Nome Planning Commission Regular Meeting- Sept. 8, 2026

Yeah, so we can say excused or not. Commissioner Berger, excused. Commissioner Oden, we got to replace them. Excused. I wouldn't say excuse because we didn't hear nothing.

So, okay, did you hear anything from Berger? Nope. Yeah, yeah, yeah, he did. Oh yeah, but we didn't hear nothing from Oden, right? I don't know, we didn't hear nothing from John.

Okay, not excused. Okay, and Commissioner McCann? Oh, he's excused. I thought he was flying out today. He was flying out.

He's going to try to call on Zoom, but he was sick when I saw him at the bank earlier. Okay, that's it. Yep. So how many absences before you get replaced that are unexcused? Supposedly two.

Yeah, I just want to put that out there. We got one going now.

Make note of it. Okay, do we get a motion to approve the agenda?

Uh, oh, do we have enough to have quorum? We don't need a—. We don't need a quorum. Okay, cool. Motion to approve.

Second. Call the roll.

Commissioner Jennings? Yes. Commissioner Ford? Yeah. Commissioner Smith?

Yes. Approval of the minutes. For the January 7th known Planning Commission meeting, do I hear a motion to approve those minutes? Yes, I'll second the motion. January—.

Yeah, January 8th. Sorry, it's, it's wrong on here. I was reading from the sheet. Okay. And, uh, okay, roll call the roll.

Commissioner Jennings? Yes. Commissioner Ford? Yes. Commissioner Smith?

Yes. We don't have any Historic Preservation Commission activities that I know of unless Aaron has something to chime in there. Nope, I do not. Gotcha. Communications, there any out there?

We don't hear nothing from the building inspector. Is he still alive? Yeah, building, uh, active building permits towards the staff reports.

Okay, gotcha. Um, just teasing on, is he still alive? Shouldn't say that. And I guess we go into citizens' comments if there's any out here, but they got run off because it wasn't a Port Commission meeting.

Okay, no citizen comment, no unfinished business, no new business except for— there is some— Planning Commission training. Aaron, take it away.

Did I blast through the comments too fast? The communications too fast? No.

I have my notes here somewhere. I was taken a little bit by surprise. I think this is like part training, part trying to get your feedback on stuff. But thank you, Wale, for getting that up on the screen. I'm hoping you guys have this material with you, but we can kind of go through some of the visuals that are in the memo itself.

But At our last meeting, Lee kind of started talking a little bit about how we were going to go through this kind of standard operating procedure development process with you all. So I wanted to kind of walk through, just kind of identify the key steps that I'm seeing that would be kind of incorporated into that whole process. And then kind of dive in a little bit to kind of that step 1, which has to do with like the kind of pathways, development pathways. So just kind of wanted to walk through each of those kind of the big picture, each of the SOP initiative framework. Um, so the first step would be to develop these kind of visual pathway flowcharts, which is what the rest of the several other pages that follow this memo get into.

Um, but then also, uh, creating kind of a deadline conversion guide, right? So in the municipal code right now, it uses, um, both calendar days and working days. So even without changing code, we can kind of map out what all that stuff means for additional clarity for staff as we're kind of processing things, but then also for, for you all and for applicants, just so all of that is like super clear for folks. Then kind of the next step there would be taking a look at just kind of an annual submit schedule with that in mind and meeting schedule and kind of how to kind of map that out for folks. And, you know, I think again, just to kind of increase that clarity of what— when people can expect movement and review on their applications.

Then also working on a standardized staff report template. Hopefully you'll see some— hopefully since I've been working with you guys, we've started to standardize some of that, but want to kind of just have a more open conversation about what you all would like to see in some of those memos. And I think that can also be informed by some of the flowcharts and also just our discussions. I think that sort of staff report template and that just came up when we were going through some of those training modules. And what one of my takeaways was hearing that you all really kind of liked having those staff reports.

And so just, we can kind of go in there a little bit into that discussion a little bit of what you want to see there and what that could look like.

