First, no longer will a Special Use Permit (SUP) require a public hearing before the Planning Commission (PC). Our commissioners are citizen volunteers appointed to serve the public interest in land use decisions and they are trained and certified to do so. At present, an SUP demands hours of careful study by the PC prior to the public hearing, when the commissioners are supplied with documents, maps, plats, photos, soil studies, planning staff comments, etc., and even take time for on-site visits. Their public hearing is a precursor to one before the Board of Supervisors (BOS) and allows the commissioners to hear from the applicant as well as neighbors, adjoining land owners, and members of the public. Their findings and conclusions are summarized under a vote that determines the PC’s yea or nea recommendation to the BOS, that may be accompanied by special conditions discovered in the process.

Secondly, it is proposed that only the BOS will hold a public hearing for a SUP application. While it may seem onerous for an applicant to be required to submit to the time and expense of two public hearings under our present ordinance, that process allows for the most careful study of the proposed use in question and fully protects the rights of all concerned people. Our BOS are not trained and certified Planning Commissioners, and are further burdened with many more issues of government than land use. Their study of a SUP is greatly enhanced by the work of the PC beforehand, and it is not expected that the BOS conduct the in-depth study that the PC performs. Rather, the BOS is expected to weigh the recommendation of the PC with the public’s input and their own comparison with the Comprehensive Plan, as well as give consideration to matters of public interest such as economic development and budgetary concerns. The elimination of one public hearing as proposed does not serve the public interest but only that of the applicant for the SUP.

In short, having served a term as a certified Planning Commissioner, I believe that the present process of two public hearings for SUPs should be retained in the interests of the public and the applicants. I cannot believe for a minute that the BOS can adequately review a SUP without the careful study and recommendations from the PC. The many revisions to the proposed county-wide rezoning ordinance by the BOS ignore this major flaw. There is only the comment from the Economic Development Director that eliminating the PC public hearing of SUPs is in favor of the developer. How about protecting my rights next door?