If, as the City Council recently directed, the Planning Commission and Design Review Board (see City Council Votes to Merge Planning Commission and Design Review Board
February 24, 2007) are combined into a single new body on August 1, 2007, the mayor will have nine new members to appoint. This merger may not be as slam dunk as some would have us believe. The City attorney’s office will probably not have a draft ordinance on an agenda until June 5, right in the middle of budget deliberations. It will have to be voted on twice to take effect. Since the devil is in the details, and there will by that time probably be substantial public interest, I would expect the process to drag on for some time and perhaps even falter.

Meanwhile, the existing Planning Commission and Design Review Board will be out of business by at least June 30, 2007, because they will no longer have a quorum. Already, the Planning Commission is down to six members and often has trouble assembling a quorum because the City Council has refused to approve the mayor’s appointments. If you have a project that needs action by either of these, best you get it agendized before July, or just take the summer off. On the other hand, I suspect the mayor doesn’t want to hold up the wheels of progress in Richmond, so she could appoint new members to the presumably lame duck Planning Commission and Design Review Board to make sure they are at voting strength during July and perhaps earlier.

However, the point of all this is not to speculate on the fate of the Planning Commission and Design Review Board but to solicit motivated and qualified people to apply for these positions. Both bodies (or the combined body) need people who want to make a difference in the future of Richmond. They particularly need people who are familiar with some aspect of planning, design and construction so that they know what is possible and what can be. All too often, people who do not have that level of familiarity are tempted to be taken in by arguments that doing good projects is economically or technically infeasible. We need people who are dedicated to making Richmond the best it can be, not the lowest common denominator.

So, if you are one of those persons who want to make Richmond better, apply for the Planning Commission and/or the Design Review Board NOW. Click here for an application. Fill it out and get it to the city clerk, who will transmit it to the mayor. It may be helpful to attach a letter to mayor McLaughlin explaining in some detail how and why you want to make Richmond better and why you are the right person to do it.

If you want to know more about what these organizations do, go to the Design Review Board and Planning Commission web pages, and read the agendas and minutes.

Following are the current memberships.

Design Review Board Members

Ordinance No. 7-99 N.S.

Two-Year Terms - Four Consecutive Full Terms

Meetings are held every 2^nd and 4^th Wednesday

at 6:00 p.m.

Council Chambers

Planning Commission Members

Ordinance No. 1435

Residents - Two-Year Terms/Four Full Consecutive Terms

Meetings are held every 1^st and 3^rd Thursday at 7:00 p.m.

Council Chamber, City Hall