4.a 2 Site Visit Guidelines redlineScandia Planning Commission
Site Visit Guidelines
Adopted May 3, 2011
Amended ____________, 2016
Overarching Goal of Site Visits:
To ensure that Planning Commissioners, representative of the citizens of the cCity of Scandia and
acting as advisors to the Mayor and City Council, are as fully informed as possible before making
decisions regarding
1. Comprehensive Plan amendments
2. Ordinance amendments
3. Rezoning
4. Interim or Conditional Use Permits
5. Variances
6. Site Plan Reviews
7. Subdivisions, major and minor, including Open Space Conservation Subdivisions
and Planned Unit Developments
Purpose of Site Visits:
1. Gather information for issues pending before the Planning Commission, through
first-hand observation of the site, which includes topography, land cover, existing
structures, access, screening, and any other visual characteristic that may help the
Planning Commission’s evaluation of a land use application.
1.2. Subject to “Ex Parte Communication,” below, a site visit also gives a developer, real
property owner, or land use applicant the opportunity to present information and
answer questions regarding the site, any proposed changes, and the physical
relationship any changes may have to the surrounding area.
Procedures:
1. The Planning Commission Chair will determine which site visits are needed and
notify the City Administrator by the Wednesday before the monthly Planning
Commission meeting.
2. The City Administrator will post site(s) to be visited three days before the scheduled
visits – the Thursday before the monthly Planning Commission meeting during CST
and the Friday before during DST.
3. Scheduled visits will normally be the day of the monthly Planning Commission
meeting during Daylight Savings Time (Tuesday at 5:30 p.m.) or the Sunday before
the monthly Planning Commission meeting during Standard Time, the time of day to
be determined by the Chair and posted accordingly by the City Administrator.
4. The date and time of the site visit meeting may be changed by the Chair if 3 days
posted notice and written notice to Commission members are given, as well as
adequate posting being made by the City Administrator, pursuant to the Minnesota
Open Meeting Law.
5. Planning Commission members will meet in the Community Center parking lot at the
time noted in the posting and then drive to the site(s).
6. Interested citizens may meet at the Community Center at that same time and drive
along with cCommissioners to site(s).
7. Owners/developers/applicants for a land use action related to the subject real property
are invited to meet at the site(s).
8. Commissioners may individually visit the site(s) without public posting.
Follow-up:
1. Site visits conducted will be noted and summarized at the subsequent Planning
Commission meeting.
Ex Parte Communication:
1. As noted above, all Planning Commission site visits are subject to the Open
Meeting Law. Site visits are not televised or recorded. Therefore, Planning Commission
members must take extra steps that they are not engaging in ex parte communication with any
third parties.
2. “Ex Parte Communication,” for purposes of this Policy, means any type of
communication, verbal or written, between one or more Planning Commissioners, City Council
members, or City officials (the “City Parties”), and any third party, whether it be an owner,
developer, or applicant related to real property that is the subject of the site visit, a City resident,
or a non-resident (the “Private Parties”), that tends to discuss the items listed in Section 3 below.
City Parties and Private Parties may engage in general discussion regarding the site, as long as all
parties have an opportunity to participate.
3. No City Party may discuss the following items with any Private Party during a
site visit:
(a) granting or denying privileges, rights or benefits to a particular party;
(b) interpreting, applying, or enforcing rules or laws;
(c) purporting to issue, suspend, or revoke applications or permits on behalf
of the City;
(d) determining rights and interests of any party;
(e) evaluating and passing on facts as they apply to existing laws or rules;
(f) purporting to order or abate any action on behalf of the City;
(g) purporting to take a particular position or make a specific determination
on behalf of the City, before any process has begun under the City’s code and other related
regulations; and
(h) any other action that is reasonably intended to bind a City process, or is
undertaken to the detriment of the Minnesota Open Meeting Law.
1. 4. The intent of this section is to prevent Planning Commissioners and other City
Parties to communicate outside the setting of a duly called public hearing on any issue of fact or
law regarding any matter that may yet come before the Planning Commission, for further
recommendation to the City Council. If a Planning Commissioner or other City Party receives a
verbal or written communication, such communication shall be summarized (in the case of a
verbal statement) or reproduced (in the case of a written statement) to the remainder of the
Planning Commission and City staff.
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