Napa Planning Commissioner Paul Kelley announced Nov. 7 that he would leave office next month after nearly 12 years on the job, marking another major change for the commission.

Kelley cited an increase in controversial projects pitting “neighbor against neighbor” as a reason for his departure from the commission, which advises the Napa City Council on development and decides on specific land use actions. Housing and commercial projects go through the commission before reaching the council for final approval.

Commissioners recently mourned Bob Massaro, a Napan veteran and commissioner since 2021 who died in May. And Gordon Huether, who has served two decades on the commission, will not seek to keep his job once his term ends in December.

Kelley, whose final meeting will be Dec. 5, is an architect and one of two designated design professionals who must be on the commission; Huether is the other.

He said he struggled with the decision to resign for most of the year because serving on city commissions has been an important part of his life. Kelley also served for seven years on the city’s Cultural Heritage Commission, which advises the City Council on matters related to the preservation of historic resources.

“I really enjoy working on projects and trying to help the community, help make it a better place,” Kelley said.

But he said now seemed like the right time to resign. He recommended that Commissioner Lindsay Owen, a designer of residential and commercial projects, be appointed design professional. The council appointed her to Massaro’s position in August.

Kelley said Massaro’s death made him reflect more deeply on his resignation.

“I was reluctant to leave the commission because we didn’t have anyone representing the architectural community,” Kelley said at the Nov. 7 meeting. “But the board appointed Lindsey Owen and I think she’s going to do a wonderful job.”

Beverly Shotwell, appointed to the commission in 2022, would become the longest-serving current planning commissioner if she is reappointed to the position early next year. Shotwell said at the meeting that he would not have served on the Cultural Heritage Commission or the Planning Commission if it had not been for Kelley’s support.

The commission’s operations and expectations have evolved over the years, Kelley said, which contributed to his decision to resign. And this year he sensed that more projects could lead to litigation after approval by the City Council. He pointed to a daycare proposed for the Alta Heights neighborhood, approved in May, as an example and noted that other projects, such as a proposed glamping resort, may follow a similar path.

“It seems like the projects are more contentious,” Kelley said. “And they are not the big projects. “It’s really a neighbor-on-neighbor fight.”

Kelley said planning commission meetings are often the first place the public gathers to share their opinions about a project, including their frustrations. Commissioners often make recommendations on how to modify a project based on public input.

But the commission also has less discretion than before, Kelley said, because of measures the state imposed to require decision-making based on objective rather than subjective standards.

It can weigh on commissioners when it appears they haven’t made anyone happy at the end of a meeting, Kelley said.

“It’s almost like we’re an administrative control,” he said.

Kelley added that he feels he accomplished what he came to the commission to do, but he will miss it.

He recalled the difference he was able to make in 2013, at his first planning meeting, when he pushed a proposal to convert the Copia building in the Oxbow District into office space. He noted that the planning for the Copia project basically said it was supposed to be “a public-commercial service and not an office space.”

“I’m glad it didn’t go the way of the offices,” Kelley said.

He also recalled working on the city’s general plan, which sets long-term goals and policies for the city through 2040, and the city’s Housing Element for 2031, along with the Napa Pipe redevelopment project that will include 945 homes. .

With those big planning projects done for now, the new commission will have some time to grow and learn before taking on another equally heavy project, Kelley said.

He said he continues to push for a light rail project in Napa that would connect the growing Napa Pipe area to the south and Napa Valley College to the rest of the city.

“I don’t know if that will ever happen, but I keep bringing it up,” Kelley said.

You can contact staff writer Edward Booth at 707-521-5281 or [email protected].