
The City of Lowell Planning Commission met on Monday night for their regular January meeting. All commissioners were present.
Election of Officers
As it was the first meeting of the month, commissioners selected their chair and vice chair for 2025. Commissioner Marty Chambers nominated Tony Ellis – the current chair – to continue in that role for the upcoming year. There were no other nominations, and Ellis was unanimously approved as chair.
Next, Michael Gadula was nominated as vice chair.
“I believe we had Mike be vice chair. Isn’t that right, David?” Chambers asked Commissioner David Cadwallader as he made the nomination.
While Chambers and Cadwallader seemed to have discussed their choices beforehand, Gadula apparently wasn’t interested in the position. Instead, he nominated Nicki Holst to vice chair.
“Wait a minute,” Holst said, clearly surprised.
After some further discussion, Gadula said he would like to withdraw his name from consideration, and Holst was unanimously approved as vice chair.
Rules of Procedure
Next was approval of the commission’s rules and procedures.
Holst noted that there had been a question about how long citizens were allowed during public comments and asked if the rules addressed that.
“We as city council are going to be addressing that and making it uniform among all boards,” replied Chambers, who is the Lowell City Council representative on the Planning Commission.
He added that time clocks have been ordered, and one will be attached to the wall in the back of the room and the other on the dais where councilmembers sit. “We’re just waiting for legal to tell us to move forward,” Chambers said.
Currently, the Planning Commission agendas state that speakers are allowed five minutes when addressing commissioners.
The motion to approve the rules and procedures passed unanimously.
Master Plan Distribution Delayed
The main piece of business on the agenda was a review of the Master Plan. The Planning Commission has been working steadily on this document since last year, and Andy Moore, a planning consultant to the city from the firm Williams & Works, had asked commissioners to review the document and forward any potential changes to him over the holiday break,
Commissioner John Barnett sent Moore several comments and shared those with other commissioners during Monday’s meeting.
His first comment was regarding language in the draft plan that says “Lowell Public Schools” and King Milling are the top employers in the city.
“I’m not sure what we’re trying to say there, and I’m not sure if it’s accurate,” Barnett said. He thought Litehouse was a larger employer, but he wasn’t sure that the information was even necessary for the Master Plan.
Moore thought the best way to address the concern would be to add Litehouse and Atwood as major employers.
Next, Barnett said the plan referenced the city’s Placemaking Plan, but he had not been able to access that or find it on the city website. Holst thought it was supposed to be emailed to commissioners and mentioned that it seemed to be referenced by different names in various sections of the draft.
Finally, when it came to goals regarding the Flat River, Barnett suggested adjusting the language to note the length of the river that is in the city and mention that the city would work with other stakeholders.
Ellis said he sent some information to Moore about the Lowell Area Fire Department that he would like added to the plan.
“With these changes, I think we should submit (the Master Plan) to Lowell City Council for approval,” Ellis said.
Moore clarified that the next step would be to distribute drafts. “There is a long way to go before final approval,” he said.
“Sitting on City Council, I think we need to do a little bit – actually, I think we need to do quite a bit more legwork before it comes to (the council),” Chambers said. He thought it was probably “a month away” from being ready.
Chambers was absent from three meetings last August through October when the Master Plan was discussed.
“What issues do you see that needs work?” Ellis asked.
Chambers replied that he thought there should be more written about affordable housing and the downtown. When Ellis asked if Chambers had certain goals in mind, Chambers replied, “not right now.”
When Ellis quipped that Chambers was being “elusive,” Chambers said that he was privy to information that wasn’t public.
“There are things we are currently working on that it’ll make sense when it makes sense,” Chambers said. His comment appeared to be a reference to Lowell City Council, but with few exceptions, the Open Meetings Act prohibits the council from discussing issues in private.
Chambers mentioned “FROM’s refusal to do handicap accessibility” in their upcoming affordable housing project and noted that there were other developers looking to do “employee-based affordable housing.”
Commissioner Colin Plank said that the Master Plan included goals and objectives and implementation steps for those.
“Are you just talking about we need more research investigating the need for affordable housing or are we needing more specific goals?” Plank asked.
“Yes,” Chambers replied.
In terms of the downtown, Chambers felt there was an opportunity to add housing to the second floors of Main Street buildings.
Several years ago, there had been complaints from some downtown building owners that building code requirements, such as the installation of sprinkler systems, were too onerous and discouraged second story apartments.
Commissioners had an extensive discussion of affordable housing during their November meeting, but they voted to add that to their February agenda.
Resident Tyler Kent also spoke during the conversation and shared his support for having the Master Plan include goals and objectives regarding traffic flow and parking.
Legal Opinion Needed to Share Updates from Council Meetings
Before adjourning, Ellis asked Chambers if he could provide a monthly report of council activities “so we’re not necessarily in the dark.” Chambers said he would have to ask “legal” to see if that would be ok.
Moore said it was common in many communities to have a report from city council on what they are working on. However, Chambers said he would like “legal to weigh in” before sharing what is discussed during city council meetings.
The next regular meeting of the City of Lowell Planning Commission will be on Feb. 10 at 7pm in Lowell City Hall.
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