(Spirit Lake)– The Dickinson County Planning and Zoning Commission may be about to get bigger again.
The current board was expanded from five to seven members several years ago when one member moved from the unincorporated area into a municipality. Iowa law requires a majority of the board to be from the unincorporated area. That threw the balance of the board off. Instead of asking the member to step down, the board of supervisors at the time opted to add two more members from the unincorporated area to the commission.
Tuesday, supervisor Mardi Allen told fellow supervisors she wants the P & Z increased to nine members, siting the rapid development taking place in the county. She denies it has anything to do with previous decisions made by the commission.
But a former supervisor who was at Tuesday’s meeting, June Goldman, called on the supervisors to study the integrity of the current Planning and Zoning Commission instead. Without naming names, Goldman told the board there’s a perception by many in the public that a current P & Z member may have a conflict of interest. The attendance record of that member at recent meetings was also called into question.
After further discussion, David Kohlhaase, the county’s Planning and Zoning Administrator, recommended the supervisors not take any immediate action to increase the size of the P & Z, siting some controversial issues the commission is about to take on. Kohlhaase says it could give the public the impression the supervisors are trying to stack the deck. He recommended they wait until December to take any action.
The supervisors will discuss the matter some more at their June 28th meeting.
