The New Commissioner: Dazed & Confused
by Sharon Wiley Hightower

A basic framework for orienting the new planning commissioner.

So you have been appointed to the planning commission! Now what?

You have been active in community organizations and causes. You are intelligent and enthusiastic. You have even attended some planning commission meetings, like that time there was a rezoning in your neighborhood. You know what planning is all about, right?

Then you get your first agenda packet and you discover there are a few things about planning you do not know.

The agenda and its staff reports are written in a language you only partially understand. Common words seem to have different meanings and some words have no meaning to you: "variance," "findings," "conditional uses," "nonconforming," "mitigation measures." Many new planning commissioners leave their first meeting feeling dazed and confused. ...

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