The Planning Commission Meeting

Cue the ominous music!

Let’s get to it.

In the last newsletter, we covered strategies for working with the neighbors surrounding your development. We left off with the formal submission of the Land Use application to the city planning department. I want to pick up from there because it’s important you have a sense of how these meetings work once your application is up for review.

I’m going to start with the caveat that every city is different. I’m a Minneapolis developer, so some of this is specific to Minneapolis. Having said that, most cities follow a somewhat similar process, and there are general strategies here that are applicable regardless of where you hope to build.

In Minneapolis, we’re shooting for planning commission approval. This is the big win. You submit your plans and get on the planning commission calendar because, just like neighborhood association meetings, your next meeting may be weeks, if not months out. Once you submit the plans, your assigned planner (who you met with multiple times, right??) writes what is called the “staff report.” That is sent to each member of the planning commission prior to your hearing.

Once you submit your plans, you'll be notified of the date of the meeting. When the day comes, you put on your “time-to-do-business” attire and head down to City Hall, where you and potentially many, many other folks file into the planning commission room.

This is the part of the process where your heart jumps into your throat, and butterflies thrash around wildly in your chest.

You’re sweating.

You’re rethinking all of your life choices.

Maybe you should have stayed in law school. Maybe you should have taken the cushy job at that large corporation. Because, !@#%#!, there’s a lot of money on the line here, and if you don’t get approved, you don’t have a project. And if you don’t have a project, all of that money you spent to get to this point vanishes into thin air. Remember what I said many newsletters ago. Developers are in the process of building, and they never want to be stuck with a piece of land where they can’t build. I mean, sure. You could drive to your site every evening and watch the sunset, but that’s what beaches are for.

As a side note: your first project is going to fundamentally change what you think is beautiful. I remember on my first project staring at freshly graded land and a row of adjacent porta-potties thinking “This. Is. Beautiful.”

Weird. I know.

But I’m talking about what progress looks like (not its smell :-)

Once you’re in the meeting, you’re at the whim of the commission’s agenda since they’ll have other projects and items before them. If you’re lucky, you’re first on the list. But that’s unlikely. What’s more likely is that you’re stuck behind some guy trying to build an ADU or an addition off his house that all his neighbors are mad about. At my first meeting, I was one slot behind a local school seeking approval to expand their campus after one of their buildings burned down. It was a long and complicated project and I sat there for three and a half hours sweating through my dress shirt (and pants, if I’m being honest) while I waited for them to review the details.

And then came the public comments portion of the project where I watched fifty-some people express their support for and mostly opposition to, the project.

It was brutal for that school.

And there was nothing they could do about it.

You just have to be patient.

When it’s your turn, the city’s planning staff member who worked with on your project will get up and give a presentation about your project, running through all of the details relevant to the commission.

The planning commission will then ask if the owner is present, and you’ll go up to the microphone and introduce yourself. You’ll smile. Be as charming and gracious as you can. You’ll let them know that your architect is also present to answer any questions they might have.

And then you’ll sit down.

Real short and sweet.

Then, the planning Commission talks about your project while you anxiously listen. (Much in the same way your in-laws talked about your future prospects “as a man” after you asked for their daughter’s hand in marriage.)

I’m kidding.

Commissioners vary in how they operate. Some want to articulate their support (or opposition) so that members of the public have better insight into how they reach their conclusions. Others are quiet and simply vote.

Once the commission is done asking questions and talking amongst themselves, they will open the matter up for public comment.

THIS is where, hopefully, you’ve done the hard work of engaging with neighbors during neighborhood meetings and given the most vocal opponents of your project time to work through their frustrations/opposition. Remember: loud, angry calls for your head at the neighborhood meeting?

Not a problem.

Those same calls at the planning commission meeting?

That’s a problem.

Sometimes the planning commission then will take some of the comments and questions and redirect them to the developer. So then you have to get back up and answer those questions. Honestly, I’ve always liked this opportunity because it gives me the chance to answer the question asked but also pivot back to my messaging on the benefits of the development for the community.

And in case you’re thinking that Sean never misses a beat, that it’s all smooth sailing, and I’ve intuited my way to all of the above “wisdom” (←definitely putting that in air quotes), you should know that I have completely and utterly put the car in the ditch before.

In fact, on my very first project, I did not do the kind of rigorous neighborhood engagement ahead of time that I’m urging you to do! I was green. I didn’t understand what I was doing. I went to the planning commission only to find A WHOLE BUNCH OF ANGRY neighbors there.

And they talked. And talked.

They vented all of their frustration with our project right in front of the planning commission.

And when the meeting was over, they followed us out into the hallway, cornered us, and yelled some more.

It was brutal.

But WE had screwed up, and I learned THAT lesson very quickly.

Conversely, on a later project, I spent three hours in an equally brutal neighborhood meeting sucking it up while people yelled and screamed (someone actually called me the devil). But after those same neighbors got it out of their system, only one of them showed up at the planning commission meeting, gave a handful of incoherent objections to the project, and the project was approved.

Now, if the planning commission approves your project and no one speaks against it, you are golden, and it’s time to take your team out to celebrate!

However, anyone who attends the meeting and speaks against it on the official record has the right to appeal your project and they are given 10 days to put that appeal in writing.

If this happens, your project is forwarded to the city council, which must approve or reject the appeal. This is where all of that thoughtful explaining and messaging comes in handy. Did you explain to him or her the benefits of your project for the neighborhood? Answer any follow-up questions they had?

My first project where neighbors yelled at us in the hallway? Thankfully, we’d done good work with our Council Person, and she was supportive when the appeal reached the city council.

Whew.

So, what’s the takeaway here?

You’ll definitely need good long-term planning as you build your developer skills. You need to have thick skin, patience, and a sense of humor when confronted with the irrational anger some folks will send your way.

But the one thing you DON’T need is a degree in rocket science….because…well…it’s not :-)

If I can do it, you can do it.

Read that again.

You can do it.

And I’m showing you how.

Peace,