The Design Review Commission (DRC), Coronado’s five-member board that oversees design elements in the community, will be consolidated into the Planning Commission in the near future, with up to seven seats for all the current commissioners if they choose to return to this newly merged group.
The Coronado City Council decided on April 1 that the new commission would welcome all seven members to return and as they get termed out, the commission would have a five-seat limit.
The current DRC has four members with one vacant seat and the Planning Commission has three members and two vacancies. They are supposed to have five members each, but according to the city, the vacancies could occur for various reasons, including relocations or personal reasons.
The city also had been contemplating consolidating the boards at a previous meeting and that could have led to not filling the empty seats.
Johanna Canlas, the city attorney, said that the Planning Commission is the only commission that is dictated by state law, and it is required to have at least five members.
According to the Department of Community Development, the DRC members are appointed by the City Council and their goal is to incorporate good design, colors, and landscaping into the community while protecting the health and comfort of the residents.
The Planning Commission is also appointed by the City Council to take action on planning applications such as different permits, variances and subdivision maps; and to implement the adopted General Plan of the City of Coronado.
Starting at seven seats would leave the potential for the commission to have to go through a period where there would only be six members, which Mayor John Duncan said could be potentially problematic for voting decisions that result in a tie. But, Duncan said the council should let it stay at a six instead of removing a commissioner.
The city is also looking into having alternate seats to offset an evenly split vote and to ensure quorums.
A quorum is the minimum number of members that must be present for the meeting to proceed. Rebecca King, the current chair of the DRC, admitted that even though commissioners are supposed to meet twice a month, they’ve only had one meeting a month in the past year due to the lack of a quorum.
The DRC is composed of only four members at the moment, so if one commissioner can’t attend, they don’t have a quorum.
Having alternates would help solve this problem.
A combined entity is a more powerful commission, in my opinion.
“A combined entity is a more powerful commission, in my opinion,” Duncan said.
The motion included city staff drafting an ordinance incorporating the duties of the DRC into the Planning Commission, and keeping the previous guidelines for members of the commission.
Duncan said there would be a preference of a minimum of three people with a design background and professional experience, and one person who is a former or retired businessperson who owns or operates property of a commercial nature within the city.
It was important for the city to establish that the role of the businessperson would be filled by a former or retired individual because of conflicting commitments that would potentially cause the commission to not have a quorum.
All council members voted yes for the ordinance to return at a future council meeting. It has not officially gone into effect yet.
