City Council, planners to try to get on same page

Mathis Winkler

Monday, Nov. 26, 2001 | 9:02 a.m.

The combined meeting of City Council members and planning commissioners will take place at 6 p.m. Tuesday City Hall, 2300 Civic Center Drive.

The City Council's day-long retreat will begin 9 a.m. Saturday at the Desert Pines Golf Course, 3415 E. Bonanza Road.

That City Council members overturn decisions by planning commissioners is not that big of a deal.

After all, commissioners merely advise council members, who have the last say as the city's elected leaders.

But when developers' appeals of the commissioners' decisions start piling up on council agendas, as has happened over the past couple of months, it's time to figure out why members of the two bodies don't agree on planning issues, members of the two boards agree.

"It appears recently that the City Council and commissioners have not been on the same plate," said Mayor Michael Montandon, adding that developers and city officials brought the issue to his attention. "It's time to get together and see what we're up to."

That's what council members and commissioners will do during a joint meeting Tuesday night.

They are due to talk about the roles and duties of the two boards as well as their relationship with one another. A general discussion of land use matters in North Las Vegas is also on the agenda, as is a proposal to hold joint meetings twice a year.

Commissioner Anita Wood said she was glad a meeting had finally been scheduled.

"It wasn't happening as quickly as we would like it," said Wood, who was nominated by Councilwoman Shari Buck for the position.

Five of the seven commissioners are nominated by council members, while two serve as members-at-large.

A lack of communication between the two groups was a big factor in different decisions on planning issues, Wood said. Council members are supposed to set policies for the city and commissioners base their decisions on those policies.

But "unfortunately, we don't mind-read," Wood said. "Not being on the same page is what often results in so many items being overturned."

Councilwoman Stephanie Smith said she saw Tuesday's meeting as a chance to get those differences worked out.

"It's not that we want to control (commissioners,)" she said. "We want to help them to be more in sync."

Planning Commission Chairman Nelson Stone said that's what he's trying to get out of the meeting.

"It's a good thing that we should do to get a sense of where elected officials want the city to go," he said, adding that the city's tremendous growth has made it harder for commissioners to spend as much time on each project as they would like to.

"We don't often have the leisure to review applications at the same rate as Timbuktu, Miss.," he said.

Council members will also get a chance to discuss their visions for the city later this week, when they meet for a daylong retreat to talk about priorities for North Las Vegas and get reports from city department heads.

The meeting was originally scheduled for Nov. 3 at Texas Station but had to be postponed because several council members could not attend. The retreat will now be held in Las Vegas. City officials said they had to move it outside the city's boundaries because the casino did not have room for them.