Littleton resident urges planning commission to start overdue comprehensive‑plan update

Pam Chadbourne, a resident who spoke twice during the meeting, urged the Planning Commission to press the city to begin an update of Littleton’s comprehensive plan and to integrate planning at an institutional level.

In public comment before the hearing, Chadbourne said city planning should be treated as an enterprise management function, not merely project review. “City planning is not just something that examines individual projects, it really is a management function for the city,” she told commissioners, and added that the comprehensive plan is supposed to be updated every five years and is already “a year in the hole.” She asked the commission to “call for demand for that update…to start as soon as possible.”

At the public hearing later in the meeting, Chadbourne returned to the topic and criticized what she described as siloed decision‑making: she said the record showed no collaboration with the Environmental Stewardship Board or Highline Canal conservancy and urged the city to model anticipated outcomes for heat, habitat and other impacts before adopting code changes. “There’s no wildlife representation at all in the city’s products,” she said, and urged the city to include vegetation and habitat continuity in planning.

Commission response and outcome

Commissioners acknowledged her comments but took no direct action related to the comprehensive‑plan request during the meeting. The Planning Commission proceeded with the scheduled public hearing on tree‑canopy code amendments and ultimately voted to recommend those changes to City Council.

Ending

Chadbourne’s remarks were recorded in the meeting minutes and will be part of the public record transmitted with the Planning Commission’s recommendation to City Council; no formal referral or follow‑up motion about the comprehensive plan was made during the meeting.