Traverse City planning commissioners will consider adopting several changes to their bylaws tonight at a 7:30pm study session at the Governmental Center. Traverse City Clerk Benjamin Marentette and City Attorney Lauren Trible-Laucht reviewed the bylaws at the request of City Planning Director Russ Soyring. Commissioners will consider the following recommended changes, which Marentette and Trible-Laucht say are "largely mirrored" after the city commission's procedural rules:

* Allow the planning director to have the ability to call special meetings, in addition to the chairperson and/or any three members of the planning commission;
* Delete the requirement that the chairperson must approve the commission agenda, instead allowing the same individuals who can call a special meeting to place items on the agenda;
* Require that planning commissioners only consider items on the published agenda, unless seven members of the commission vote to suspend the rule and add an item to the agenda;
* Eliminate the requirement that a planning commissioner be disqualified from making a decision because of a conflict of interest, but rather include a statement in the bylaws that commissioners "may recuse themselves" in such situations, as "a decision regarding a conflict of interest and related recusal belongs to the commissioner, not the commission."

The proposed bylaws amendments also include a recommendation to request that commissioners avoid contact with an applicant who has a pending administrative request in front of the commission, such as a special land use permit or a rezoning application. In the event such contact is made, the recommendation continues, commissioners should submit documentation to the planning director describing the nature and content of the interaction so that "everyone (on the commission) is aware of the contact that took place."