Planning board backs amendments moving many zoning decisions from staff to City Council

The Punta Gorda Public Order Planning and Zoning Board on March 24 voted to recommend City Council approve ZA02-2025, a set of proposed amendments to the city's Land Development Regulations that would move many final decisions currently made by the zoning official to City Council.

Rachel Berry, the city's zoning official, told the board the changes reassign decision authority for variances, special exceptions and certain mitigation approvals from staff to council and would require that the planning board issue written recommendations rather than final decisions on those items. "These are proposed amendments to the land development regulations related to the zoning official authorities and other processes that are related to those proposed amendments," Berry said, describing the package and noting it had been reassigned from the quasi-judicial portion of the agenda to the legislative portion.

Key changes summarized by staff include: replacing several administrative approvals with council-level final decisions for requests such as deviations in the Traditional Punta Gorda area, additional height and density approved through mitigation, waterfront setback reductions, some fence and visibility exceptions, certain temporary use permits, and administrative variances. The proposal would also send requests for architectural modifications and some landscape and parking standard modifications through the Development Review Committee (DRC) and then to council for final action; the DRC is composed of city department representatives including public works, building, fire, police and utilities.

Board members asked clarifying questions about where specific mitigation provisions would appear in the code. Staff said City Council had directed that mitigation approvals be finalized by council and that some related language would be moved to other sections; one board member urged that all mitigation requirements be grouped together rather than split across sections for clarity.

The board's motion recommended approval to City Council with conditions that the package include specific wording changes. The conditions recorded in the motion directed inclusion of edits to section 16.8 subsections h and i (to replace the word "decision" with "recommendation" for the planning board), a parallel change in section 16.1(f), and a recommendation that the two mitigation paragraphs in section 3.2(l) be consolidated so all mitigation provisions appear in a single place in the code. The motion passed unanimously; the transcript records the vote as unanimous but does not show an itemized roll-call tally.

Board members and staff also discussed operational details, including that building-inspector determinations (for example, measurement of fence heights where grade has been modified) would rest with the building official, named in the discussion as Ron Kajowicz, and that applicants would still receive staff recommendations even though final decisions would go to council. The board noted the change will increase the number of items sent to council and advised the public and applicants to expect additional council-level reviews if the amendments are adopted.

The board's recommendation advances ZA02-2025 to City Council for final consideration.