City staff and a Sacramento commission that addresses development issues have slowed the advancement of a contentious plan to combine the planning and design commissions. Following public controversy over the proposal, a city staffer’s Friday update on the proposal indicates that it is now more open-ended and less detailed than the version outlined earlier this week by a member of the Development Oversight Commission (DOC), which suggests possible actions on development issues to the City Council. Emilie Schell, a program analyst for the city’s Development Services Department, said Friday that the proposal is “still very much in the planning stages at this time.” A public outreach effor

Two city commissions have postponed discussions on a controversial plan to combine the city’s planning and design commissions. The Development Oversight Commission (DOC) canceled the discussion it had scheduled for today’s meeting on its proposal to join the two commissions. The city’s Design Commission had also scheduled a Wednesday discussion on the DOC's proposal. The Design Commission postponed the discussion to a later date. The Sacramento Press will update readers on this issue as it learns more information about the city’s current plans.  

A commission that advises the Sacramento City Council on development issues has updated a controversial proposal to unite the city’s planning and design commissions into one body. Brian Holloway, a member of the Development Oversight Commission (DOC), said Tuesday that the DOC is proposing a combined planning and design commission with nine members. Of that nine-member group, four or five members would be design professionals, Holloway said. Representatives of the public would serve in the remaining positions on the commission. He pointed out that the proposal would join the two commissions, saying the design commission would not be dismantled. Asked why the commission wants to unite t

Sacramento's Development Oversight Commission is proceeding with its plan to merge the Planning Commission and Design Commission into a single body. Despite the overwhelmingly negative response from the current Planning and Design Commission members and the general public, the latest version of the DOC's proposal includes even less citizen input: instead of a seven-member board with two developer representatives and five members of the general public, the new proposal recommends five developer representatives and two members of the general public, in addition to the greatly reduced number of public meetings. From a historian's perspective, the consolidation of these bodies into a single,

  Monday evening, a group of business owners, politicians and concerned citizens gathered at the Hart Senior Center for the March meeting of the Sacramento Neighborhood Advisory Group. The Neighborhood Advisory Group is a monthly meeting for residents of Sacramento's Area 1 to discuss issues pertinent to residents and business owners in the area. It is a partnership between neighborhood leaders and the city's Neighborhood Services Department. Monday’s meeting began with a brief speech from Mayor Kevin Johnson, followed by a question-and-answer period. Light on specifics, Johnson's speech focused on the idea of Sacramento as a city of neighborhoods, Johnson's commitment to making Sacrame

Last Night's NAG proves to be informative and contentious. Last night's Neighborhood Advisory Group (NAG) meeting started off with a low key police report and not much news on issue updates. The general plan goes to City Council for review on March 3rd. There will be a session of the Preservation Roundtable on March 14th, The primary announcement was the merger of Marshall School Neighborhood Association and the adjoining New Era Park Neighborhood Association. A presentation by Doug Huston a Program Analyst with the Solid Waste Division on E-Waste removal was the first agenda item. The city has programs to collect batteries, cfls and other florescent lights that can not go into land fil

At the Planning Commission meeting on February 12, members of the Development Oversight Commission presented their proposal to eliminate the city of Sacramento's Design Commission by integrating it into the Planning Commission. This action would take most planning decisions out of the Commission's hands, assigning them to city staff, with fewer public hearings. This effort was met by surprise and disapproval by the Planning Commission, and also by the 20 or so members of the public who spoke against the effort at the meeting. Development Oversight Commission member Brian Holloway assured people that this was only the beginning of a large-scale outreach program, that they had not yet formu

This article was forwarded to me by Panama Bartholomy, a neighborhood activist. If you have a chance, come to City Hall tonight (915 I Street, New City Hall council chambers, 5:30 PM) and tell the Planning Commission that you don't want the city to shut its citizens out of the planning and design process. ----- On Thursday the Sacramento Planning Commission will have a public hearing on a proposal (http://www.cityofsacramento.org/dsd/meetings/commissions/planning/2008/documents/DOC_letter.PDF) by the Development Oversight Commission (DOC), a City-appointed group comprised almost entirely of real estate developers, architects, and business consultants, to eliminate the City's Design Revie