On January 19, 2010, the Common Council approved a resolution creating the Mayoral Ad Hoc Development Process Review Committee to investigate and provide recommendations on more efficient and expedient means of land use proposal reviews. In preparation for the first meeting, Mayor Tom Taylor, on February 18th, issued a press release announcing a series of actions taken to immediately improve the efficiency and expediency of the review process. His administrative directives included establishing a multi-department Development Review team to provide developers more timely and comprehensive staff input on their development concepts and reducing the initial staff review period from up to four weeks to generally only two weeks.
The Mayoral Ad Hoc Development Process Review Committee is comprised of the Mayor, an Alderman, three developers, a Plan Commissioner, an Economic Development Commission member, and an Environmental Commission member. City staff serves as ex-officio, non-voting members of the Committee. The Committee took quick action meeting twice in February. At their second meeting, the Committee adopted a series of ten recommendations that could be implemented to improve the development review process and ultimately improve the City's reputation as business friendly. The ten recommendations focus on streamlining the review process, adjusting the timeline for submission of certain information, and adjusting administrative authorities to correspond with a new streamlined process. The recommendations were reported to the Common Council on March 2nd, and will be brought back to them for discussion and action at a future meeting.
The Mayoral Ad Hoc Development Process Review Committee will continue its work when it resumes meeting in March.