Motion to redirect borough planning commission vetoed

MAT-SU -- A new twist in the Valley's zoning saga apparently looms on the horizon, but it's likely no action will be taken until the Mat-Su Borough's April 9 meeting.

The Mat-Su Borough Assembly voted Tuesday to advise the borough planning commission to change its course, but under the advisement of Borough Attorney Michael Gatti, the motion was vetoed.

The motion made by assembly member Sara Jansen is similar to one made by assembly member Talis Colberg at the assembly's March 5 meeting. At that meeting, Colberg suggested the planning commission craft a permitting process that would prevent the creation of new, significant nuisance situations.

Just four assembly members were present at that meeting, and Jansen's dissenting vote killed the motion.

At the time, she said she felt the planning commission should be allowed to continue its work on the zoning ordinance without being hindered by the politics of the matter.

Tuesday, however, Jansen said she had reconsidered the matter.

"What we really want to do is protect as many people's property rights as possible," Jansen said. "The vocal opponents of Euclidian zoning can support this … I do, however, think that it's important that the planning commission continue to work on the Euclidian zoning ordinance. But in the meantime, if we were to deal with these conditional uses, we would be offering our citizens some protection."

Jansen offered a motion that would direct the planning commission to deliver a conditional-use ordinance that would address nuisance uses and rely on a performance approach rather than a list of prohibited uses.

In her motion, Jansen included a due-by date of June 4, and added that the commission should continue and complete work on the Euclidian zoning ordinance, taking the necessary time to do so.

Mat-Su Property Owners Association Vice President Pio Cottini was at Tuesday's meeting and agreed with Jansen's intent -- to an extent.

"I think it's going in the right direction, but what we want to see is what comes out of it first," Cottini said. "The property owners won't agree to this conditional-use permit process if it's as bad as the zoning document."

Not every assembly member was in favor of continuing work on the zoning ordinance.

Assembly member Bruce Bush offered an amendment that would eliminate the second portion of Jansen's motion, which directed the planning commission to "take the necessary time to continue and complete work on the proposed Euclidian ordinance incorporating citizen input."

"My intent is to kill this zoning thing," Bush said when speaking to his amendment. "I think that a lot of people are wasting their time on this. I think a conditional-use [ordinance] will get the same results."

Although Bush's amendment garnered a round of applause from audience members who later spoke against zoning, the amendment he offered failed, with his and assembly member Kelly Lankford Ladere's support.

Jansen's original motion passed unanimously, but the planning commission has not yet been given a directive, as Mayor Tim Anderson later vetoed the motion.

"Any action of the assembly that is not advertised … basically, [it] has to be determined whether it's substantial or not," Anderson said.

Anderson's decision was based on Gatti's advice, he said. Gatti, at the meeting, told the assembly that, although not every attorney would agree that waiting for the issue to be advertised was a necessity, he felt it best to proceed with caution on such a highly charged issue.

"This is in an abundance of caution," Gatti said. "… Things that are important should be advertised."

Assembly members protested, stating that the veto action added to public confusion, but they agreed to discuss the veto at the next assembly meeting.

A resolution that would redirect the planning commission's efforts toward developing a performance-based conditional-use ordinance is expected on that agenda as well.