OXNARD : Planning Panel Cut to 5 Members
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The Oxnard City Council on Tuesday did away with two of the city’s seven Planning Commission seats, voting unanimously to pare the number of advisory panel members from seven to five.
The ordinance also restructures the terms of those who serve on various city commissions and allows the mayor to appoint the panelists. Each appointee would serve only as long as the mayor who appointed him or her is in office, according to the ordinance.
Under terms of the law approved Tuesday, the ordinance would take effect in about a month.
In recommending that the council adopt the new law, staff members said the reduction from seven to five members of the Planning Commission would reduce the number of appeals by developers and other applicants to the City Council.
But some members of the commission, which serves as an advisory body only, said the council was whittling away the commission’s authority because of land-use disagreements.
“It’s not a surprise,” Planning Commission Chairman Ralph Schumacher said in a telephone interview. “I figured it was going to happen.
“Now we’re serving at what looks to me to be the will of the City Council,” Schumacher said. “I’d rather make my decisions on the facts.”
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