Irked Planning Director Wants Group Dissolved

Planning Department Director Michael R. Prochaska, irked at a resolution adopted by the Design Review Board Working 'LOHl Mille concerning the Briarwood Shopping center, is recommending that the committee be dissolved as presently constituted. The Design Review Board Working Committee was established to prepare standards and objectives for a proposed Design Review Board. Monday night the working committee passed out to City Council members a memo urging the council to adopt a resolution "stating that the granting of zoning for the parcel of land should not, in any way, '"irPv aj;rp"tanrp of the proposejlÊiglopjjient in its present form." In a report to the Planning Commission this week Prochaska said, "Aside from the procedural questions and the much discussed limited responsibility of the Design Review Working Committee, I must formally object to this circumvention by a working committee that was established to help and serve the Planning Commission." He said the working committee was conceived "in good faith to help resolve the concerns that this Planning Commission had over design ... We did not expect the boarLwould become an alternative tothe plañmfiTTStaff, nor did wc assign the prospective board the task of analyzing land use or zoning. "The present direction of this working committee is not acceptable to me in either its performance over the past few months or its obvious disregard for commission direction. Moreover, I do not f eel thaTTrley are functioning as a cooperative extensión of the commission, but that they are operating contrary to your interests," Prochaska said. "Therefore, I propose that íhe working committee be dissolved as it is presently constituted and that the Planning Commission reconsider the concept of design review in a working session," he said. A motion to accept this recommendation was made but because of the lateness of the hour there was little discussion and the item was tabled for two . weeks.