On Thursday, May 10, the City of Moline hosted members of plan commissions and zoning boards of appeal from the Quad Cities area at an APA-IL Plan Commissioner Training workshop. The APA-IL and the Chaddick Institute of DePaul University co-sponsored the session which was held at the Moline Public Library. Twenty-one people attended the workshop, including representatives from Rock Island County, Henry County, Rock Island, Moline, Colona, Kewanee, and even Riverdale, Iowa. Michael Blue, FAICP and Les Pollock, FAICP were the faculty for the 85th training session provided by the APA-IL since 2011.
Michael and Les approached the session as a panel discussion to offer attendees a discussion between the presenters rather than a straight-forward lecture. The audience was very engaged. When asked, on the anonymous evaluation forms, about the most helpful topics the attendees said:
What is a comp plan?
Special uses
Policy implementation
Zoning
Ethics and conflict of interest
Ex parte communication and open meetings
How to run the meeting and respond respectfully to the public
Plan Commission do’s and don’ts.
The commissioners also commented on their evaluation forms: “it was well done”, “good seminar”, “thank you for having this workshop”. Others commented: “points made on all topics were helpful” and “everything was very beneficial”.
Want to know how to get training for your officials? Visit the Plan Commissioner Training website and contact the APA-IL Planning Officials Development Officer, Michael Blue, FAICP at podo@ilapa.org
(photos by Shawn Christ, AICP, City of Moline)