference in the testimony of say an expert witness and then a resident who's got a concern that they want to bring forward so an expert witness is someone who has the experience knowledge skill and training in a specific area so whether there's transportation land use or design with the understanding of the evidence and so they are making their their determination and their testimony based on facts and how it applies and based on their experience uh and the application of those facts to the standards in the case now an opinion from participants may be an anecdotal story or a hearsay rather than actual facts and so some of those concerns may be very emotional as you spoke to that it affects them personally and so sometimes those antidotes become very personal very emotional the plant commissioners must take all of this into consideration so it's a very unique challenge for them to take this all into consideration but they really do need to look at the facts of the case and the standards of approval that are in the application so what we're saying is just because the concerns of a community might be very emotional and very real or there might be a lot of people in the room that's not necessarily what makes the decision that's correct really the the number of people in the room should not make a decision should not change the decision of the board the board should be looking at the facts of the case and how they apply so to take another step in terms of testimony can anybody ask anybody a question at a meeting so if the transportation engineer is is up doing their presentation can one of the residents just kind of politely raise their hand and say could you please explain to us how many cars are going to be there is that the way the meeting works or is there a structure to it there should be a structure to it so you should have that resident if that resident raises their hand come to the podium or wherever the public is speaking and ask that question i think it's easier and it should be easier if we if those questions are taken down by the commission members and then after the public has spoken address those questions back to the applicant so that they can answer those questions the back and forth between two members of the podium just does not help deform sometimes that can become more argumentative or emotional in that sense and then i think we lose some of the some of the qualities of a public hearing so the idea of remain of maintaining decorum and you mentioned this is part of the chair's role i guess this is another point at which the chair is very important to this whole process they're really kind of measuring this and i know i've seen situations where the chair has really again politely and professionally had to say to people thank you for your comment we've heard that several times is there anything new that you'd like to bring um and it's that that can be a real tough job for a chair can't it it's a very hard job especially when the audience is full and everybody believes that their opinion is a little bit different than what was heard before but it's important to continue the meeting along so that everybody has an opportunity to speak it's also important that the chair holds these meetings and manages these meetings so that we don't get into argumentative ideas here or booing or anything like that we should allow people to have an opportunity to speak freely without feeling pressured i think that's i think that's very important and i've also seen situations where the rest of the commission can be helpful too to the chair that you know they may also remind the public or they may uh phrase their questions in a way that kind of takes some of the emotion out of the room and really makes the case about fact yeah committee members are very important too as well to back up the chairperson i've seen it as well after some emotional testimony of taking a break a five minute break just to let emotions cool down a little bit and come back um so let's let's turn a little bit to the idea of how do we make the commissioners better armed if you will to to be able to do this so if a commissioner gets their packet and they look through it um before the meeting and they have a question about a fact or an idea or something in there what do they do can they call staff should they call staff they should definitely call staff if there's a question on the agenda they should call staff to discuss what's going on a lot of times some of the questions that the commission members ask are more technical in nature about a zoning ordinance regulation and so that's something that staff can explain to them that this is what this means is how this is applied if it's a question that they have for staff that really gets to the case itself then it's better that we will it will advise them to ask that question during the commission public hearing because that's a good question for all the commission members to hear and it's a good question to have answered in the public realm um if if the if the commission asks a question or if there's there's parts of a case that might be require a special specialty do other members of the community staff ever come to the meeting the engineer or other folks that aren't necessarily the planners yeah there's always an opportunity for other staff members to come so if there's petitions that deal with transportation your transportation engineer can come if there's public works questions any storm water questions an engineer could come if there's other ideas out there that the planning staff doesn't have expertise on it's important to draw those members that do so that they can answer any commission questions or public questions that's great because we we know that it's not just the planners the community department that's part of the process it's the entire it's the entire community staff that help build the expertise that's there right the planners tend to know a lot a little about a lot of stuff and so it's important to have those background experts and other staff members that have that specific expertise to answer those questions and sometimes to get into the technical answers behind a specific question do you typically have your corporation counsel at your plan commission meetings we do not have our counsel at the plan commission meetings okay i know that some communities do and i think it's just sort of a matter of personal community preference it has made our community preference sometimes if we anticipate a very controversial item we'll have council here but for the majority of the items there's no council you mentioned robert's rules um and that that's the way that the chair runs the meeting um i think a lot of people think of robert's rules as sort of an arcane confusing way to take over a meeting um do you ever find that robert's rules causes a problem or do you find that that structure helps the meeting out i think the structure helps the meeting out i think it's robert's rules light i wouldn't say that all the robert's rules are followed but i think generally in the in the process and how meetings are are moved along that's how robert's rules applies i think that's a very excellent way to describe it um and and what about the the role of the staff at the meeting in terms of helping out the the commission as they're going through and kind of sorting out what to do i mean i know i've been at meetings where things