Planning board confirms July and August schedule; staff discusses refreshed master-plan graphics and sustainability plan review

The Planning Board on June 26 confirmed it will hold a single meeting in July — a joint public hearing with the City Council Legislative Matters Subcommittee on July 17 — and scheduled an August meeting for Aug. 28. The board will return to two meetings in September. Carolyn, planning department staff, confirmed the July joint hearing is set for 6:30 p.m. and said committee- and subcommittee-assignments will be discussed when the board has its new member in place. Board members noted a forthcoming change in membership: one new board member will join in July and another appointment is proceeding through the city-council process. Members discussed placing subcommittee assignments on the agenda for either July 17 or Aug. 28 depending on workload and incoming items. During informal discussion, board member George [last name not specified] and staff previewed a planned review of the city's sustainability plan and master plan graphics. George said the board would "dig into some data" on housing and transportation measures, and staff explained that a consultant refreshed graphics that were degraded when the 2021 master plan moved between design and web formats. Carolyn explained the refresh: "When it was updated in 2021, the graphics didn't come over clearly. ... it was a translation issue between InDesign and PDF and going from one format to the next online and through our server. So there are some really cruddy images in the plan, but we had the same consultant who did the historic preservation component of the plan also did a refresh on all the graphics." Staff said the content remains the same; only the presentation was updated. No formal votes or policy decisions were taken on scheduling, appointments, or plan content at the June 26 meeting.