Three planning commission members resign

Three members of the City of Gunnison Planning and Zoning Commission resigned between Sept. 25 and Sept. 30 following a decision by the City Council to initiate a formal notice and hearing process that would precede removal for cause for two members of the commission.

As discussed at the Sept. 22 meeting where the council initiated the notice and hearing process, the process was initiated due to the refusal by planning commission members Julie Robinson and Travis Scheefer to sign a member charter for the commission that they had voted against following an Aug. 26 planning commission meeting.

In his Sept. 25 resignation letter, Scheefer said, “A planning commission exists to bring citizens with local knowledge to exercise independent judgment on long-range decisions about how a community grows, with staff advising and the commission deciding or recommending to Council. Gunnison's Charter sets up exactly that structure: the Commission stewards the master plan, adopts its own rules of procedure, and receives staff input in an advisory capacity. That division of responsibilities is consistent with the way planning commissions function in communities across Colorado. 

“Over the past year and a half, I have watched it change. Staff guidance has moved from advisory to directive, matters have come to the Commission with an expected outcome, and Resolution No. 10, in which Council adopted rules of procedure for the Commission, formalizes that shift. I have served on this Commission since 2019 because I believe in what it is designed to be. I cannot continue in a role that, in my view, is no longer a functional planning commission as the City Charter intends.”

He then outlines in extensive detail his views on how the member charter conflicts with the city’s home rule charter, which Scheefer emphasizes states that each city commission “shall adopt its own rules of procedure.”

Scheefer also outlined concerns about conflicts between the proposed member charter and bylaws and the city’s home rule charter as well as raising concerns about changes in the frequency of the committee’s meetings in an Aug. 25 letter to the city council.

This letter closed with three questions for the council, including why the planning commission was being asked to adopt rules without collectively discussing them first, why the commission’s ability to call its own meetings was being eliminated and why, in Scheefer’s view, the conclusions presented to the council about the member charter and bylaws were not supported by charter language and contradictory to the language in the charter concerning commissions adopting their own rules of procedure.

"Before the Commission voted, I wrote to Council identifying the specific provisions I believed conflicted with the City Charter, and I asked Council three questions,” Scheefer said in a statement to the Gunnison Country Times. “I haven't received answers to them. I knew what I was voting on; I disagreed, and I said so in writing, giving Council the chance to address it before the Commission had to vote.

“This isn't about one document I declined to sign. It's about how Gunnison plans its future. The City Charter makes the planning commission 'responsible for preparing a master plan' and says it 'shall adopt its own rules of procedure.' That gives the community a citizen body, independent of staff, to hold land-use decisions to a long-term plan. City leadership has eroded that role without a vote of the people." 

Julie Robinson’s Sept. 25 resignation letter stated, “I want to be clear when I state that I am not confused about the rules of the Home Rule Charter,” she said in her letter. “In my opinion and in the opinion of the attorney I have spoken with, feel that your interpretation of the Charter oversteps your power and authority. I willfully refuse to sign and acknowledge a document that was already adopted and is in my opinion unlawful in its nature to manipulate and change the existing Charter without a vote by the people. 

“It is no longer an honor to serve on a commission that is ineffective and does not support the people of Gunnison. If transparency is a goal, then the planning and zoning commission should have been engaged in the process of drafting new Bylaws. It is my opinion that there is clearly a lack of honorable leadership that I will NOT be at the pleasure of serving!”

In his Sept. 30 resignation letter, planning commission member Erik Iverson  stated,

"When I joined the commission, my job was to bring my knowledge of the community from many years as a resident, and by listening to public feedback with staff advising, make recommendations to City Council that are consistent with the city's master plan,” he said in his letter. “Starting in the spring of 2025 the transparency and communication of City Council and staff changed. The commission ceased to function in an advisory role to City Council. Recently we have been intentionally alienated by City Council and staff. We go months between meetings with no staff updates or trainings to stay current with our appointed positions. Contrary to what was said at the last City Council meeting I do not feel like a member of a team. I was singled out by Councilor Loren Ahonen as being "confused" about the Member Charter which was not the case. Instead of creating an environment that encourages discussion, conversation and a flow of information, City Council and staff have used intimidation tactics to manipulate the Planning and Zoning Commission.

