The City Council may soon review major residential and business development plans that are next to city- owned parks, greenways and open space. The move would bump final decisions about large development proposals up from the city’s planning and zoning committee to the city council.
Any proposed change to the approval process will have to be reviewed by the city’s lawyers before it comes back to the city council for a formal vote. There is no indication when the issue will end up before the council.
Councilmember Aren Rodriguez asked for the change to the city’s land development code in 2018. Rodriguez said he wanted to add transparency behind decisions that involved large building projects emerging next to natural areas.
“I do not want to add further restrictions, I just wanted to add a layer of accountability for the voters,” Rodriguez said during a work session earlier this week.
The proposal calls for any major development application that is adjacent to a city park, greenway or open space and requires planning commission approval, be moved to the city council for a public hearing and vote, according to a city staff report to the city council.
Council members would now have the final say over any conditional use site plan or request for a variance, under the proposal, the staff report said.
Applications for minor developments including site plans and final plat would not be reviewed by the council.
Council members also agreed several legal issues surrounding the change need to be solved before the council votes for approval.
The city could be stepping on vested or development rights by making the move, Don Burchett, Longmont’s senior planner, told the council.
Longmont must also be sure it is not treading into legal takings, which is when the government restricts the uses of private property, Burchett said.
Rodriguez agreed legal concerns should be settled before the council formally votes for the amendment. “We need to make sure what we are doing passes legal muster.”
