Council OKs deal for plan reviews
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The City of Williamsport authorized agreements between itself and Barry Isett for general engineering services and for handling subdivision and land development plan reviews.
Mayor Derek Slaughter said this agreement on engineering will be on an as-needed basis for technical specialty work.
"This (engineering) would be for if we needed for technical expertise; it could be land use review or council doing a curative amendment, such as for data centers and along those lines, or other engineering that is not necessarily in the wheelhouse of Bill Scott, city engineer," he said. Additionally, there has been movement on amending various aspects of the city zoning ordinance.
The other agreement approved will permit the third-party consultant to do subdivision and land development plan reviews and work with city community development. The city was losing money in this process as plans were going to planning before getting vetted engineering reviews, Slaughter explained.
Councilwoman Liz Miele asked for the administration to provide an update in three months so that the council could get an idea on the aspect of the engineering cost for the budget and future budgets, if the city is going to use this service over the next couple of years.
"I'm fine with three months and getting council an update or report either way," Slaughter said.
"You are going to get ... an engineer who works in the subdivision and land development world," said Phil Prout, of Barry Isett, during a city Community of the Whole meeting.
Prout said before the council meeting he also checked on the process in nearby municipalities using their websites and doing some other research. He assured council in nearby Loyalsock, Old Lycoming and Muncy townships the engineering costs were reimbursed by the applicants.
Scott Williams, administrator for the city planning commission and assistant director at the city community and economic development, along with Bill Scott, city engineer, are involved – so it is a more streamlined and team approach to planning and zoning.
Recently, the council approved Williams to be administrator of the planning commission as Lycoming County is no longer doing subdivision and land developments in the city.