Hooper planning staff circulate new subdivision checklist amid questions on traffic studies and neighbor contact rules

Hooper Planning Commission members on the dais reviewed a new subdivision application checklist drafted by planning staff and asked the department to clarify several operational issues raised by the updated code.

Malcolm, planning department staff, said the checklist was created to help applicants "summarize and guide them through that process" and is intended as an administrative aid, not a substitute for the full city code. He told commissioners the checklist mirrors recently adopted land-use and subdivision language and acknowledged it had become longer than intended to ensure coverage of all ordinance requirements.

The most disputed point was whether the revised ordinance unintentionally requires full traffic studies for minor subdivisions. "An unintended consequence of our last ordinance was we're requiring traffic studies for minor subdivisions," Malcolm said. Commissioner Larson asked whether such studies would still be limited to projects intersecting state routes or triggered only when the city engineer requires…