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MINUTES OF THE <br />ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING <br />Monday, December 7, 2020 <br />6:00 o’clock p.m. <br />_____________________________________________________________________________________ <br /> <br />Page 10 of 15 <br /> <br />27. Authorize Text Amendment Related to Special Lot Combinations – Continued <br /> <br />Johnson would like to see these types of amendments and setting up a priority on which ones they are <br />working on and where they are at, rather than piecemealing them one at a time. This would really be Mr. <br />Rief assigning Staff time when it makes the most amount of sense towards the projects and then he feels <br />comfortable saying “let’s do this.” He does not know how high of a priority it is, noting Council relies on <br />Staff to tell them they have a high priority to do something. Johnson noted they have done numerous <br />revisions to their text amendments and would like a plan to it. <br /> <br />Mayor Walsh said it is not a bad idea to review that again as the Council has punched a lot of things <br />through over the past few years from the development review committee, which has slowed down, and <br />now some of that has come up and jumped at them. <br /> <br />Crosby asked how many they have discussed in the past year. <br /> <br />Barnhart said they have probably looked at a dozen or so text amendments. He prioritizes those with <br />several factors; seasonally (related to boat storage or docks, getting those done before dock season), <br />others Attorney Mattick’s office has written already Barnhart can push through fairly quickly. Some are <br />much more involved, such as the park dedication, which will likely take several months and is on a back <br />burner in terms of getting some other higher priorities out. He is happy to share the list with the Council <br />again and if they would like to do a work session they can. <br /> <br />Mayor Walsh thinks it is a good idea to spend 15 minutes going through the list again and they can start <br />moving things forward. He noted this one was a complicated one versus other easier ones. <br /> <br />Johnson noted it does take Staff time and they want to make sure they are hitting all of their other <br />everyday types of things such as complaints. Some of these things are reserved to fine tuning when other <br />priorities are met. <br /> <br />Mayor Walsh said sometimes they do not know what they do not know and applications come up and <br />they ask why they have a certain code and must address it. He remembers the Council told Barnhart <br />when these types of things come up, to let them know and Mayor Walsh appreciates him doing that as <br />they are trying to do best practices all the time and fix things as they go. He noted sometimes thing pop <br />up through no fault of Barnhart’s own. <br /> <br />Johnson said another thing that is relevant is Staff looking at these and saying this will be very involved <br />or it will be a quick one. He noted that should all be on the list for when the Council is in the prioritizing <br />process. <br /> <br />Mayor Walsh would like to add how important is it, considering how many of these things they see, <br />noting some get complicated. He would rather have all those items come to the Council and they can <br />make the decision on a case-by-case basis. He does not want to put Staff in harm’s way and would rather <br />the Council have those problems and make the decisions than put those burdens on the Staff. He noted <br />the Council wants to make it as easy as possible for the public to get things done, so they must balance <br />the two. <br /> <br />Johnson said this one would be interesting because it becomes a question of “undoing it” once they decide <br />to do it.