Planning commissions are an integral part of any city government. Their goals include creating and implementing comprehensive plans that guide how land should be utilized, zoning regulations, and the development of infrastructure. Planning commissions comprise multiple members, who are called planning commissioners. They participate in planning commission meetings to ensure the commission stays on track to serve their city’s development and growth.
What is a Planning Commissioner?
Planning commissioners are members of the planning committee. Most planning commissioners have some background in engineering, infrastructure development, zoning, or transportation. Planning commissioners can be elected or appointed by the city council.
Planning Commissioner Roles and Responsibilities
Planning commissioner roles and responsibilities fall into the following categories:
1. Subdivision and Land Management
Land subdivision generally entails cutting up a vast tract of property into smaller sections for various uses. A planning commissioner must map out roads, conservation easements, and setbacks before subdivision. They ensure that these tracts of land are unharmed and that any planned city growth developments occur within the subdivided lands.
Often, subdivision plans are a source of increased revenue for the city and add more land value. For instance, planning commissioners can approve subdivision plans for city housing, provided there is an immediate need to develop new real estate. If approved, the real estate built could attract more residents who would pay property taxes to the city, thereby generating more revenue.
2. Sewage Facilities
Planning commissioners are tasked with assessing and approving sewage treatment facility plans and the related facility planning areas. Each wastewater facility plan specifies the designated management agencies (DMAs) responsible for managing the wastewater in each facility planning area. DMAs frequently included the principal wastewater treatment facility’s owner, health districts overseeing on-site septic systems, and occasionally counties that run packaging plants.
Planning commissioners must ensure that every DMA has the proper facilities, equipment, and procedure for handling sewage and wastewater. They have to ensure that they comply with local and state wastewater treatment laws.
3. Floodplain Management
Planning commissioners also manage floodplains in areas with many caverns, sinkholes, springs, and subterranean streams. Periodic flooding in these regions can cause the loss of property and lives, risks to health and safety, disruption of business and governmental operations, unexpected municipal expenditures for flood mitigation and prevention, and damage to the tax base.
Planning commissioners have to ensure adequate response plans, including shelters and relief for the citizens living in these areas. They assess, approve, and consult on plans to respond to flooding events. This includes ensuring emergency personnel have lifesaving equipment like life jackets, ensuring shelters are accessible and away from any hazards of the flood pathway, and ensuring adequate communication measures to warn or respond to flooding events.
4. Stormwater Management
Sewage and contaminants can enter the water easily whenever a storm occurs. It’s safe to assume that stormwater runoff is among a city’s most important environmental problems. That’s why many planning commissions include stormwater management discussion in their planning commission agenda.
Planning commissioners will evaluate, develop, and consult on stormwater management plans to safeguard the environment, lessen flooding to protect people and property, lessen the load on public stormwater drainage infrastructure, reinforce healthy waterways, and build healthier, environmentally conscious communities.
5. Community Development
Planning commissioners are responsible for a wide range of community development initiatives, from economic growth, urban planning, and transport initiatives to heritage preservation, green space preservation projects, and community improvement initiatives. Additionally, they research significant problems and opportunities for long-term planning in the city and create plans and strategies to address those concerns. Planning commissioners also help to draft a city’s future capital growth strategies.
Traits of an Effective Planning Commissioner
Planning commissioners play an integral part in a city’s future trajectory. As such, they must exhibit certain qualities in their work to achieve the best results. They include:
- Patience: An effective planning commissioner thinks beyond short-term gains and focuses on the long-term development and sustainability of the community.
- Passion: As public servants, planning commissioners must have a genuine dedication to improving the community.
- Analytical: Planning commissioners must be able to assess complex issues, weigh different perspectives, and anticipate the potential consequences of their decisions.
- Adaptable: Effective planning commissioners need to stay up to date on the latest trends, technologies, and best practices in urban development and land use.
Getting Started With eScribe
As a planning commissioner, you can significantly contribute to the planning process by sharing your expert knowledge on proposals before the planning board and various city departments. And with eScribe, you can simplify meetings and reduce administrative workloads while opening new channels for citizen engagement and transparency.
eScribe’s features include:
- Meeting Manager: Create, share, edit, and contribute to meeting content without printing or chasing people down.
- Meeting Minutes: Simplifies the process of accurately recording meeting minutes, lowering the chance of errors and guaranteeing that all critical topics are addressed.
- Workflows and Reporting: Makes it simple to handle reports and permits, track updates, monitor deadlines, and save time.
- Collaboration Tools: Streamlines collaboration and provides secure access for looking up and evaluating content, uploading meeting documents, and keeping track of notifications.
Check out the City of Greensboro case study to learn more about how eScribe’s capabilities boost planning commissioners’ effectiveness.
