Special Board of Aldermen 05-17-2021 Page 2
President Wilshire
As is usual and customary this being a public hearing of the Budget Committee, | will turn over the public
hearing to the Chair of the Budget Review Committee Alderman Dowd.
Chairman Dowd
Thank you. Tonight we have a public hearing on R-21-134 relative to the supplemental appropriation of
$30,000 of unanticipated revenue into Department #160 Public Works Administration & Engineering. Who
is here from the City to explain that? Director Marchant.
Sarah Marchant, Director of Community Development
Good evening. Thank you everyone. | do know that City Engineer Dan Hudson is here as well but even
though this is four engineering funding, | would like to speak first. These funds are largely to help with
private development review that the city undergoes as part of the Land Use Board process, mainly
Planning Board, sometimes some of the other boards as well and the good news is that we have a lot going
on and we have for quite a while. We are sustained a significantly higher number of applications coming in
this spring and there is no end in sight. While our Engineering Department is doing everything they can to
keep up, we are falling further behind pushing applicants further and further out from when they can have
their turn in front of the Planning Board to get plans approved.
In addition, we have some complicated plans that are coming through that require a lot of time and effort
and so because of this and in an effort to try to be a bit proactive before we are utterly drowning, | am
before you to ask for some appropriations of funding into this account for Public Works which they have an
in place contract with HTA to be able to sub out some of the smaller work for Planning Board review which
is anormal practice and enabled by State law so that we can keep ahead of applications and make sure
that we keep our development pipeline open and on track to make sure people can build when they need
to. We have tough winter season deadlines and we also then benefit from the increased tax value to the
city as these projects move forward. Significantly more than the dollars that we’re asking to be entered in
this fund. That is a quick summary. I’m happy to answer questions.
| can give you a very quick average. We normally look at between 6 and 8 applications coming through at
one time in the past couple of years. We are currently been averaging over 10 and as high as 21. We
have 17 in the pipeline right now active. If you have tried to have an application get through recently, you'll
know that the timelines are being pushed out a bit and we can’t even get through the Planning Board
agendas fully. We are working very hard to keep everybody moving but we do need a little bit of help
before it gets significantly backed up. I’m happy to answer questions.
Chairman Dowd
Alderman Tencza
Alderman Tencza
Thank you Mr. Chairman. Director Marchant thank you for bringing this to us. Is there anything else we
can be doing to help streamline the process so that — | know in the recent past we have changed the
ordinance so that people don’t necessarily have to go back to your office or in front of the Planning Board
for approvals of things. Is this a long-term problem that we should be looking kind of more broadly at than
just trying to push people through the process more quickly?
Sarah Marchant, Community Development Director
| think that’s a great question. There are two parts to that. Yes there are certainly the changes that we’ve
made to allow for administrative review and approval to not force somebody into the Planning Board