maybe kind of go a little bit askew or there's some confusion about how people should vote or where should we go and is it all right for the chair to kind of look down at the staff and say stan help me out here what do i do and does that happen and is that sort of out of decorum of the meeting or is that okay i think it's very important for the chairperson to do that uh it moves the meeting along and make sure that we're getting the answers and the recommendations that we need to move it to council if there's any questions about voting that's always important too whether it's a even number board that night and whether you need a majority to vote for something or to approve something and if it does end up in a tie what does that mean moving forward as well so that's very important it also helps if sometimes the topic and the discussion can get off track and so it's important for staff to draw that discussion back into what's being discussed and what needs to be approved that evening or what needs a recommendation that evening do you ever um stop and read back the motion to the to the commission just so that everybody's on the same page and people know what they're voting for yes that's important to do some sometimes the emotions are very straightforward but other times they're a little confusing especially if somebody adds a condition or wants to change the motion slightly so it's important to read that back to the commission members it's also important to explain on some motion it's confusing if you vote yes you're really voting no for something or if you're voting no you're voting yes for something so it's important for the members of the commission to understand what they're actually voting for i know that a lot of places the recommendation is always you make a motion in the positive so people know how they're how they're voting right absolutely so we've talked about all this expertise that's that's involved and we've talked about the role of the commission the commission is going to be making a recommendation to the city council or the village board if it's just a recommendation what's the big deal about the plan commission in the public hearing what you know why why do they do this well the plan commission is important and any any public hearing body is because they actually conduct the public hearing so it counsels a public meeting but in this case it's a public hearing where the people the people of the public are afforded an opportunity to speak the commission members are members of the public members residents of the community neighbors of the public and so they have a different perspective on things this could affect them personally whereas staff may not live in the community or may not be affected by this additionally the plan commission meeting has more interaction between staff the applicant the commission members and the public there's more discussion that takes place at these meetings as well and then concerns about proposals can be addressed at that time too the commission could choose to continue it so the applicant can work on something without having to move it before the the council the plan commission is also an opportunity it may be less formal than a council meeting the public may be more comfortable if this is their first time coming to village hall or to city hall to speak in front of people so there's there's a whole difference in the level of formality of the process it's a little more inviting to the to the community and i think what you said is also very important is that the um the commission brings their expertise as residents of the community uh which is which is also very valuable as the process plays out correct and a lot of the commission members may be professional engineers architects or in the field and so they also bring their expertise and their background and their knowledge of other projects that go on or similar projects in other communities another question about the the technical aspects and the expertise again same sort of thing um planners are trained professionals a lot of them have master's degrees there's an engineer that's involved there might be any number of of experts and professionals again how does the planned commission fit into that if there's all these experts with all these degrees reviewing it well plant commission plays an important role because they want to make a recommendation and they're looking out for their community themselves and they're trying to make sure that what's proposed or what's applied for meets the standards in the zoning ordinance and it's a check and it's a recommendation for us they're interested in making their community a better place and they want to provide a place for the public to speak and offer their opinions and so that's what the plan commission does so as a as a staff how do you go about providing training or some understanding to the commissioners of how the meeting is going to run i mean part of having a good meeting and effective meeting is having a well-trained commission how do you how do you help the commissioners understand how to do how to do a good meeting well we always talk to our chairperson before the meeting and tell them explain what's on the agenda and what's coming up and what we anticipate as a staff as any potential issues we try to hold training with the plan commission members once every couple of years at the minimum to talk to them about new rules and regulations new laws that have come out and to see if they have any concerns about how the staff reports are written how the meetings are held and how information is provided to the public so we try to provide them with information and and these training opportunities like we're doing today so stan we've talked a bit about the complexities of the meeting the importance of the chair in maintaining decorum keeping them even the meeting going what would you say are some of the top three or so qualities of a good plan commission chair or a good commission chair in general the first one would be that i believe the chairperson has to be a little empathetic a lot of people will be coming to the plane commission meeting for a first time to have to put first time to a public meeting and they might be a little scared they might might be a little emotional about something that might be affecting them so to be able to be empathetic to that person and let that person talk but while still maintaining the rules i think secondly the the chairperson has to be somebody that runs a well-oiled meeting in terms of making sure that things are followed the rules are followed that the processes follow the due process is provided i think it's also important that that person can draw comments out from the different commission members it's important that everybody has an opportunity to speak and that he offered that opportunity to everybody to make their comments and then also to make sure that if there is a discrepancy or a difference of opinion on the on the commission that that difference of opinion doesn't boil over into an argument that if there's a professional decorum there's a professional there's a professional understanding between the two people of how they how they act and that both commission members act responsibly and professionally so there's a lot of different hats there's kind of a referee some of the times and you're sort of the helper some of the times and what about