02-13-2017 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING Monday, January 23, 2017 7:00 o'clock p.m. 6. JAKE BARKLEY, 430 OLD CRYSTAL BAY ROAD, DETERMINATION OF USE (continued) Barkley stated he wants to be a good neighbor but that he does not want to curtail his ability to do business on the front end. Walsh stated if Mr. Barkley feels he can mitigate those concerns, the Council can do so as well. Barnhart stated he is hearing that the Council supports the use and that the concern to address is the truck noise due in part to loading and unloading. Barnhart stated the saw noise can be mitigated with the design of the building and that Staff can address that with the site plan review. Barnhart stated he would prefer not to put restrictions on the use if they can be addressed through the site plan review. Barnhart stated based on the discussion, Staff will move forward with the applicant on the next steps. The City Council took no formal action on this item. 7. SENIOR PLANNER RECRUITMENT Barnhart noted Senior Planner Mike Gaffron will be retiring effective May 31, 2017. To meet the customer service goals and to manage the planning department workload, it is Staff's recommendation that this or a similar position be filled. Rather than filling the position with another senior planner, Staff recommends hiring a city planner and reducing the pay grade from Step 12 to Step 11. Barnhart stated the community development director and existing current senior planner currently address many of the goals the City has but that they do need somebody to fill in the holes that will be created by Mr. Gaffron retiring, which are mainly land use applications. Barnhart noted he did outline in his memo how the responsibilities would be split up and that he would take over the more complex subdivisions and issues and the two city planners would do the code enforcement and land use cases. Barnhart noted hiring a city planner rather than a senior planner would result in a savings in salary expense. At this time Staff is requesting approval from the Council to shift department resources. Barnhart indicated the start date of May 1 st would provide some overlay to allow for some training of the new planner and that Staff is attempting to bridge that gap as much as they can. Crosby asked how many planners the City currently has. Barnhart indicated there is currently one city planner, one senior planner, and a community development director. Seals asked how that compares to other cities Orono's size. Barnhart stated Mound has a population of approximately 9,200 and they employ a staff planner, a community development director, and a city planning consultant. Mound had 14 land use cases from July to December and Orono had 34. Mound had 9 variances and Orono did 21. Page 8 of 15