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While those bills continue to proceed through the legal process, Billings City Council continues to move forward on their compliance with SB 382. Namely, appointing members to a City of Billings Planning Commission who will analyze and offer recommendations to the City Council on:
- The Land Use Plan and Future Land Use Map
- Zoning Regulations and Map
- Subdivision Regulations
- Other legislative land use planning documents City Council designates
The seven members being recommended by City Staff are current volunteers on the City and County Planning Board, City Zoning Commission, and Board of Adjustments.
- Jim Ronquilo (Ward 1)
- Roger Gravgaard (Ward 2)
- Dennie Stephenson (Ward 3)
- John Staley (Ward 4)
- David Nordel (Ward 5)
- Josh Sayer (Chair, Board of Adjustments)
- Daniel Brooks (Chair, City Zoning Commission)
We wrote about the slate of all-male appointments staff was forwarding to City Council for consideration in our June 24 Council Bulletin, We're Not Casting the Hunt for Red October, highlighting, "perhaps there's an opportunity to ensure that the volunteer board responsible for establishing Billings' 20-year growth and housing plan includes a couple women, possibly a couple renters, people who actually need the housing that will be planned for with the Montana Land Use Planning Act."
During the June 24th meeting, Council decided to continue the public hearing, extending it to tonight. We received lots of feedback to our previously mentioned newsletter from people interested in getting involved. We hope all of those inquiries and interests were directed to City Council. While I—yes, that's my name on the bottom of the appointments list—would appreciate the opportunity to serve on this Planning Commission, I also recognize that the current slate of appointments is hardly representative of Billings.
At the previous City Council meeting, staff acknowledged that, "we want to make sure that we have a very diverse, robust committee that's taking this forward...and that's something that we can discuss internally on how we diversify this moving forward." Yet, the list of appointments is the exact same as was presented in June—no changes, and notably, all dudes. It would appear that staff's answer to City Council asking for more diversity on the Planning Board was a succinct, "Naw dawg."
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