County Rejects Joint Planning Commission

DAYTON - The Colum- bia County Commissioners last week voted unanimously to reject a plan to create a joint planning commission that would serve both Co- lumbia County and the City of Dayton.

A tentative agreement to combine the commissions was worked out last month between Commis- sioner Mike Talbott and City Council member Arthur Hall, who is chair of the council's planning committee.

The Planning commission is an advisory board that makes recommendations to the city council or county commissioners, depending on jurisdiction, on planning and development issues. Currently the city and county each have their own planning commission.

According to Talbott, the decision not to proceed with combining boards was made based on the recommenda- tion of the county's new plan- ning director, Kim Lyonnais.

"Our new director said he felt his workload would necessitate the full attention of a planning commission to county business only for at least the next year," Talbott said.

Talbott also said that Ly- onnais informed the commission that potential permitting of new wind projects in the county in the coming year could take up considerable planning commission time.

Lyonnais was hired by the county in March to replace retiring planning director Richard Hendricksen. He started May 1. In October, Dayton hired Lyonnais as part-time planning director. He recently resigned that job to take the county position.

In March, the city and county had reached a tentative agreement to form a joint planning office. In an interview at the time, Lyon- nais told The Times the plan called for him, as county planning director, to be the lead planner in the joint office, with a new planner, hired by the city, to join him and work under his direc- tion. That plan also called for creation of the joint planning commission, which Lyon- nais indicated at the time he endorsed.

However, in late April, the Dayton City Council made the decision not to proceed with combining planning offices. The council voted 5-1 to hire a full time planner who would work only for the city, and whose office would be in city hall. City officials indicated they intended to proceed with the joint planning commission however. But the vote by the county to cancel the joint planning commission came a week after the city's vote to nix the joint planning office.

Talbott said that the coun- ty's planning commission has two openings on the seven-member board, includ- ing one since the beginning of the year. He said that two other members have indi- cated they'd like to get off the commission. He also said that he and the other county commissioners are looking into the possibility of reducing the number of seats on the planning commission from seven to five.

According to Dayton Mayor Craig George, the city's planning commission currently has only three members and is not functioning. Planning issues are simply reviewed by the city council.

George says the city coun- cil will have to make a deci- sion soon on whether the city will restart its planning commission.