Is disagreement over development holding up Batavia plan panel appointments?

Are two Batavia plan commission members being punished because they disagreed with aldermen about the One North Washington Place development?

Or do aldermen simply want more input and to detail what the commission should concern itself with?

Earlier this week, the council scuttled a vote on the reappointment of Gene Schneider and Sue Peterson to the commission, which also serves as the zoning board of appeals.

Mayor Jeff Schielke makes appointments with "advice and consent" of the council.

"After the controversy (of One North Washington Place), you are going to have all kinds of people in town making all kinds of suppositions and comments about it, and are going to revive some stuff that I don't think you are going to want to revive," Schielke said.

The commission did not agree with the council about the proposed size and height of the building and the amount of parking to be provided.

The commission recommended refusing to let the building be taller than allowed by city code. The city council approved it. Then the commission denied the design.

The developer appealed to the council. The council said the commission hadn't adequately explained its decision and ordered it to reconsider. It also said the commission couldn't consider the height, the size or the parking.

The commission approved the design May 3 after discussing landscaping, a wheelchair ramp, and most of all the color of siding - which residents had criticized - and downspouts.

"Because obviously that's all we are allowed to talk about this evening is color," Schneider said.

"They feel that we are not working together as a team," Alderman Marty Callahan said. "Let's get on the same sheet of paper."

Under state law, plan commissions are charged with creating and revising municipalities' comprehensive land-use plans. They are also to make recommendations about plats of subdivision, amending zoning maps, and concept and preliminary plans. City code gives the commission the duty to approve or deny designs. One North Washington required all of those.

Schneider, a former alderman, has been on the commission for 14 years. Peterson, once chairman of the commission, has been on it for 13 years. Her term expires June 7 and his June 4.

Schielke said he is willing to discuss future appointments in closed sessions with aldermen.