Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Utilities Public Facilities topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Commission reviews utilities and city facilities master plan language; electrical-code limits noted
Summary
Staff presented draft Chapter 10 of the comprehensive plan incorporating the city facilities master plan and corrected a vendor name to 'WM'. Commissioners discussed limits of city authority over electrical code (handled by Labor and Industries) and suggested housing-element policy language to encourage coordination with utilities to reduce costs.
At the Nov. 12 Liberty Lake Planning Commission meeting, staff reviewed the draft utilities and public facilities chapter (Chapter 10) and noted a small but important edit: Waste Management Services has been updated to its trade name, WM, in the draft document.
The staff summary said the draft incorporates the city facilities master plan adopted by council and that the public works director reviewed the chapter. "Waste Management Services has changed their name to WM," staff said while reviewing the document.
Commissioner discussion focused on whether utilities standards and state electrical requirements are contributing to housing cost increases. One commissioner recounted experience working with utility standards to reduce housing costs and asked whether the plan could encourage utilities and developers to coordinate to lower costs. Staff replied that electrical plan review and code enforcement are handled by the state (Labor and Industries) and that the city does not review electrical plans, so a direct change to code enforcement would be out of the city's authority. Staff recommended capturing the policy objective in the housing element rather than the utilities chapter and asked staff to note that housing-element language should address coordination to reduce costs.
What's next: staff will include master-plan summary language and indicated the utilities and public facilities chapter will be refined further when the capital facilities plan is developed. Commissioners also agreed to address standards related to housing affordability in the housing element and flagged the need for more implementation detail in the capital facilities planning process.
No formal votes were taken on the content of the utilities chapter during the Nov. 12 meeting.
