The City of Stuart Planning Board voted unanimously to recommend an amendment to city code that would remove a quasi‑judicial public hearing requirement for very large developments and instead require a public presentation — provided the amendment explicitly preserves a public‑notice requirement for nearby residents.

Board members said the original language had put commissioners in the awkward position of voting on projects that had already been verified as meeting code by staff and therefore left little discretion. Supporters of the change said replacing the formal hearing with a presentation keeps the public informed without forcing commissioners to cast what could be perceived as an approval vote on projects that are administratively compliant.

Planning staff described the change as removing the technical elements of a quasi‑judicial hearing — such as oath and hearing procedures — and replacing them with a presentation at a public meeting. Those changes would not change the underlying development standards used by staff to determine compliance, staff said. Board members pressed staff to keep neighbor notification mechanisms in place — including blue signs, mailed notices or other publicity — so residents would still learn about large projects before construction began.

City development director Jettie Kugler, who told the board the development department recently rolled out an online dashboard, said the city will publicize the new portal and include development notices in the department newsletter. "We just rolled out this website, like, last week," Kugler said. "We are actually going to advertise it in our newsletter, and we're gonna ask our PIO to put it on our — to advertise it as well. We also have all of our development applications that are online now, so you can go into our portal and you can look in there as well."

Board members noted the policy matters most for rare, very large projects — one participant repeatedly used the example of a 50,000‑square‑foot building — and said retaining notice would help ensure developers are "good neighbors" by alerting nearby residents and giving them an opportunity to attend the presentation and ask questions. Staff told the board that because such projects are administratively checked for code compliance before they appear on the agenda, a presentation would typically follow administrative approval.

A motion to recommend approval of the amended language, conditioned on retaining a notice requirement (with the word "public hearing" replaced by "public presentation" where appropriate), passed on a unanimous roll call vote. Vice Chair Peterson, Board member Bowles, Chair Lorraine, Board member Strom and Board member Vogel voted in favor. The motion did not specify a named mover or seconder in the transcript record.

Staff said the board's recommendation will be forwarded to the commission for consideration, and that the commission could adopt the change with the retained notice language. Kugler said the development dashboard and newsletter will be used to increase transparency about pending applications and to help neighbors learn about projects in their area.

The amendment discussion and vote focused on process language and notice mechanisms; it did not change the substantive code standards staff uses to review projects for compliance.