the times where the audience might be getting out of control or people are making comments that are maybe a little bit inappropriate what what does a chair have to do to reel that in well i think the chair needs to make those comments known and to hit the gavel and to let people know that that we're going to operate in a professional manner here and that the cheering or the booing really could impact who wants to talk that time and this is an opportunity for everybody to speak we may not agree with everybody's opinion but again it's important that everybody has that opportunity this person that disagrees with you has the same opportunity as you and so whether that's asking people to to quiet down to remind them not not to clap so loudly and to remind them not to clap at all or then if it does get out of hand to hold the meeting or to pause the meeting and let everybody calm down emotionally great i think that's very true so the the rest of the commission and um the part that they play obviously we described it before we talked about their role um and they helped the chair and they're responsible for all these points of decorum making motions whatnot if the meeting is going to run well what kind of background do commissioners have i mean they're obviously residents of the community but do they have to have a background in planning or real estate or anything like that no there's no real requirement to have any backgrounds it's anybody in the public that's interested some people come into planning late and decide a project maybe impacted them and they'd like to learn more and they become involved in the plan commission sometimes it can just be a school teacher who likes to be involved in the community really anybody with any background who is interested in serving is a good opportunity for a plant commission member the apa has opportunities we share with the commission members planning magazines planning articles it's important that if somebody's brand new to this planning world that they're provided a background in terms of what other communities are doing or what the practices are we provide training opportunities those commission members if they're brand new and also there's a good balance between somebody with a technical background and somebody with a resident background who may have a different profession so people don't have to be expert on parking ratios for mixed-use developments in order to become a plan commissioner not at all that's why there's a staff that's great thanks very much thank you michael thank you [Music] so as you can see the video provided a pretty good snapshot of what staff is often put in as far as kind of a position a perspective also kind of the duties of the commission and the commissioners and what you're evaluating and so i just wanted to take a moment and thank each of you for being a part of the planning commission we appreciate all the different perspectives that are kind of brought to the table and staff really makes an effort to be transparent and answer questions and kind of doing the digging and research and history and and allowing that giving you the tools to make the decisions so we're available uh if you have any questions or you see things in staff reports feel free to reach out to us we definitely want to assist where we can so hopefully the video was insightful but it gives us the public a snapshot of what we do here so thank you very much that was a very good video um we're gonna move on from item number five skipping item number six because we've already taken it to item number seven which is the truckee meadows regional planning liaison report um chair uh we had a meeting there was a meeting last week with one item on the agenda which was the pivine employment center uh the motion for acceptance of that actually had a majority of the vote but not a supermajority so it actually failed so then the second motion for regional performance wasn't taken at the since it was the city of reno as the applicant it was given an opportunity back to the city of reno to determine if they wanted to save it for the appeals process which they did so i believe actually that item is on the council's agenda for next week to determine uh the next steps for that and we expect to see that back at regional um whether it's the next meeting or not we don't know so uh that was that meeting a little bit of of uh you know additional discussion from council with that one so i guess we we had an answer for that so uh and then the next meeting i guess is the uh will be at the end of june thank you uh we'll move to agenda item number eight which is staff announcements jason garcia-labou planning manager for the record um as commissioner johnson just mentioned june 8th the city council will be taking up that issue that we just discussed about puvine and um in addition to that and i think i mentioned at the last meeting there will be two items as far as kind of text amendment initiations it's the beginning of the process for title 18. so the first component is to get the odds and ends typos and grammatical inconsistencies things like that but the second item is more focused on council items that were initiatives such as affordable housing or other items like that so we're very pleased again i can't tell you how happy we are to be bringing those items forward um we had a kind of changing pace we had two employees start this week very thrilled i think i mentioned at the last couple meetings melanie and joseph they've joined our planning division so we have some additional staff to help process some of the items that we need assistance with on applications and other things um as far as kind of our next meeting june 15th we will have a presentation from suzanne groniman this was talked about about a month ago and she'll give us a update as requested by commissioner gower on sustainability and then lastly just to recap on the may 25th city council meeting a lot of the april 20th items as you can recall that was quite the agenda and actually a good example showing the process of a full agenda after we just watched the video um some of those items went forward and were approved by the council and that includes uh the reno city center skyway the meridian project and the glen galena annexation as kind of previously discussed so and reviewed by the commission that's everything for staff updates so then again let us know if you have any questions thank you i'll move on to agenda item number nine which is commissioner suggestions for future agenda items mr chair commissioner dracula just good question probably for you jason when do we think we'll see the tree ordinance item again um that currently is still going through uh updates so it's still in draft form so i don't have a timeline but i can ask our tree ordinance team if we can call them that there's a number of staff working on it i'll come back if it's an update for them no worries i was just curious yeah okay it's still in draft form though okay so okay seeing none nothing else uh we'll move to agenda number 10 just public comments do we have any requests to speak forms we did not receive any requests to speak forms uh no correspondence and no voicemails is there anyone in the public or the public that would like to speak no okay seeing none we'll close public comments uh any motion for adjournment so movement second second all those in favor hi everyone thanks you