The commission shall have and exercise the following powers and duties:
A. Selection Of Officers: The commission shall choose annually at its first regular meeting in April of each year, one of its members to act as Chairman and another as Vice Chairman, who shall perform all the duties of the Chairman during his absence of disability.
B. Appointment Of Assistants: Subject to the limitations contained in this chapter as to the expenditure of funds, it may appoint such assistants as it may deem necessary and prescribe and define their respective duties and fix and regulate the compensation to be paid to the several persons employed by it.
C. Adopt Rules And Regulations: The commission shall adopt such rules and regulations governing its organization and procedure as it may deem necessary.
D. Annual Report: The commission shall each year make a report to the Mayor and Council of its proceedings, with a full statement of the progress of its work during the preceding fiscal year.
E. Comprehensive Plan:
1. Generally: It shall have full power and authority to make or cause to be made such surveys, studies, maps, plans or charts of the whole or any portion of the City or of any land outside thereof which, in the opinion of the commission bears relation to the Comprehensive Plan and shall bring to the attention of the Council and may publish its studies and recommendations.
2. Preparation: For the purpose of making a Comprehensive Plan for the physical development of the City, the commission shall make careful and comprehensive studies of present conditions and future growth of the City and with due regard to its relation to neighboring territory. The plan shall be made with the general purpose of guiding and accomplishing a coordinated, adjusted and harmonious development of the City and its environs which will, in accordance with the present and future needs, best promote health, safety, morals, order, convenience, prosperity and general welfare as well as efficiency and economy in the process of development.
3. Public Hearing: Before adopting a Comprehensive Plan as referred to in the preceding paragraph, or any part of it, or any substantial amendment thereof, the commission shall hold at least one public hearing thereon, notice of the time of which shall be given by one publication in a newspaper of general circulation in the City not less than four (4) days nor more than twenty (20) days before the date of hearing. The adoption of the plan or part or amendment thereof shall be by resolution of the commission. After adoption of said plan by the commission, an attested copy thereof shall be certified to the Council, and the Council may approve the same. When said plan or any modification or amendment thereof shall receive the approval of the Council, the said plan until subsequently modified or amended as hereinbefore authorized, shall constitute the official City plan.
4. Amendments: When the Comprehensive Plan as hereinbefore provided has been adopted, no substantial amendment or modification thereof shall be made without the commission holding at least one public hearing, as referred to in the preceding paragraph, on such proposed change for its recommendation. If the commission disapproves the proposed change, it may be adopted by the Council only by the affirmative vote of at least three-fourths (3/4) of the members of the said Council.
F. Recommendations Of Improvements: No memorial in a public place, and no public building, public structure or appurtenances, shall be located or erected, nor shall any permit be issued by any department of the City for the erection or location thereof until and unless the design shall have been submitted to the commission and its recommendations thereon obtained, except such requirements and recommendations shall not act as a stay upon action for any such improvement when the commission, after thirty (30) days' written notice requesting such recommendations, shall have failed to file same.
G. Review And Comment On Preliminary Plats: All preliminary plats in the City or within the extraterritorial review area shall first be considered by the Planning and Zoning Commission. The Planning and Zoning Commission shall, by written resolution, provide a recommendation to the City Council for their consideration in making the approval decision.
H. Review And Comment Of Park Improvements: No plan for any park or other public improvement affecting the City plan shall be finally approved by the City or the character or location thereof determined, unless such proposal shall first have been submitted to the commission, and the latter shall have had thirty (30) days within which to file its recommendations thereon.
I. Zoning: The commission shall have and exercise all the powers and duties and privileges in preparing, administering and amending the City Zoning Code as provided by chapter 414 of the Code of Iowa. When proposed changes in the zoning regulations or districts are referred to the commission by the Director of Development Services, the commission shall, within thirty (30) days thereafter, file its recommendations approving, disapproving, or modifying such proposed changes with the Council. (1985 Code §6-4.05; amd. 1993 Code; Ord. 1905, 1-24-2011; Ord. 2255, 10-16-2017; Ord. 2527, 7-5-2022)