Next would also be taking a look at the application forms themselves., and kind of updating those. I don't think we've had significant changes in code since those have been, um, created, but we can kind of use some of the flowchart information and the meeting schedule information that we'd be building, um, to then create, uh, the application forms themselves that can all be informed by that. Um, and then the thought would be we can put all those things together and actually create the standard operating procedure manual and then update the city website to make sure that outdated information is removed and the new information is up there and all of that, all of the material that we've created along the way is readily available for folks. So that was a lot of me talking, so I just want to take a pause and do a reality check with you guys. Does that kind of overview and those steps ring true to you?

Does that seem like we're addressing the right stuff in the right way? And would certainly just love your input or validation or redirect if that needs to happen. To be the case.

I think it's a nice flow, nice outline to guide us in developing standard operating procedure type scenario. Oof. I think it'll keep us on track, I hope. I hope so too. Great.

Was there any other Comments there?

Nothing, it was pretty straightforward. I looked over this in the email packet, which I enjoy getting prior to the meetings because then I can kind of be ready for what's going on. And yeah, so I've enjoyed the way that things kind of get disseminated through our networks and channels, and I haven't had too many issues with anything yet. I've got the help of a 1- and 3-year-old at home going through everything, but aside from that medium-sized hurdle, it's been pretty terrific. So thanks for everything you guys are doing on the back end.

Awesome. You are very welcome.

All right. I think then Wally has already shifted us to some of the written guides. So kind of with that developing the visual pathways flowcharts in mind, the next several pages are a couple of different ways we can look at this, and I would just kind of like your feedback. So the first 3 pages, so page 5, 6, and 7, I think are a more narrative— like, none of this is a final product, let me be clear. So, like, these are more like narrative in nature, but still trying to show a general flow for how different applications go.

So those 3 pages where I did one for the variance, one for conditional use permit, and then one for a rezoning request. I thought that was just a lot of words, and then so I— we— I then I started looking at like what a sort of a more of a flowchart decision tree kind of thing would look like, which is the rest of the pages associated with this, and I kind of— if you want to scroll down one more to look at like that application pathway, yeah, so This does not come through very nicely on the screen, but if you get your magnifying glasses out, maybe. So this one, there are more, they're just more visual flowcharts. So this one, this first one is kind of a decision tree of like, so you've got a project idea or you want to, you know, develop something. And it kind of walks through a planning process or zoning kind of land use route to get at, like, all of the planning and subdivisions, and then also any variances that might be required or conditional use permits that might be necessary and how that goes.

So that's for rezoning, quite frankly, you know, so, so that is structured to kind of help give some sort of understanding to the remaining pages. And so we kind of— I broke those up by, um, like, do you need zoning relief? So you can go to the next. Can you scroll to the next page? Yeah.

Um, so these are zoning relief pathways. So like the one on the left is a variance, and then the other one is a conditional use permit. So these are things that would come to the Planning Commission. And then the next page, if you want to scroll to— are these are legislative action pathways. So this is stuff that you all would certainly be engaged with, but ultimately would go to the Common Council for their actions.

So it's the rezoning pathway. And all of those steps. And then if a platting action is actually vacating a right-of-way, that takes action by the common council before— because they have to accept the fact that it's being vacated because it's getting rid of property. And then the next couple of slides are all about platting. And so these two are kind of the streamlined platting processes.

So a minor lot consolidation process and the one on the right is stuff that could just go to the— hold on, now I'm second-guessing myself. I'll have to double-check that. It should just be kind of more, yeah, just the streamlined stuff. So smaller, smaller lots or things that can go directly to the— oh, I reversed it. That's what I did.

The one is just a kind of an administrative review and then the other is still small and then goes to the Planning Commission. And then the final one is actual subdivision platting pathways for— compares the minor and major subdivisions based on how large the— how many lots are involved. There's some additional steps there. So that is all I had. You will notice that with the written versions, I did not get into all of the cladding actions, but I easily could do it that way.

