Citing a difficulty attracting volunteers to serve on village boards, Pinehurst is taking steps to consolidate its Planning Board and Board of Adjustment.

The Village Council gave the go-ahead last week for the planning staff to begin the process.

“It is hard to keep people when it (board meeting) is that seldom,” Planning Director Andrea Correll said. “We think this is the best solution.”

Currently, there are nine members on the Planning Board. Two of those members were to leave the board at the end of January when their six-year terms expired.

The five-member Board of Adjustments currently has one vacancy. It meets only two or three times, and by law, must have a four-fifths vote to render a decision. Three of those members have agreed to serve on the consolidated Planning Board, Correll said.

Correll said the plan is to have a nine-member Planning Board, with at least one alternate. That would allow all the current members of the Board of Adjustments and the Planning Board to maintain a position after the consolidation.

“We are trying to do everything we can to let everyone serve,” Correll said. “We have great volunteers, and we want to do everything we can to keep them.”

All of the members would be trained to serve on both boards, but each board would remain separate with its own chairperson.

Correll said the consolidation process, which will include some rewriting of village ordinances, and public hearings by the Planning Board and the Village Council, could take through April to complete.

The Planning Board reviews and makes recommendations to the Village Council on all amendments to the Pinehurst Development Ordinance, proposed rezoning of property, proposed master land-use plans for planned developments, proposed major preliminary plats of subdivision and proposed major site plans. It also reviews and approves all applications for signage prior to the issuance of a development permit.

The Board of Adjustment is a more formal body that deals with legal issues. It hears and decides applications for approval of variances from the terms of the PDO, in accordance with the procedures and standards set forth in the ordinance. It also hears and decides appeals from any order, requirement, permit, decision or determination issued by an administrative officer of the village in enforcing any provision of the PDO.

The board also hears and decides applications for special use permits and considers requests for variances and appeals of administrative decisions or interpretations of the ordinance.

The Planning Board currently meets on the first Thursday of the month. It can also meet on the second Thursday as needed. The Board of Adjustment now meets on the third Thursday. Upon consolidation, the Board of Adjustment meeting would be moved to the first Thursday to follow the Planning Board meeting.

Several members of the Planning Board have served on the Board of Adjustment or have a legal background, Correll told the council.

State law allows members of a Planning and Zoning Board also to sit as a Board of Adjustment, Correll said. She told the council that under the change, the boards would still act as two separate bodies. The boards would even meet in different rooms at Village Hall.

When asked about the downside to consolidating the bodies, Correll said there wasn’t one.

Contact Tom Embrey at tembrey@thepilot.com.