[HISTORY: Adopted by the City Council of the City of Clairton 8-14-1973 by Ord. No. 1249 as Ch. 44 of the 1973 Code. Amendments noted where applicable.]
CHARTER REFERENCES
Boards, commissions and authorities — See Art. XX.
GENERAL REFERENCES
Subdivision and land development — See Ch. 307.
Zoning — See Ch. 337.
[Amended 11-13-1990 by Ord. No. 1476]
The Council of the City of Clairton shall appoint a Planning Commission in and for the City to consist of five residents of the City. The terms of office for the members of the Planning Commission shall be four years and shall be so fixed that the terms of two of the members shall expire once every four years and the term of one member shall expire during each of the other three years. Members of the Planning Commission shall hold no other elective office of the City. The City Manager shall appoint an administrative head from the administrative unit responsible for planning as an ex officio member of the Planning Commission.
[Amended 4-14-1992 by Ord. No. 1518]
The City Planning Commission shall organize not later than the first Monday of October 1923, and annually thereafter by electing a Chairperson from its own number.
The City Planning Commission may make and alter rules and regulations for its own organization and procedure consistent with the laws of the commonwealth and ordinances of the City and shall at the first regular meeting of the Council in January of each year make a report of its transactions to the Mayor and Council.
The City Planning Commission, in accordance with the spirit and intent of provision of the Act of Assembly of July 16, 1913, and general legislation governing Third Class Cities and ordinances of the City, may employ only such engineers and assistants who shall have had their salaries and wages previously provided for through proper appropriations by the Council and shall not incur any other expense unless authorized by the Council, together with suitable appropriation made therefor.
[Amended 4-14-1992 by Ord. No. 1518]
The City Planning Commission shall hold its meetings in the Council chamber of the City, and the City Manager or the City Manager's designee shall act as official Clerk of the City Planning Commission.
[Amended 4-14-1992 by Ord. No. 1518]
The City Engineer shall act as official engineer of the City Planning Commission, and engineering services and equipment required by the Commission shall be furnished and provided by the Department of Engineering.
All specific programs or individual proposals for public works, whether originating in the Council, within the Department of Public Works or other municipal department, with the City Engineer or with a public authority functioning in but independent of the City, shall be presented to the Planning Commission at the earliest stage of their inception.
The Planning Commission shall study and make a written report to the Mayor and Council on each such proposal referred to in the preceding section, with special reference to:
A. 
Its relationship to the approved Master Plan.
B. 
Its preferential time order (priority) in terms of public need, logical sequence in program, cost and feasibility.
C. 
Its practicability and appropriateness to the ends to be attained.
D. 
Its effect upon existing conditions.
E. 
Its relationship to planned projects already approved.
F. 
The changes or new projects necessarily sequential to it.
[Amended 4-14-1992 by Ord. No. 1518]
The City Manager shall, upon introduction, furnish to the City Planning Commission, for its consideration, a copy of all ordinances and all amendments thereto relating to the location of any public building of the City; to the location, extension, widening, narrowing, enlargement, ornamentation of any street; to parking on any street, boulevard, parkway, park, playground or other public ground; to the relocation, vacation, curtailment, changes of use or any other alteration of the City plan, with relation to any of the same; and to the location of any bridge, tunnel and subway or any surface, underground or elevated railway. The Planning Commission shall have the power to disapprove any of the ordinances or amendments, which disapproval, however, must be communicated to the City Council, in writing, within one week from the introduction of such ordinance, but such disapproval shall not operate as a veto.
No acquisition of land by the City through gift, purchase, dedication, condemnation or other process (except foreclosure of tax lien) shall be authorized and no sale of public real property, however acquired, shall be approved until after the Planning Commission shall have been requested to inquire into the need, proposed use or disposition of such property insofar as the same might affect:
A. 
The Master Plan;
B. 
Any current or projected program of improvement; or
C. 
Any policy or plan touching the reassembly and resubdivision of publicly held land.
The City Engineer shall prepare and keep up-to-date all maps and statistical information under his or her jurisdiction which may be necessary or useful to the Planning Commission in the discharge of its duties. Such material shall be furnished the Planning Commission in duplicate or be made readily accessible to it at all times.
The Zoning Officer or his or her assistants charged with the enforcement of zoning regulations, building inspection or the issuance of permits for the construction, occupancy, repair, rehabilitation, conversion or demolition of structures shall make a full, written report of all transactions to the Planning Commission monthly.