“In conclusion I am resigning because of the recent and intentional alienation, lack of transparency, reduction in communication, and open discussion with city council and staff. In my opinion large developers have become priority over preserving Gunnison's community and historical character.”

Robinson and Iverson declined to provide further comments on the circumstances surrounding their resignations.

In an interview, Gunnison City Manager Amanda Wilson and Community Development Director Anton Sinkewich said that, from their perspective, tensions with portions of the planning commission began last year with the revision of the Gunnison Land Development Code (LDC).

Wilson said that, during the drafting of the updated LDC in 2025, discussions between City Council and the Planning and Zoning Commission began to highlight “misalignment” between the views of some members of the planning commission and the city council on how the commission operates and what its purpose is.

She highlighted approval of conditional use permits, which are required for certain types of development in areas zoned certain ways and are intended to address site specific details of a development through special conditions placed on it, as a particular sticking point.

Prior to the LDC revision, Wilson said that the planning commission was responsible for approving conditional use permits. However, in the revised LDC, which incorporated guidance from the state and other entities on the proper use of conditional use permits, the conditions for such permits were written directly into the code and the planning commission’s authority to approve permits was removed.

“And that doesn't always feel good, if you used to have authority over something and now the new code says that you don't,” Wilson said. She added that some commission members also struggled with having conditions baked into the code instead of being able to review each specific application and make a judgement decision.

Wilson and Sinkewich said that this change to the handling of conditional use permits was partially driven by a desire to increase efficiency of approving applications and by a need to incorporate certain state recommended elements into the LDC to help obtain state grants for things like affordable housing projects.

Wilson said that the shift of how conditional use permits are approved also contributed to a shift in the primary role of the commission, moving it from a body that approved things to one that gave recommendations to the city council.

She said that, to try and address this misalignment, the city arranged a presentation by the Colorado Department of Local Affairs for a planning commission which was supposed to help address the misalignments and clarify the differences in roles between elected bodies like the city council and appointed ones like the planning commission.

However, Wilson said that this training and following meetings between individual commissioners, Mayor Diego Plata and City Attorney Kathleen Fogo were unsuccessful in correcting the disagreements. She said that, in these meetings, it became clear that some commissioners viewed the commission as an independent body, something which the city cannot accommodate since it does not have bodies appointed to work independently of the council.

“They need to work in concert, if you will, with the council,” Wilson said. “They need to work collectively.”

“The council is the elected body,” said Sinkewich. “They actually are representing the people of Gunnison. The planning and zoning commission is an appointed body to serve the council for specific roles as defined by council. They do not represent the constituency of Gunnison and I think that was a core issue of misalignment of what some of the commissioners felt their role should be, which is simply was not.”

Wilson said that one of the primary contributions of the planning commission, besides its role providing advice on the city master plan as designated in the home rule charter, is that it can spend far longer reviewing complex development applications than council and provide detailed recommendations to council which make council’s decisions more informed and efficient.

Wilson and Sinkewich also denied the claims that the city is attempting to favor large developments, as Iverson alleged. Wilson said this was “patently untrue” and that, although the review process changed with the updates to the LDC, all developments still have to undergo rigorous review and meet standards contained in the LDC.

Sinkewich said that the city council will likely consider the appointment of two new members to the planning commission to fill some of the four current empty seats at its upcoming Oct. 13 meeting. He added that these individuals had applied to fill a seat that was open prior to the recent resignations but that both of the applicants may now be appointed due to more open seats being available.

“[The members of city council] value the planning and zoning commission's role and it is imperative that we have an effective relationship where they are able to contribute the way that they're intended,” Wilson said. “They are able to weigh in on potential changes that are necessary and that they're able to serve in the capacity that is benefiting the community. And so that core purpose of the commission has not changed.”

“The three individuals who have resigned from the planning and zoning commission, they're very sincere,” said Sinkewich. “They truly love the Gunnison community and we greatly appreciate the service that they've given to the commission up to this point, so I don't want that to be unacknowledged in any way.”