Comp plan changes may be pricey

HAYDEN — Making changes to the city of Hayden’s comprehensive plan now could come at a high price.

The city’s planning and zoning commission, at the request of the Hayden City Council, reviewed the comprehensive plan. Possible amendments were discussed Monday during a Planning and Zoning Commission workshop.

“If we get to a point with city council where we have new goals and policies, there’s a third layer to the onion, which are all the actions that are supposed to be done in response to this,” said Alan Davis, commission chair and the city’s mayor-elect. “And we would have to tackle those in the future.”

When the comprehensive plan was written three years ago, it cost the city roughly $450,000, which included the price of a consultant. State and federal code requires that the plan be updated every five years, so a midway revamp could incur major costs before the required plan review in two years.

Possible changes being considered for the plan now would streamline its goals from 19 to eight and simplify correlating policies. 

If the city council approves even some of those changes, it could have a significant impact on other city planning instruments and possibly city code. 

“Your goals and policies drive your future land use map,” Community Development Director Donna Phillips said. “Your goals and policies also drive your chapters. Depending on how significantly you change your goals and policies that can have domino effects to the rest of the plan. Depending on how these goals and policies change the future land use map … that can change the city master plan.” 

Changes in the goals could also require a rewrite of code to ensure city code reflects the city’s goals, and the code changes can have significant changes to the infrastructure requirements in the city, over time, which would likely require a consultant. 

“You're not doing all that right now. You're trying to do it yourself,” City Attorney Fonda Jovick said. “You may end up in a place where so many changes have been suggested that we say, ‘You need to run this. You need to hire a consultant. We don’t have the manpower nor do we have the expertise to figure out every check and balance of what’s being changed by adjusting this goal and policy.’”

The checks and balances were legally reviewed when the plan was originally created to ensure each policy or goal was fair for all parties, like developers, residential property owners, or people who live and work in the city. 

“Ultimately we could come back in January and say we like the comprehensive plan just the way it is,” Davis said. “I think our goal is to be prepared for the December workshop with City Council … and present a reasonably united (plan).” 

A joint workshop with the Planning and Zoning Commission and the City Council is planned, and will likely be Dec. 11 at 5 p.m. at Hayden City Hall.