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Mid Willamette Valley COG planner to provide interim planning support, offers code audit for Umatilla
Summary
McRae Carmichael of the Mid Willamette Valley Council of Governments introduced herself to the Umatilla Planning Commission as an interim planner contracted to support staff during recruitment and suggested a state-code audit to ensure compliance with Department of Land Conservation and Development mandates.
McRae Carmichael, community and economic development director for the Mid Willamette Valley Council of Governments, told the Umatilla Planning Commission she will provide interim planning support while the city recruits a permanent community development director and offered to perform a code audit to check compliance with state-mandated requirements.
"My name is McCray Carmichael, and I'm the community and economic development director for the Mid Willamette Valley Council of Government," Carmichael said, identifying the Council of Governments (COG) based in Salem. She told commissioners the COG provides land-use planning services to 24 cities in its service area and can act as either contract planner or support planner.
Carmichael said the COG was contracted after Brandon (the previous community development director) left and that City Manager David Stockdale sought outside support. She described the interim arrangement as a short-term contract to support staff and offered to conduct a code audit of state-mandated requirements issued by the Department of Land Conservation and Development (DLCD).
"There were a lot of code updates, mandatory code updates that have happened from DLCD in the past six years or so," Carmichael said, suggesting a code audit could identify items the city still needs to incorporate. She noted some routine actions — such as certain replats — could potentially be handled administratively by staff rather than coming to the planning commission, depending on local code.
Carmichael also referenced upcoming work for the commission, including a near-complete Economic Opportunities Analysis prepared by Johnson Economics and a possible future urban growth boundary application, and said the COG can assist with code updates, long-range planning and processing applications when staff capacity is strained.
City commissioners and staff welcomed the support. Carmichael said she intends to attend in person next month and that the COG can step in for controversial applications or when staff needs temporary coverage. David Stockdale and Susan Christiansen were mentioned as participants in arranging the contract; Stockdale was identified in the meeting as the city manager who contacted the COG.
