This is the Eden Prairie Planning Commission in action on Monday, August 22. I don’t usually sit in on their meetings, but I did tonight because the City staff is proposing a set of changes to the City’s sign ordinance and I wanted to be there to speak to the issue, if necessary. It wasn’t. Community Development Director Janet Jeremiah handled the matter beautifully. The ordinance changes will now advance to the City Council for their review and approval at the Council’s September 6 meeting.
Most cities of 2,000 or more citizens in the United States employ some kind of citizen advisory board that is separate from the elected board to review land development issues. An appointed advisory board can frequently delve into details in development plans that can really stall a meeting of elected officials. They can help take the “edge” off a development that might not ordinarily make it through our process successfully. In many communities, that separate citizen advisory board is called the “Planning Commission”. That’s what we call ours.
The Planning Commission provides an open process and a balanced review of development proposals and land use requests, both private and public, by comparing development plans to the City’s Strategic Plan, Comprehensive Guide Plan and other City land use regulations.
The members of the Planning Commission are:
Larry Kacher
John Kirk
Vicki Koenig
Kathy Nelson (Vice-Chair)
Peter Rocheford
Fred Seymour
Ray Stoelting (Chair)
Jon Stoltz
Bill Sutherland
Our Planning Commission meetings are televised live on EPTV – Cable Channel 16. We also rerun the meetings again on EPTV-16 for opposite Mondays at 7 p.m., and on Sundays at 1 p.m. We are considering offering them as video streams from our website in the future. We are still trying to gauge the community’s interest in that idea.
Planning Commission meetings are always open to the public. The Planning Commission meets on the second and fourth Mondays of each month at 7 p.m. in the Council Chambers at Eden Prairie City Center, 8080 Mitchell Road. If you would like to place an item on the Commission’s agenda, please contact the City Planner, Mr. Mike Franzen, at 952.949.8487, or e-mail him at mfranzen@edenprairie.org.
