Least Favourite Planning Subject (was yeech)

[Tom R]

yeech

What is your least favorite planning/zoning subject (not person) that you have to deal with?
Mine is Signs, hands down.

 

[Planderella]

When I worked for the city, I absolutely hated dealing with church waivers.

 

[Richmond Jake]

It's a toss-up between code enforcement and parcel legality determinations....design review can also be a pain in the postierer given it's subjective nature.

 

[Chet]

REDNECKS

 

[Big Easy King]

Evaluating subdivisions when I was with the city was the worst. I want to avoid subdivision development as much as possible.

 

[donk]

Variances for garages.

Does anyone really need a garage larger than 80.5 m2 (866 sq ft) (27x32 feet)?

 

[Gedunker]

It's a toss-up between:
Minutes. It's like having to virtually attend the meeting a second time.

Response letters. I have begun trying to figure out the reading comprehension skills of the applicant so I can be as direct as possible (but I still get the "I don't know what this means" look at least once a month).

Court appearances (almost always over zoning enforcement). Like cops, we ought to get court pay.

 

[biscuit]

Variances for garages.

Does anyone really need a garage larger than 80.5 m2 (866 sq ft) (27x32 feet)?

Well, from the way you talk about it, I imagine that a family of four in your parts would need the space to garage a couple of these.

 

[donk]

Well, from the way you talk about it, I imagine that a family of four in your parts would need the space to garage a couple of these.

Na, they leave 2-3 half built ones in the back yard so that everyone can enjoy them.

 

[mendelman]

I'm with Tom R. I do not like anything to do with signs.

Being here in auto-world urbanism, everyone's gotta have their signs big and plentiful.

 

[SGB]

1) Meeting minutes

2) Tracking & accounting low interest loan fund payments

 

[Zoning Goddess]

Variances and code rewrites.

 

[nerudite]

I agree with signs (writing the bylaws, issuing the permits, or enforcement... it all sucks). Second is anything relating to demographics and number crunching. Bleh.

 

[BKM]

Project Budget management.

Paperwork/formatting (I got chewed out yesterday by our veteran secretary for using the wrong format for a legal ad )

 

[Seabishop]

Anything to do with money.

Capital Improvement Program - No one takes it seriously.

I understand its importance but I don't like to get into environmental planning. I'm not an engineer, I don't understand what the chemical compounds do. I hope I never have to work in a well & septic system town. Urban brownfields are cool though.

 

[Repo Man]

Close tie between code violations and neighborhood planning.

I hate dealing with people who have this attitude of "its my property, I can do whatever I want on it" usually these are the same people that show up at meetings to protest the development of a new business in the city.

 

[JNA]

Another vote for
Signs

 

[ludes98]

I have a love hate relationship with variances. State law here makes it very hard to prove hardship, one of the requirements. In most every case, the applicant's application or action have caused the need for a variance. That is not justification for a variance contrary to previous clients' beliefs and the Boards of Adjustment that I have successfully been approved at. If I were on the other side I think I would recommend denial of every application for a variance I have ever worked on or seen at hearings.

 

[otterpop]

The transmittal memo of the Planning Board hearing for a major subdivision, which goes to the County Commissioners. It is bad enough to have to sit through that hearing when it happens, but to have to go through the tape of the hearing and record what was said and what happened is mind-numbingly tedious.

 

[Dan]

I agree with the legals and public notification.

Yeah, we all get slammed for not uing the proper format in a published legal notice. "Show me the law where it says it absolutely must use this arcane legalese instead of plain English, and that it must be laid out exactly in a certain way", I say. Usually, no such law exists.