CITY OF EL DORADO, KANSAS COMPREHENSIVE PLAN
CHAPTER ONE - PLANNING PRINCIPLES
Planning Principles and Objectives
Functions and Duties of the Planning Commission
Functions and Duties of the Governing Body
Functions and Duties of the Board of Zoning Appeals
Enforcement and Implementation of the Zoning Regulations
How are Zoning Decisions Made?
PLANNING PRINCIPLES AND OBJECTIVES
As the El Dorado Planning Commission works to adopt a new comprehensive plan, several principles will guide your work. Planning is a means of preparing for the future. It is a process of thinking ahead and considering all aspects of community needs in urban development. It provides public policy to shape the physical growth and development of the community in response to social and economic needs.
The objective of planning is to provide a framework for guiding the community toward orderly growth and development by relating, balancing, and harmonizing the physical, social, economic, and aesthetic features of the community as it responds to private sector initiatives.
Planned growth will make the community more efficient and pleasant, improve the business climate, promote attractive housing, and a reasonable tax base. Such developments tend to help attract new industry, new business, and retain young people. Unplanned growth can lead to inefficient land use, congested traffic, and substandard housing. Such problems tend to detract from investments in industry, business and housing.
The Comprehensive Plan for the City of El Dorado establishes community-wide goals and serves as the basis for making zoning decisions. No zoning laws or plan, however, can provide for the general public good and at the same time accommodate all individual interests. While there must be a proper balance between the public good and individual interests, what is best for the community as a whole must prevail. Zoning amendments that are based on benefits to individuals, while becoming detriments to the community as a whole, have usually been declared invalid by the courts.
Responsibility for keeping the community on a well-planned and farsighted program of development and improvement rests with the El Dorado Planning Commission. It is the Planning Commission that is charged with making studies of present conditions and drawing up plans for development. The Planning Commission acts as chief advisor to the City of El Dorado Board of Commissioners regarding planning and zoning.
The Planning Commission is an appointed body representing various community interests. It serves in an advisory capacity to the Governing Body concerning planning and development matters.
The Planning Commission coordinates many interests of the community, serves as a forum for new ideas, provides liaison between the city and county on planning issues, and assists the local government in guiding the implementation of planning proposals. The Planning Commission can be a creative body of a community that proposes alternatives and new concepts.
Functions and Duties of the Planning Commission
By State of Kansas statutes, the first duty of a planning commission is to adopt bylaws for the conduct of business in an open and fair manner. The state laws authorize a planning commission to prepare and adopt a comprehensive plan for the development of the city and any unincorporated territory lying outside of the city which, in the opinion of the Commission, forms the "total community" of which the city is part. Before adopting or amending the plan, the planning commission must hold a public hearing.
Under K.S.A 12-741 through 12-768, the city has the responsibility of providing for the manner in which zoning regulations are determined, enforced and amended from time to time. Under the Zoning Regulations, the El Dorado city Planning Commission's first duty is to hold a public hearing where public opinion can be expressed regarding a proposed rezoning. In this sense, the Planning Commission is a sounding board for community attitudes toward development. It is important for the Planning Commission to establish the facts surrounding each development issue as clearly as possible before adopting a recommendation to the Governing Body regarding rezoning.
Under the subdivision regulations, the Planning Commission has responsibility for approving or disapproving both preliminary and final plats. A city may adopt and enforce subdivision regulations only after adopting and approving a comprehensive plan. Guidelines to carry out this responsibility are provided by the design standards set out in the regulations.
Functions and Duties of the Governing Body
The Governing Body has responsibility for approving the Comprehensive Plan and enacting and amending the zoning and subdivision regulations after considering the recommendations of the Planning Commission. This responsibility includes amending the zoning regulations or the zoning district map, but does not include approving subdivision plats. The role of the Governing Body in the subdivision process is limited to accepting or rejecting dedications of easements, rights-of-way and the public lands, approving financial guarantees or financing mechanisms to ensure construction of all public improvements, and approving engineering drawings. As with other "police powers", the exercise of zoning and subdivision regulations is subject to certain legal limitations. One of the most important of these limitations requires that zoning and subdivision regulations cannot be applied in an "arbitrary or capricious" manner. Decisions regarding zoning and subdivision issues cannot be fixed or arrived at through an exercise of will or by caprice, without consideration or adjustment with reference to principles, circumstances, or significance.
Functions and Duties of the Board of Zoning Appeals
The Board of Zoning Appeals is primarily a quasi-judicial body rather than an advisory or legislative one. Its role in zoning administration is specifically limited to two types of tasks:
1. The appeal of an administrative decision or interpretation; and
2. The granting of variances for cases of hardship.
In the first case, the responsibility of the Board of Zoning Appeals is to rule to the interpretation of the zoning regulations whenever there is an ambiguous provision or an alleged error. Variances are granted for unusual physical constraints, and the role of the Board of Zoning Appeals is to determine if a variance should be granted in a manner which is consistent with the intent of the zoning regulations and fair to the applicants. The Board of Zoning Appeals is not involved in administering the subdivision regulations.
