000 Amended Planning Commission Rules of Procedure (November 9, 2021).pdf — original pdf

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RULES OF PROCEDURE THE CITY PLANNING COMMISSION AUSTIN, TEXAS Approved as amended on November 9, 2021 1.000 MEETING 1.100 The regular meetings of the Commission shall be held on the second and fourth Tuesday of each month at Austin City Hall, 301 W 2nd St, Austin, TX 78701, at 6:00 p.m., unless otherwise decided by the Commission. 1.200 If it should become necessary because of workload that any regular meeting be continued to the following day, such a meeting will reconvene on the day following and this second meeting shall be considered as part of the same session. The Planning Commission shall state the time and location certain for the second meeting prior to ending the first meeting. 1.300 Special meetings may be called by the Chair and shall be called if required by three or more members. 1.400 Notices of meetings shall be in writing and shall be sent to all members at least two days in advance of the meetings. The Commission shall consider matters before it at its regular meeting according to the following schedule and shall hear matters in the order of business. The schedule shall be posted according to the following schedule, but may be modified at any meeting by unanimous consent of members present. Approval of Consent Agenda and Postponements Discussion and Action on Neighborhood Plans and Associated Zoning Cases Discussion and Action on Ordinance Amendments Call to Order Approval of Minutes Zoning Cases Subdivision Cases Site Plan Cases Commission Requested Briefings Staff Initiated Briefings Other Business Adjournment 1.600 Staff is expected to follow the sequence required under § 1.5. Staff is also expected to notify interested parties before the meeting that, if their matter appears later in the agenda, the item may be postponed to a future meeting. 1.700 After consideration of the Consent Agenda and Postponements, the Chair may address interested parties with matters remaining on the agenda and recommend that a matter be postponed until the next Commission meeting. 1.800 Any matters postponed under § 1.600 or § 1.700 will be placed at the beginning of the agenda at the Commission’s next meeting. 1.900 At 10:00 PM, the Commission may, in its discretion, extend the meeting if necessary. 2.000 PUBLIC HEARINGS 2.100 The Commission shall allow up to four citizens to address the Commission during a period of time set aside for citizen communications. The chair may limit a speaker to three minutes. 2.200 The Commission shall use the following order of procedure for zoning cases, subdivisions, and proposed amendments to the City’s development regulations or comprehensive plan: 2.201 Chair announces requests. 2.202 Staff presents a summary of the case (five minutes). 2.203 Chair calls on those favoring the requested action as shown on the agenda. 2.204 Primary Proponent’s presentation (five minutes). 2.205 Three others favoring the request (three minutes each); Unlimited speakers (1 minute each). 2.206 Chair calls on those opposing the request.  2.207 Primary Opponent’s presentation (five minutes). 2.208 Three others opposing the request (three minutes each); Unlimited additional speakers (1 minute each). 2.209 Proponent is given an opportunity to answer objections stated (three minutes). 2.210 Staff summation and questions from the Commission. 2.211 Public hearing is closed and no further testimony is taken from the public. Commissioners may still ask questions of staff or of persons in the audience. 2.300 The following special rules apply and may supersede the general rules in Section 2.200: 2.301 If the public hearing is for a case initiated by the Historic Landmark Commission, the Commission or the City Council, the proponent’s presentations authorized in above shall be made by the primary speaker in favor of the request. 2.302 Speaking times in any of the above instances may be extended by the chair with the unanimous consent of the Commission. 2.303 In the case of disputed postponements, only two speakers from each side may testify. 2.304 A person registered to speak on an agenda item or at a public hearing may donate the speaking time to another speaker if the person donating the time is present when the speaker addresses the Commission. The person donating time must specify the name of the person to whom they are donating time. A speaker may receive donated time for a maximum of 10 minutes. 2.305 Video presentations are permitted and are subject to the time limits above. 2.306 Items on the agenda may be acted upon by one motion, provided however that the Commission may not consider items earlier than the time stated on the agenda. “Other Business” items can be taken at any time. After the posted time, the Chair may announce the item and, if there is no  opposition from the Commission or the public, the item may be taken “by consent” for approval without discussion. 3.000 POSTPONEMENT OF PUBLIC HEARINGS 3.100 The general policy is that anyone may request a postponement of a public hearing prior to the commencement of the meeting. The postponement request shall be submitted to the Commission and/or the case manager. The Commission, in its discretion, may deny a first request for postponement under extraordinary circumstances such as: significant, demonstrated and widespread opposition to the postponement, or hardship occasioned by the granting of the request. The determination as to whether extraordinary circumstances exist is within the sole discretion of the Commission. Subsequent postponement requests, and postponement requests from persons that are not considered interested parties, may be granted at the discretion of the Commission. 3.200 Requests for postponements of Neighborhood Plans or associated rezones are strongly discouraged, and will not be granted except in extraordinary circumstances. Extraordinary circumstances may include a significant defect in the planning process such as lack of notification, or the availability of relevant and significant information that was not available during the planning process, such as, the development of the Airport Overlay Zone around Austin- Bergstrom International Airport. 