Temple planning staff praises departing planner, cites APA award and UDC progress; staff will recommend denial of liquor CUP

At a workshop, the Temple Planning Commission received staff updates on personnel, planning work and an upcoming conditional-use permit that staff will recommend denying.

Planning staff told commissioners the assistant city manager will begin attending future meetings in an expanded role and that current cases and recent hires "are doing really great work," adding the department will continue moving forward despite the recent departure of a longtime planner. A commissioner who spoke at the meeting said, "Brian was a great guy," and praised his leadership and the changes in the department over the past decade. Planning staff said the assistant city manager "was sick today" and apologized for her absence; staff pledged to provide more information before the next meeting and a commissioner asked for a written note on the "state of the department."

The announcement included an award note: planning staff said the City of Temple received a Richard R. Lilly award for planning excellence at the state American Planning Association conference and that the city will make an official announcement to city council. Staff described the award as recognition based on training for planning commissioners, transportation master planning, comprehensive planning and zoning work.

Staff also updated commissioners on the Unified Development Code (UDC) rewrite. Staff said phase 1 (signs) feedback has been collected, follow-up stakeholder meetings are planned, and the project will proceed through six phases with an implementation phase that combines all changes and is targeted for late next year. The commission was told phase 2 will address roles and procedures, phase 3 will address subdivisions, and the full set of phases will be compiled in a final implementation phase.

On a pending item for city council, staff said a conditional-use permit application for liquor sales at Lillia Court is scheduled for review this week. Staff said it will recommend denial to city council "due to inconsistency with the Temple Master Plan and some of the crash and safety issues," and noted neighbors had raised concerns; the commission was told that the city council will make the final decision.

Commissioners closed the workshop portion of the meeting with routine housekeeping. Staff confirmed no affidavits to abstain had been received for the meeting and said commissioners will be updated on the assistant city manager's direction before the next meeting.