Plymouth – The Plymouth City Council last week shelved a discussion of a city “right to farm” ordinance, and heard of a staff plan to put together a volunteer board to assess applicants for a new city planner contract. The council had a brief discussion on the “right to farm” issue, before reaching a consensus to shelve it, with Councilman Mike O’Meara suggesting 6 months. Councilwoman Pat Fordyce said the issue “doesn’t need to be dealt with,” because of state and county law that the city can use. City Attorney Steven Rudolph said that county ordinances generally don’t apply to cities, but the “city can pass an ordinance saying that the county law applies.” But Rudolph said “it is not automatic.” Vice Mayor Greg Baldwin said: “I don’t want Big Brother in the city, and I don’t want Big Sister, either.” He said if it can be resolved a better way, while protecting the city, he would support it. City Manager Dixon Flynn said before the issue comes back to the council, he would like to take it to the planning commission. He said city administration is now interviewing planning firms for the City Planner position. He said he will form a panel with 2 city council members, 2 planning commissioners, 3 developers, and public invitees. Flynn plans a September 26th meeting of the 3-panel assessment board, with each panel separately interviewing 3 finalist firms in the City Planner search. Flynn said he would have the panels rank the firms first, second and third, and then he would “probably come back with that recommendation.” Flynn said Mayor Jon Colburn volunteered to be on the assessment board. Councilwoman Pat Shackleton agreed to be the second member, with Baldwin as alternate. Flynn said he wanted to invite Stephanie McNair, of Plymouth Rock Partners LLC, to be a developer member of the panel. The city has sent out a Request For Proposals (RFP) from planning firms, and the city’s latest contractor, Development Impact Incorporated of Elk Grove sent a letter August 24th to the city saying that the company would not be answering the request. Paula Daneluk of Development Impact said the company “decided that responding to this RFP is not the direction that our firm should go at this time.” The firm had been working for Plymouth for 3 years, including work on the city General Plan update from start to finish. Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.