Enforcement and Implementation of the Zoning Regulations
The Governing Body, the Planning Commission, the Board of Zoning Appeals and the Zoning Administrator all have a role in the implementation of the zoning regulations.
The Zoning Administrator is responsible for enforcing the regulations as they are written. Frequently regulations require interpretation by the Administrator because they can not cover every occurrence. All interpretations should be in writing so that there are no misunderstandings. Neither the Zoning Administrator, the Planning Commission nor the city Commission has the authority to waive or vary the regulations. The Board of Zoning Appeals is the proper Board to consider variances from the regulations; except that in no case should a use variance be considered. If a regulation consistently presents problems, it should be amended, and amendments are the responsibility of the Planning Commission and the Governing Body.
How are Zoning Decisions Made?
Before making any recommendation or decision on a zoning request, the Planning Commission must first hold a public hearing. The purpose of the hearing is to allow both sides to express their views on the issue and to discuss all relevant factors. It is a valuable mechanism for gauging the community's attitudes toward development and for establishing the facts of each case. Zoning decisions must be based on the best interests of the entire community, and not just the interests of a particular property owner or neighboring property owners. In addition, the Planning Commission should try to distinguish between facts and opinions at a public hearing. Unsubstantiated assertions ("This project would reduce the value of my property by 75 percent") or generalizations. Statements of opinion ("People who live in apartments always drive fast cars and race up and down the streets") should be analyzed for their validity. Even "expert witnesses" should be pressed to give as factual a basis as possible for their judgments.
Zoning decisions should include consideration of long-range community goals as well as short-range needs. The recommendations of the Comprehensive Plan should be the primary source for this information. Because of its importance in the zoning process, the Comprehensive Plan should be reviewed on a regular basis and amended as necessary to ensure that it remains current.
Finally, it is important to zone for land, not people. An error frequently made is approval of a rezoning to accommodate an applicant's personal circumstances without consideration of land use conditions and characteristics. Such rezoning are rarely in the public interest and, if challenged, can be held to be invalid. Instead, rezoning decisions must be based on standards that are adopted as part of the city zoning regulations. The following land use factors are recommended as standards to consider when evaluating a rezoning request.
Under the state law in effect January 1, 1992, any zoning amendment in accordance with the land use element of a comprehensive plan should be "presumed to be reasonable." It should also be pointed out that the entire class of uses which the zoning district permits should be considered rather than just the use the applicant proposes, since a change in ownership or in market conditions could easily result in a change of the proposed use.
The decision to approve or disapprove a preliminary or final plat should be based on technical standards that must be set out in written form. Standards for subdivision design are included in the subdivision regulations. Standards for engineering design and construction should be available from the City Engineer. There are other elements of "good subdivision design", however, that are not easily quantified or expressed in writing. These include aesthetics, compatibility with adjoining subdivisions, relationship to topographic conditions, efficiency of the utility layout, and general suitability of the lot and block design to the intended use of the land. These issues will have to be resolved in the best judgment of the Planning Commission after consideration of the plans of the subdivider.
In reviewing a subdivision plat, there are two distinct sets of interests to be considered: the interests of the property owner or owners, and the city-at-large. Initially the subdivider is the property owner, but eventually lots in the subdivision are likely to be sold to a variety of people. The property owner(s) needs a subdivision design that can be developed easily and economically. This means an efficient street and utility layout, and lots which have the appropriate size, shape and topography to develop and maintain for their intended use. The broader community needs a subdivision design that blends well with the development pattern of the city, and that will not be a financial drain on local government. This means that the subdivider must adhere to appropriate standards for design and construction, and give adequate financial guarantees to ensure that all public improvements are installed.
The City of El Dorado city Commission is the legislative and policy making authority of the community and performs the following functions:
The Board of Zoning Appeals is the quasi-judicial body that performs two functions.
Planning is a process through which a community evolves. Development techniques and community attitudes are continually changing and the Plan must establish an evaluation process to consider new ideas and new concepts or the Plan becomes unworkable and, therefore, unusable.
The planning process provides the means for understanding existing conditions and accepted planning principles. It then permits an evaluation of these conditions with respect to the attitudes of the community (goals and objectives), the need for support facilities and long-range growth patterns. As each item of change is considered in the city, it should be carried through this process and the following questions asked:
As individual decisions are made, existing conditions change which may necessitate changes to goals, objectives and policies. The Plan must reflect these changes so that it is current and can be utilized to evaluate future proposals for change. Step by step, the city continues to grow in an efficient manner and the Comprehensive Plan remains a dynamic tool to guide this growth.