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To: <br />From: <br />Date: <br />Subject: <br />Chair Thiesse and Planning Commission Members <br />Dustin Rief, City Administrator <br />Laura Oakden, City Planner <br />May 21, 2018 <br />Council <br />LA18-000042 <br />Exhibit D <br />#LA18-000042, City of Orono Text Amendment: Notification Distance for Public <br />Hearings, Public Hearing <br />Application Summary: The city is considering an ordinance that would alter the notification <br />distance for public hearings from 350 feet to 500 feet. <br />Staff Recommendation: The Planning Commission should consider the propose changes to the <br />public hearing notification distance. <br />Background <br />The Mayor requested a change to the notice requirements for public hearing, currently 350 feet <br />from the subject property. The Mayor proposes 500 feet. State Statute requires notification of <br />property owners within 350 feet for zoning ordinance amendments. Within the zoning and <br />subdivision chapters, the City also requires a public hearing for all conditional use permits, <br />variances, rezoning requests, comprehensive plan amendments, wetland and subdivision <br />requests. <br />The intent of the notification radii is to inform those property owners that are more likely to be <br />directly impacted by a proposal. All interested parties are notified via the notice in the official <br />paper, and on the city's listserve. Changing the distance from 350 feet to 500 feet would allow <br />for more neighbors to be notified which would increase the chance for more public input. <br />The Planning Commission should consider and evaluate the typical amount of public input they <br />receive for public hearing applications and how the residents hear about the projects. Other <br />items to consider include: <br />• The increased cost for postage and mailings (currently part of the recently reduce <br />application fee) <br />• The impact an application might have on an abutting neighbor verses of neighbor 500 <br />feet away. <br />Comments <br />To date, no public comments have been received. <br />List of Exhibits <br />Exhibit A. Draft Ordinance Clean Copy <br />Exhibit B. Examples of past 350ft notification areas compared to 500ft. <br />