Permit decision delayed

MAT-SU -- The Mat-Su Borough Assembly unanimously agreed Tuesday to postpone discussions on the proposed conditional use permit until Sept. 17, when another round of public hearings will be held.

A substitute ordinance will be discussed at that meeting. Sandra Garley, borough planning director, told the assembly most of the changes related to issues brought up at the Aug. 13 public hearing.

There were concerns, Garley said, that the hazardous materials-related portion of the ordinance was hard to understand and did not, in some places, match state standards.

"We're trying to bring the existing thresholds to state benchmarks," Garley said.

She added that, if the assembly adopts the ordinance, one amendment requests that the approved ordinance be sent out to affected businesses and a series of open houses and public forums be held to allow those affected to learn more about how the ordinance works.

In light of the list of amendments, as well as comments from acting attorney John Ashenbrenner that he needed to further review the document before he could tell whether it was legally sound, assembly member Talis Colberg moved to postpone discussion on the ordinance to a Sept. 5 special meeting.

Borough Manager John Duffy said the added time was needed, as borough administration was still working to find a way to smooth one particularly rocky section of the ordinance.

"We're trying to eliminate the distinction between a major and minor CUP," Duffy said. Currently, the ordinance states that a major CUP must be approved by the borough planning commission, while a minor CUP can be approved administratively.

Although they agreed there were outstanding issues that needed to be resolved related to the ordinance, some assembly members were unsure the matter needed more public comment.

"I can't support bringing this back up to the public at a public hearing," Assembly member Dan Kelly said. "They've made their recommendations, we're responsible to review [those changes]."

Although he later voted to bring the ordinance back to the public, Kelly asked if there was a substantive difference between the original ordinance and the ordinance that would be left after amendments were made.

"If we took something out of there, or we removed it entirely, I don't see that that's a conflict," Kelly said. "If we put something in, now that's major."

And, while the amendments to propose to take several things out -- references to glare and odor, for example, are suggested to be removed from the ordinance -- the only additions made have been to clarify or further explain issues in the ordinance.

Garley, Wednesday, said the glare and odor portions of the ordinance were suggested for removal in response to public comments, as well as a simple review of the types of complaints they hear.

"The number of times that we've heard, 'Oh, that thing is just a stench' … is very minor in comparison to other issues," Garley said. "Right now we're just really trying to hit the big things."

Assembly member Sara Jansen said while it's been frustrating to her to discuss the conditional use permit issue, along with other planning and zoning issues, repeatedly without reaching a conclusion, she saw the need for returning the document to the public.

"This seems to me to be the cleanest approach," Jansen said.

Assembly member Jody Simpson said, because borough administration was still ironing out final details and the whole document needed to be reviewed by the attorney before its public release, she wanted the document to be available to the public well before the public hearing.

"The administration will be ready to go within about a day," Duffy said.

Ashenbrenner did not give a date as to when he felt the legal review would be completed, but said he didn't believe the review will take long.

Borough Clerk Sandra Dillon said she was not sure whether a school facility will be available for the assembly's use for the Sept. 17 public hearing, but she and Duffy agreed that the borough gym would be available if a school was not. More information will be available in September about the location of the public hearing.