Posted 6/6/01
Harris council, PC discuss zoning issues
By Danielle Strenke
The Harris City Council and Planning Commission met in a joint work session last week, to work through some of the various issues regarding planning, zoning, and the city in general.
Since taking over the office in January, Mayor Richard Hanson has been working to overcome several challenges, financial and administrative, that existed within the city. He and the council had discussed several times the idea of holding an open work meeting to further discuss issues relevant to the city.
When the council set the meeting, Mayor Hanson discussed a brief list of items he hoped could be covered at the work session.
ìI wanted to set up a work session, just to discuss things without making any decisions,î Mayor Hanson said.
The issues he wanted to discuss varied, including the zoning ordinance, maintenance work within the city, parks issues, and other administrative and financial issues.
The work session, he said, turned out to be mostly about the cityís zoning ordinance, which is close to completion. ìIt was almost a one-track meeting, talking a lot about the zoning ordinances,î Hanson said. ìSome people were wondering why it was taking so long, and others wondered why it was so complicated.î
There has been some debate between council members and residents on the practicality of developing zoning and subdivision ordinances that are so involved.
At Mondayís city council meeting, councilor Dan Walton was unsure whether the city really needed such an involved system, particularly referring to the in-depth comprehensive plan, and zoning and subdivision ordinances designed by Ekola and Associates. ìThey are setting this up for a city that will grow to 50-60,000 people. Nobody wants to see that happen,î he said.
Hanson said the work session was a good opportunity, however, for everyone to voice their concerns on these issues, and for the members of the council and planning commission to be able to sit down and talk.