Planning and Zoning Commission

Minutes

August 22, 2006

Call to Order at 7:00 p.m.

Roll Call;  Doug Bice, Johnny Bridges,  Jan Muskopf, Jim Blondin, Lori Browne, Shannon Larrigan, Diane Arteaga

Minutes

Jan motioned to approve the minutes from the August 8^th meeting, Lori seconded.  Passed 7-0.

Review of Ordinances 

The process of revisiting and reviewing the New Melle zoning ordinances has begun and is planned to be finished by November of this year.  Ordinances 1-11 were reviewed and discussed amongst the group.  Doug made notes for each recommended change or revision made by the group.

Review of Comprehensive Plan

Doug Bice provided a first draft of the goals and objectives for the Land Use portion of the plan:

1.      Maintain and enhance a strong sense of community.

2.      Preserve, maintain, and improve the town’s visual appearance and environmental resources.

3.      Manage New Melle’s growth and development to maintain and enhance quality of life.

4.      Provide adequate, high quality, and well maintained public services, amenities, and facilities.

5.      Proactively address New Melle’s housing issues.

Also discussed were ideas for the Parks and Recreation section of the Comprehensive Plan. 

Items discussed:

1.      Establishment of a park.  Currently there is no city owned park.

2.      Enabling easy access to the community center, the only recreational area in the city, via sidewalks etc.

3.      Creating bike paths from other areas such as Wentzville.  This could create a flow of traffic to our city much like many of the towns on the Katy Trail.

4.      Establishment of a ballpark for the disabled.  There are currently very few of these in the St. Louis area.

Requests for building permits:

No requests for building permits.

Open Forum

John Choinka, from George Butler & Associates, has agreed to attend future planning and zoning meetings to help us close the communication gap that has caused some difficulty in getting permits approved in a timely manner.  His plans will be to attend meetings that will include discussion on any permits that have been reviewed by GBA.

John also provided the committee with a check list that GBA will be using and providing with each permit that has been reviewed.  This permit will allow us to quickly see what items have been checked and which, if any, are the reasons that they did not recommend for approval.

We also discussed the possibility of creating partnerships with other organizations in the city to help complete some of our goals.  An example would be a partnership with the community center to establish a park.

Other Items

Special meeting will be held tomorrow night, August 23, to hear proposal/information regarding grants that the City can work towards aquiring.

Ordinances 12-22 should be reviewed and ready for discussion at the next meeting on September 5, 5006.  

Diane motioned to adjourn at 8:51.  Shannon seconded.  Motion passed 7-0.

Respectively submitted,

Johnny Bridges, sec.