PC 061108 - Laserfiche WebLink

substantial conformance. He offered to go through those issues one at a time, if the Commission so desired. He noted that staff knows this determination does not sit well with the neighborhood and that staff tried to be objective and provide the best professional judgment on the question before the Commission. Mr. Dolan stated that he spoke with Commissioner Narum this morning, and it was suggested that there might be at least one other alternative to staff's recommendation in the staff report. He described that alternative as one in which there is still some room for negotiation to come up with a project that Sunrise Senior Living would like to build and that would be acceptable to the neighborhood. He noted that he had sent out a memo to the Commission to that end. He indicated that he did have an opportunity to discuss this alternative with the applicant's representatives and at least one of the more active neighbors. He added that it would be relatively easy to determine whether or not the applicant would support this alternative since there is only one person on that side; however, there is obviously no way to determine whether or not there is any support for it from the neighborhood by speaking to only one neighbor. Mr. Dolan then summarized the content in the memo. He noted that it would essentially involve the approval of the Zoning Administrator's finding of substantial conformance, with the appeal period to the City Council being extended so that staff could undertake a mediation process between the two parties. He noted that the extension of that appeal period would preserve the neighbors' right to appeal to the City Council if the mediation proved to be not successful. He presented the details of the process in terms of how the mediation would be handled: • the mediation would have a fixed time period of 90 days plus a 15-day period at the end to allow the neighbors time to put an appeal together if the process were not successful. the City would select the mediator and that Sunrise Senior Living would fund the process. • he would attend the mediation meetings but not as a party. • the number of participants should be limited to four persons on each side. • the participants from the neighborhood would agree not to oppose the determination of significant conformance if, in fact, an agreement was reached for a smaller project. Mr. Dolan stated that this last item was a concern because Sunrise originally proposed a smaller project which met with resistance from the neighborhood; as a result, the applicant went back to the safer ground of the original approval, which was even less popular in the neighborhood. Chair Blank inquired whether the Commission had the right to waive the initial appeal period of 15 days and to allow a longer period. Commissioner Fox inquired if the Planning Commission found it was not in conformance with the original approval, whether mediation could still take place PLANNING COMMISSION MINUTES June 11, 2008 Page 6 of 28