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JUN 61994 BOOK 5 7 FA, -UE •312 At present, the site plan process takes approximately eight weeks on the average from submittal of a complete application to Planning and Zoning Commission approval of the project. The most time consuming portion of this process is the staff review. As for minor site plans, the current definition is that a minor site plan is any project which does not require drainage review as provided in ordinance 82-28; which does not involve permanent structures exceeding twenty-five hundred (2500) square feet in size; which does not involve additibns to existing structures which would increase the size of the existing structure by more than ten (10) percent or by 2500 square feet; and which does not involve adding impervious structures such as driveways and parking areas which would increase the existing impervious area by more than fifteen percent or twenty parking spaces. ALTERNATIVES AND ANALYSIS: Recently, the staff met with the Chairman of the Board of County Commissioners and the Chairman of the Planning and Zoning Commission to address these issues. At that meeting, agreement was reached regarding proposed changes to the process. These proposed changes were presented to the Planning and Zoning Commission at its meeting of May 24, 1984. At that time, the Planning and Zoning Commission voted 4 - 0 to endorse the proposed changes and to recommend these changes to the Board of County Commissioners for approval. The principal change proposed for the site plan review process is the establishment of a technical review committee. Composed of staff representatives from the various County reviewing departments and the Chairman of the Planning and Zoning Commission, this committee would meet on a weekly basis and dictate comments for site plans under review; the discrepancy letter for a project would be written at the meeting. Each department would have had the opportunity to review the plan for at least a week prior to the meeting. This contrasts with the present system where each department separately reviews a plan and provides its comments to the Planning Department which reviews the plan last, drafts the discrepancy letter, and transmits it to the applicant. The objective of establishing the technical review committee is to reduce the review time of site plans from approximately four weeks at present to two weeks or less. Along with that change, it is proposed that minor site plan approval become an administrative function. According to this recommenda- tion, minor site plans would be reviewed by the technical review committee. When all comments or discrepancies are satisfied, the plan' would then be approved administratively and signed by the Chairman of the Planning and Zoning Commis- sion instead of -being submitted to the Planning and Zoning Commission for approval at a regular meeting. Finally, it is recommended that the definition of minor site plan be modified. It is suggested that all non-residential projects involving less than 5,000 square feet of new imper- vious surface area be considered as minor site plans. For residential projects, however, it is recommended that proj- ects consisting of a single building having four or fewer units be designated as a minor site plan; this would replace the existing criteria for determining minor site plans. All residential projects with more than one building or having only a single building with more than four units would still be considered major site plans. 50