Title
Land Use Public Notice Update
Recommended Action
City Manager Recommendation:
Receive the update on public notice of land use actions. Briefing only; no action requested
Report
Issue:
How can public notice of land use applications better identify and include members of the public who are potentially interested parties?
Staff Contact:
Leonard Bauer, Deputy Director, Community Planning and Development (CPD), 360.753.8206
Presenter:
Leonard Bauer, Deputy Director
Background and Analysis:
As part of the City Council’s goal for more proactive community development, Community Planning and Development (CPD) has implemented a number of improvements over the past three years to provide information to the public about applications for private development projects. As previously reported to the Land Use and Environment Committee, a few examples include:
1. Expanding the list of nearby property owners receiving notice beyond the state-mandated 300 feet from the site, in some cases to include whole subdivisions and more natural boundaries;
2. Conducting a neighborhood meeting for all major applications, with notification to the neighborhood associations and property owners in the area, as well as other interested parties that have identified themselves.
3. Continuing to compile an ‘interested parties’ list throughout the City’s review process for each application, adding each person who inquires about that project so they receive all notices after that inquiry.
To continue to improve in this area, staff from CPD and Public Works met in June to brainstorm additional potential improvements to public notice procedures. The overall goal of these improvement ideas is to best identify potentially interested parties and provide them notice as early as possible about applications for private development projects in Olympia.
At this meeting, staff will present these ideas and report on progress implementing them.
Neighborhood/Community Interests (if known):
This item will be of interest community-wide, as it is specifically intended to improve the opportunities for people throughout the community to receive notice of potential land use actions.
Options:
None. This is an oral report.
Financial Impact:
The report will include information on City resources needed to carry out the public notice improvements.