So you kind of, before you have different variations of what kind of a visual flowchart pathways format might look like, again, one is more written, the others, these are more visual.

So I would like to know a couple of things from, from your standpoints. Which approaches do you like more, or is the perfect approach somewhere in between? So like 3 main options, right? And then just to kind of do a reality check, like, is that kind of the right amount of information?

Because I think what I was trying to do is kind of walk that fine line of having clear information of like what needs to be submitted, you know, what constitutes a complete application, make it into like an actionable tool while still being accurate and not repeating what the code says. So trying to walk that fine line, also kind of thinking that it could eventually be coupled with the application itself for some of these actions. So I would just like feedback on what approach you guys are thinking, you know, what you like out of these, what you don't like, and then I can kind of— I can draft something more final for us to to look at next round.

Okay, Melissa. I personally like the flowcharts better, you know, the if this then this, if this then this. I thought those gave a better pathway, you know, and yeah, I like those better. Yeah, I really like seeing the associated information on the flowcharts that's underneath each, you know, next step. You know, it cites different sections in our code and different sections and where we would be able to find this, maybe on the city website, that kind of thing.

But cites everything from the fees associated with it. I mean, it's just I think it's really clear and it makes it to where, you know, it's not completely reliant on somebody's capacity for digesting just written text. It makes it more of a— more palatable probably for most people to look at and process. So I'm a big fan of the way that looks, and I really like that it shows the affiliated, whether it's a fee or code or title that's attached to each stack. That's super, super helpful for me as somebody that is still very much getting their feet wet with this.

And just to be— just to clarify, code reference fees, kind of not a bunch of text. So you are liking the flowchart, like the second section of stuff rather than the first things that are like in the memo itself. I didn't mind the memo. I just think for the sake of, you know, for the kind of the group that we have to exist as, I think it's— the flowchart is more— people could be more easily receptive to the flowchart presentation, in my opinion. I don't think people would enjoy the written memo as much as I did.

I'm not a normal person by any stretch. To be clear, this is exactly where I got, so nobody is hurting my feelings right now. So yeah, I appreciate the written, like, the fleshed-out memo style very much. But for the sake of sitting in front of my colleagues, I like being able to see exactly where their mind might be on a different path, which is outlined with these flowcharts very nicely. Whereas with the other, they're like, well, on the 17th line, if you look— it's like, well, I don't want to make somebody do that to try and make me understand what they're saying.

So I kind of appreciate the flowchart in that sense. Yeah. Awesome. Well, I really like the flowchart as well. It kind of simplifies it.

It lays out the operating procedure so that any staff can step in as well. I think it would help the staff and the more details, probably the better, but we don't want to box staff into a corner. On page 12, I noticed not a minor subdivision of the same parcel in the last 5 years, question mark. That's something new to me. Is that in code?

Like, I can't do a minor—. It's in code. Yeah. All right. See, that's important because, um, because I think the, the purpose of having—.

Yeah, so those are questions because those are actually, um, requirements. And see, yeah, like, I'll have to go, I'll have to go through here and refine this now that I know like this approach, but the reason why— and maybe 5 years isn't the best, but that's what's in code right now— but the reason why you would have some sort of time constraint on that is so you're not enabling an applicant to just do multiple minor subdivision requests and, and to get away from doing a major subdivision plat. So I think it is trying to catch that. But yeah, that's in there. Gotcha.

Tabet, now it brings to my mind when somebody is developing the first time a mining claim and they're gonna probably do a subarea plan with multiple minor subdivisions within the same time frame in order to afford to complete it. That's how it's been working. That's why I'm kind of surprised to see that.

Yeah, so that's my two cents. But I'd like to see that mining claim stuff in there as well because people are buying a lot of them, get in developing them. Melissa can testify to that. But, um, she had her hand up. Go ahead, Melissa.

