The new comprehensive plan — or Complan — will follow the same
format of the 1981 plan for Littleton, highlighting goals, policies
and neighborhood plans.
The decision came at a joint study session between city council
and planning commission Aug. 12, with councilmembers Jim Taylor,
Jose Trujillo and John Ostermiller opposing. The planning
commission called the meeting to receive direction from council as
to how the Complan should be developed.
The Complan has been a matter of contention for some time. In
2006 the planning commission at that time was tasked with updating
the document, which determines zoning and land use for the city.
With the aid of a citizen advisory committee, they presented what
was called a 2030 plan, detailing visions for the future of the
city. However, council rejected this document in 2007.
Starting over, the planning commission seems concerned about
clarifying details, so the same results don’t happen.
“We want to make sure that before we go too far along in the
process — when we’ve already seen a process that went too far along
and then went astray from what council had intended — that we are
on the right track, before we go out there and before we start
taking steps that are going to be expensive and time consuming, and
then have you look at us and say, ‘What are you folks doing? This
is not at all what we meant,’” said Commissioner Pavlo
Stavropoulos.
Ostermiller said it was not the place for council to give
direction.
“City council has made the planning commission responsible for
the preparation of the comprehensive plan. All city council does is
ratify it,” he said. “I sat on planning commission for 20 years and
only once did city council say what they wanted. We should not be
telling them how to do something we’ve given them the
responsibility to do.”
Councilmember Debbie Brinkman also said planning commission
should seek input outside of meetings, identify stakeholders in
each community and ask them what they want.
“It’s going to be easier to make decisions once you hear what
the community thinks,” she said.
“It seems to me that what you guys are doing is spending a lot
of time talking amongst yourselves about what you want. It’s not
moving forward at all, and I think it could be.”
While the nine planning commission members seemed to agree that
community input is a valuable part of the process, Commissioner
Julio Iturreria pointed out it’s also a time-consuming and costly
endeavor. Before putting in the investment, he wanted to make sure
everything was on the right track, especially given that several
commissioners were just appointed to their positions in April.
“Some of us who haven’t been around can’t go forward and say,
‘This is what the city council wants,’” Iturreria said. “We’re
really trying to get a better foundation so when we get the
go-ahead, we can go.”
In the end, the basic format desired by the majority of council
was determined, although Brinkman stressed that she did not want to
give any instructions on content.
“It will evolve as they do the process,” she said.
For now, planning commission will begin their outreach with the
downtown neighborhood.
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