3.300 Postponement of Public Hearings for zoning applications that are filed within neighborhood planning areas that are undergoing the neighborhood planning process may occur as follows. The Planning Commission will not consider a zoning application filed in an area that is undergoing a neighborhood planning process, if such an application would result in a change to current land use as defined in Attachment A. This waiting period shall run from the time of the First Land Use Community Workshop to the preparation of a draft Future Land Use Map (FLUM) or 6 months (181 days), whichever is sooner. Exceptions to the waiting period may be granted if the Neighborhood Planning Committee of the Planning Commission finds that the zoning application meets any one of the following criteria: ♦ If prohibiting the filing of an application imposes an undue hardship on the applicant, inadvertently or due to unforeseen circumstances, or prevents the applicant from addressing a public health or safety issue. If a hardship exemption is denied, the applicant can appeal to the Planning Commission. ♦ If the development is a S.M.A.R.T. Housing project which provides at least 40% or more reasonably priced housing. A letter of certification from Development Department will be required with the application. the Neighborhood Housing and Community ♦ If the project provides environmental protection that is superior to the protection that would otherwise be achieved under existing zoning and development regulations. In particular, this exception would apply to projects proposed to be built on land that is “grandfathered” from certain regulations, but, if an exception is granted, would be only zoned to comply with all current code requirements. A letter of certification from the Watershed Protection and Development Review Department will be required with the application. ♦ If the development will provide full-time, permanent employment opportunities for at least 100 people who reside in the Austin-Round Rock Metropolitan Statistical Area. A letter of certification from the Economic Growth and Redevelopment Department will be required with the application. ♦ If the applicant receives majority support from neighborhood stakeholders at one of the City-sponsored neighborhood planning meetings. A letter of certification from the Neighborhood Planning and Zoning Department will be required with the application. ♦ The request is for the addition of a Mixed Use Combining District for the purpose of providing a mix of uses on the site. 3.400 If a postponement request is not supported by all interested parties, the Commission shall use the following order of procedure: 3.401 Chair announces postponement request. 3.402 Chair calls on those favoring the request. 3.403 The person or interested party requesting the postponement presents reasons for request (3 minutes). 3.404 Secondary speaker (limit one) favoring the request (2 minutes). 3.405 Chair calls on those opposed to the request. 3.406 Primary presenter presents reasons opposed to request (3 minutes). 3.407 Secondary speaker (limit one) opposed to the request (2 minutes). 3.408 Questions from the Commission. 3.409 Commission votes on a motion to grant or deny the postponement request. 4.000 POST-HEARING PROCEDURES 4.100 Following the closure of a public hearing, the chair shall invite commissioners to ask questions of the staff or of specific audience members. When questioning is complete, the chair shall ask for a primary motion and a second. Commissioners are advised to not present arguments on the case until a motion has been made and seconded. The chair shall invite the maker of the motion and the member seconding the motion to present arguments for the motion. 4.200 At any point the chair may recognize a commissioner to offer an amending motion. An amending motion can be adopted without objection, or by vote following a second and a debate. If the amendment is approved, then the amended primary motion may be debated. If the amending motion is offered as a “substitute motion,” it replaces the primary motion if it is approved and ends debate. 4.300 Commissioners shall adhere to the debate time allotment per Exhibit: Debate and Briefing Time Allotment. During round robin, a member is allowed one turn to speak unless no other member who has not received a turn does not wish to speak. The parliamentarian, secretary and or the liaison shall assist the chair with enforcing the debate structure in accordance with debate sequence and time allocation. 5.000 COMMISSIONER SPONSORED ITEMS 5.100 Commissioner sponsored items should provide documentation to be distributed to the Commission by Monday at noon, the day before the meeting, not including holidays. 5.200 Items from Commission with action are subject to public hearing debate time allotment rules. Items from Commission without action are subject to briefing time allotment rules. 6.000 REVISION OR AMENDMENT OF PREVIOUS ACTIONS 6.100 Upon the discovery of new information that was not previously presented to the Commission, the Commission may use its discretion to rescind or amend a previous action at the request of two or more Commissioners. Such a request must be made at the first meeting after the meeting where the Commission took the action sought to be rescinded. 6.200 After a request to rescind is made, staff shall post the item on the next Commission agenda. 6.300 A request to rescind must be based on new evidence that may better inform the Commission. The decision to rescind or amend shall be effected by an affirmative vote of a two-thirds majority of the Commission.  7.000 POLICIES AND SUPPLEMENTAL PROCEDURES 7.100 Matters of policy affecting the Commission shall be decided at regular meetings or at special meetings called for that purpose. 7.200 Supplemental policies, rules and regulations may be adopted by a majority vote of the Commission. 8.000 STAFF INITIATED OR COMMISSION REQUESTED BRIEFINGS 8.100 Occasionally, staff may present a briefing to the Planning Commission on its own initiative or at the request of the Commission. 8.200 Each briefing will be subject to a 15-minute time limit. If a briefing will exceed the time limit, Staff shall notify the Chair of the Commission before the meeting. The duration of the briefing can be extended at the will of the Commission. 8.300 Commissioners shall adhere to the time allotment per Exhibit: Debate and Briefing Time Allotment. 9.000 AMENDMENTS OR WAIVERS TO RULES OF PROCEDURE 9.100 Waivers to these Rules of Procedure may be made by the Commission at any regular or special meeting called upon the affirmative vote of a two-thirds majority of the total number of members currently appointed. 9.200 An amendment to these Rules and Procedure may only be approved if the amendment was proposed at a preceding meeting and all members formally notified thereof.