One of the concerns I do have with this, and I love it that it has the dollar amount on here, but for longevity's sake, how will we be able to make sure that those get updated appropriately when there is a change? That's one of the frustrations I have right now with a lot of the city paperwork is that It'll say one thing on one piece of paper, but then we have another piece of paper that has a different number. So if this becomes part of our paper file, what kind of things can we do to protect the fee, the fees that we have in there? I like seeing it. I do like seeing it, but something—.

It might change next year, right? Most likely will. I think, um, no, I think that's a really good point for us to be mindful of. I, I have a couple of thoughts. One, um, and I'm not sure if the chair just said this, but one is we could make it kind of an annual thing of revisiting this and making sure that everything is up to date.

Um, another approach could be for some of the stuff that might change more often, and I'm thinking obviously the schedule of, you know, when the meetings are going to be, like, that's— is going to change by just because it's a calendar, um, that'll change every year. But we could create kind of just a fee, um, sheet that goes with all of this material that's easy to swap out, and then these flowcharts that hopefully we don't have to reinvent every year. We could be— we could say something like, um, pay the fee in accordance with, you know, whatever, but still have like the reminder in the flowchart and something easily accessible. Um, that's what I'm thinking of. I guess the, the other— so that's where I'm thinking we could do— those are approaches that I'm thinking about that we can do to make sure everything is kept up to date.

I want— I will say one more thing and then I'll be quiet. I think the other thing that I always think about is I don't want to send— have to send people all over the place to find all the information that they need. So I think that concern needs to get balanced out with the concern of making sure that there's one source of truth. Right? So like, how do we, how do we kind of make both of those reality?

But yeah, I think we can get there. But it's good that you named that because that could get really confusing and frustrating. We got Brad's hand up in the back of the room. So, um, just to piggyback on this, it should be up to our office. So like, we're going to be the ones that are going to raise the fines or the fees.

So whenever those do get raised, I think you should go up to our office to just go ahead and implement right into whatever charts that Aaron has going on. We could just update those right off the bat, so that way everybody's on the same page all the time. And this kind of flowchart is good with the city staff because I think it'll help a lot. Yes, I just don't want to assume—. Me and Wally were already talking about that this smarting.

So yeah, I mean, I think an educated consumer is your best customer. Probably less yelling going on over there.

I really like the concept of potentially having like a reference like you were talking about, Eric, where you, you know, you have, you know, applicable fee and then you have a table of fees and maybe labeled there. You know, there's different ways to do it, but having something like that and and it's, it's a fluid document that we know, like, you know, right at the bottom corner it could say active up until, you know, yeah, 31st, 2028. And then we know if it's any time after that, we have to, you know, rely on city staff. It was pretty awesome to keep things going. I think it's great.

A lot of work went into this and it shows.

I might have geeked out on it.

Well, let's bring it to fruition and get it done. That's good. All right, um, I will— so I'm definitely hearing a consensus on the flowchart approach. I think my next step will be, um, making sure, um, what is in here is fully accurate. I think, um, Probably pulling out— I want to think about how to do the fees, but I think that is a really good point.

So I think fine-tuning all of this, but no dramatic changes. And I do, to the point of just making sure that staff is all on board with this, I think part of that is touching base with them to make sure everybody is good with that, with this structure, and doesn't have any questions. Or, you know, if I miss something, then just to make sure that's all accurate. But I think we are good to go with that, and then we can move on to one of the next steps too.

Sounds good.

Where are we at now?

I think that was all I had. Okay, well, thanks. Any questions, concerns, anybody? I really like it. Yeah, I like it too.

Thanks for your time. Awesome. Thank you guys. So, okay, we are on staff reports, which is— there's the building permit report. These are just the active ones.

That's what it looks like. Yeah, so, and then the dates are highlighted in orange. Orange when they're going to expire, which is nice.

There been any talk in changing the, uh, billing permit fees yet?

No, missing out on a lot of money.

