At its August 23 meeting, the City-County Council passed an amended version of Proposal 380, 2004. This Ordinance will establish the Township level Advisory committees to review the Comprehensive Plan, prior to adoption by the Metropolitan Development Commission.

State Law since 1995 has required this action of the Council, but the issue was not even taken up until recently. The original proposal as introduced by Councilors Bob Cockrum did not survive. Instead, at the August 9 Metropolitan Development committee hearing, a proposal drafted by Mike Peoni and Maury Plambeck of the Department of Metropolitan Development was adopted. Earlier, Councilor Cockrum had agreed to some changes in his original proposal to accommodate concerns of McANA. Likewise, DMD staff also agreed to changes in their proposal, again to accommodate the concerns McANA has that regular neighborhood people be well represented on the Advisory committees.

Unfortunately, Councilor Steve Talley, Chairman of the Metropolitan Development committee nixed the McANA input. The committee voted 6-0 do pass.

What did ultimately pass the full Council was opposed by 5 Councilors. The minutes for the past Council meeting are not yet posted. Next month Common Ground will list those 5 names.

As it stands, there will be seven members on each Advisory Committee, all of whom must reside in the Township. One appointment each goes to the Mayor, the MDC, and the City-County Council. The Township Board will make 4 appointments, one of whom must be a Board member, two must be members of a Registered Neighborhood Association, and one must be a business owner. No responsibilities or authorities were described.

McANA had sought to increase the number of committee members so as to increase the chances that it would not be entirely composed of elected officials. We also recommended that Neighborhood Associations recommend names of people who have been involved with the Comprehensive plan to date.