The City of Suffolk has recently implemented a new process for significant land use projects. The planning department now uses the threshold of the 100s (100+ homes, 100,000+ sq. ft. for commercial uses, or 100 acres) to determine if an application will require additional time.
This new process, for any rezoning application or conditional use permit that meets one of these threshold, or if it is deemed significant by the Planning Director, allows extra time for both the Planning Commission and the City Council to review these significant land use applications. It adds an additional 30 days above the previous requirements. Prior to implementing this new process, whether a request was for in-home daycare permit or a enormous warehouse, the same amount of time to was given to both. Often, the first time the Planning Commissioners would be seeing the plans would be just a few days before they were expected to vote on it. The new process gives both voting bodies a longer chance to look at the plans and analyze the request. This is a very positive change and CARE4Suffolk is excited to see it in action.
Additionally, the city is now providing citizens all the information on each rezoning and conditional use public hearing item. This is a plus for both the public and the planning department. Previously, when you saw a blue sign, you had to call the city to find out what is going on. This was time consuming for both the city employees and residents. Now, with a click of a button, you view and download all the available information. CARE4Suffolk applauds the efforts of the city to make the process more transparent and accessible to the public.
Note: The link to the city’s site with the rezoning and conditional use/public hearing items is now available on our main menu under Rezoning Concerns.