3.05.01 Establishment of Review Period.
The City Manager is required to establish a standard time period for review and final action on all applications. This information will be published in the Administrative Procedures Manual. This review period will be used to determine the number of days for all time limits within this Code. If the City Manager fails to establish review periods for each procedure, the default review period will be ninety (90) days unless State law imposes a shorter period, in which event the shorter period will prevail.
3.05.02 Restrictions on Review Period Serving as Time Limit.
All time requirements are guidelines, and do not require final action within a specified period of time. The following rules describe administration of time requirements.
A. If a final action has not been taken on an application by the appropriate City staff, board, or commission, at the end of the time requirement for that application, there will be no penalty assessed to the applicant or final review authority. In these cases, consideration of the application continues, however the application becomes eligible for final action upon written request of the applicant.
B. Ongoing consideration of an application beyond the standard review period allows a review body or the final action authority to work in good faith with the applicant to make changes, modifications, and corrections in order to continue consideration of an application that might otherwise be disapproved without the changes, modifications, or corrections. If the applicant elects to proceed without making any changes, modifications, or corrections to the application, the applicant may request action as provided in Section C below.
C. Once consideration of an application has continued past the standard review period and is eligible for final action upon request of the applicant, the applicant may request in writing a final action decision from the final action authority. An administrative final action authority must respond with written notification of final action within ten (10) days.
3.05.03 Exception to Standard Review Period.
The standard review period for any application may be extended one time for a period not to exceed thirty (30) days if a review body or final action authority requests additional studies or information concerning the application. Such an extension may not be granted after an applicant has requested final action. For purposes of a subdivision plat, when a 30-day extension has been issued, the application is deemed to have been denied but still subject to review by the City of the applicable review authority. Exceptions to this review period are as follows:
A. Standard review periods may be extended by the City Manager as described below when, in the opinion of the City Manager, conditions beyond the City’s control exist that prevent the City Manager, other administrative officials, or any final action authority from effectively reviewing and considering all applications in a timely manner. Typical conditions may include an excessive number of applications received by the City during a certain period of time, inadequate staff time due to temporary limitations of personnel resources or lack of availability of a required professional staff member such as the City Engineer.
B. The City Manager may initially declare that such conditions exist without approval of the City Council, and must provide timely notice to all affected applicants. During these periods, all applications being considered are subject to the extended review period. No submittal of an application may be refused during the extended review period.
C. The City Manager will report the action requiring the extended review period to the City Council at the next regular City Council meeting. In order to have the review period officially changed, the City Council must adopt a resolution establishing the extended review period at that meeting. The period must have a time limit, not to exceed ninety (90) days. If such a resolution is not adopted by the City Council, then the authority of the City Manager to set aside standard review periods for this exception is no longer valid.
D. Review and processing of applications will continue during this extended review period, pursuant to the implementation of the extended review period.
E. If the conditions causing the delay are not resolved, the process may be repeated. An applicant may request final action, as specified in Section 3.05.02.C above if the City has not taken final action on the application one hundred and twenty (120) days after the date the standard review period would have expired.
F. The delay of standard review periods may not be implemented as a moratorium.
