LEMON GROVE APPOINTS NEW PLANNING COMMISSIONERS

Jacquelyn Clark and John Burns chosen to join city’s panel

The Lemon Grove City Council unanimously voted to appoint two new people to the Planning Commission to replace two members whose terms expire this month.

Of the 14 applicants, the council voted to appoint Jacquelyn Clark and John Burns at last Tuesday’s meeting. They will replace Robert Bailey and Stephen Browne.

Although Browne reapplied to the commission, the council decided not to reappoint him.

Clark has lived in Lemon Grove for 24 years after moving from North Carolina. Council members said they admired her passion for climate change and her community-driven point of view.

“Being a planning commissioner was one of the first steps to giving back to the city — to bring a new perspective, to join in where other people have already been doing the work and continue that good work,” Clark said in an interview after the vote.

Clark serves as an associative accountant for the county and has 20 years of experience in reviewing and planning policies in nonprofits and local government.

When looking at how to improve Lemon Grove, Clark said affordable housing, homelessness and climate issues stand out.

Clark and Burns agreed that the look and aesthetic of Lemon Grove’s streets and buildings need updating to increase business activity and draw more people into the city.

“Frankly, every entrance into the city is unappealing, for the lack of a better way of putting it,” Burns said during his interview with the council. “We need businesses that can be open, stay open and bring in people from outside of town.”

This wasn’t Burns’ first time applying to the planning commission. Last summer, he failed to grab a spot, but council members voiced their admiration for his drive to return with a second application.

Burns is a product manager for HP. He has 12 years of experience working for municipal governments — specifically through his work in IT for the city of Woodstock, Ill., and infrastructure for the city of Loveland, Colo.

During last week’s interview, Burns emphasized a walkable Lemon Grove with more multiuse buildings and greater business opportunities. “The city of Lemon Grove is my home; it is where I have come to make my dreams a reality,” Burns said during his interview with the council. “Every day I see its challenges, its accomplishments and its promise.”

Burns and Clark will serve four-year terms.

Councilmember Liana LeBaron said she was looking for members to offer a unique point of view to the commission.

“I want my planning commissioners to be people with varied perspectives,” LeBaron said during the meeting. “It does a team no good when people are expected to think exactly the same or bring exactly the same perspective to the table.”

Eleven of the 14 applicants agreed to a public interview at last Tuesday’s meeting. Each had three minutes to give an opening statement, followed by one question from each of the five council members.

The questions were the same for each application and covered prominent issues in Lemon Grove, the role of planning commissioners, how to make the city more business-friendly, and how to evaluate development proposals amid conflicting community opinions.

After the interviews, the council members voted for their top two choices to fill the first opening, then went through another round of votes to determine the second commissioner.

The planning commission meets on the fourth Monday of each month at 6 p.m. to review prospective developmental projects, request changes and vote whether to recommend the projects to the council