The stuff that When is that sunset? End of '27. Holy buckets. Unless they do something different by ordinance, huh? Correct.

But then they did it by ordinance in the first place, so—. But you can amend an ordinance.

That's quite a bit. Any new projects hit on there? Does anybody know of or anything like that? That's what I—. We use—.

See, we probably had like 10, 10 new ones in the last week and a half, basically. What 3 bottles.

Gotcha. Nothing.

Bonanza, the big one. What are they doing? Bonanza? I think they were leveling their tanks. So they put in a permit to level the tanks?

Well, because I know they've been working up there a lot. Scary stuff.

Nothing else. All right, it's a lot of permits, a lot of open permits. There it is. And when they're just remodeling— yes, all ours.

Yep. One, as much as I like having these organized by last name of owner. I'd almost like to see them organized by date of issue. Date of issue, you know, let's see who's—. There's a handful on here that expired a couple months ago, things like that.

Just seeing who's done what in the last— like you said, like 2 and a half weeks, is that 10 applicants? Not that I'm certainly not requesting something or anything, you know, stick in the mud. You just think it might be a better read One of those things would be fun to click the button that organizes by date issued.

Oh, thank you. So I got two—. Always on the clock.

Any other staff reports?

Any questions on the building permits or anything like that?

Let's— any, any, uh, unpermitted work going on?

That's it, really? No other staff reports? Not— okay, cool.

Commissioner's comments, I guess.

Commissioner Jennings, um, well, I don't know if Aaron's still here or not, but thank you, Aaron, for all that, uh, time you put into everything. It was nice to see all of our information kind of laid out that way so we can figure out a way to palatable for— as you know, we have new members on the board, and I'm one of those. It's really nice to have different options for looking at the information. And then I wanted to know where I could look to find out information on different things in city infrastructure. I saw a fire hydrant at like, I think it's 2nd Street, and Division maybe, but it's just got a big black plastic wrap all taped right over it around on the corner there.

And I had seen it have a leak, oh, maybe this winter at some point, but I just didn't know if that was something that, you know, the city has listed anywhere about outages for different, you know, like a fire hydrant. I thought I might find, but I believe that's an old joint thing. Okay. I could be wrong on that, but I know it's correct. Um, yeah, they take care of— swap it out, right?

Okay, very cool. I remember it leaking this spring, so I just was curious about—. That's probably where they swapping it out. And, uh, yeah, I got to see some signage out. I think that you had said a private company put signage out, uh, on the streets, and I got to see more of those this year, so that was really nice.

Hopefully we can figure out a way to obtain some ourselves for our city. And I appreciate you guys all being here and hope everyone enjoyed the sunshine because it looks like it is gone now. Don't blink.

Um, speaking of signs, we have street signs on Steadman. I'm so happy.

Yes.

Really, really nice. I love the flowchart. I think that's great. It's always been confusing about how to get from A to B, so it's good to have that information. That's all I got.

Thanks. I think the same. My comments are thanks a lot for Aaron doing a lot of work. That's a lot of work, and it kind of just lays out the process and it makes it easy so people don't have to search through the code and come up with it on their own. A little bit— takes a lot of the sting out of it, which I hope works both ways, even for staff.

And, um, good to see cruise ships in town. Only one more. Only one more.

Wow, where did summer go? I mean, it flew by. Oh, it's fall time now. Yeah, beautiful out there. Beautiful colors.

The reds are coming out. Anyway, thanks guys. We need to schedule next, next meeting.

Um, first Tuesday of next month is the calendar.

I see the October 6th. Yes. Yep, that's what it's looking like. Let's see, Wally's at the date of the election So probably not. No.

Yeah, that's a— yeah, that's not a good day. We're going to end up the 13th, kind of like we did this month, the second week. Does that work for staff? Yeah, right. I mean, okay, it's after the Canvas meeting too, so that'll be good.

Make motion to adjourn? I'll second. All in favor—. Aye! —I wouldn't even say the other thing.

Thank you for the name placards.