The Planning Division is involved with both ministerial and discretionary land use actions. Ministerial actions include review of building permits and business licenses. Discretionary actions are land use permits for which a finding needs to be made to demonstrate that discretion was exercised in accordance with city policy. Only discretionary actions may be appealed. There are five basic types of discretionary land use permits; following is a table showing the five basic permit types. Attachment A contains several tables with more detailed examples, but not exhaustive lists, of permits and appeal information.

A simplified way of thinking about appeals is in the following table; however, note that numerous exceptions exist within these major categories (see Attachment A for more detail).

• All appeals must be in writing and must state the reason for an appeal (why someone is aggrieved by the decision).
  
• Appeals must be received by 5:00 p.m. the 15^th day following the decision (except that the time is extended to include the evening meetings of planning commission and City Council that are held on the 15^th day following the decision).
  
• All appeals require payment of a fee. This fiscal year the fee is $77 for any appeal.
  
• By practice, when an application is appealed by a member of the Planning Commission or City Council at the public hearing in his or her capacity as a Commissioner or Councilmember, the minutes of that meeting serve as the written appeal and no fee is required.
  
• If, however, a member of the Planning Commission or City Council appeals a decision as a private citizen, a written reason for the appeal and the appeal fee are required.
  
• Once an appeal is received, all proceedings on the land use permit are suspended until the merits of the appeal are heard at the appropriate public hearing.

The City of Sunnyvale has a unique provision titled "Advanced Notice of Appeal," also called the Pre-Appeal available to the City Council. This provision allows the permit to be considered on appeal to the next higher level of decision-maker (e.g. the next higher level of an Administrative Hearing is the Planning Commission; the next higher level of the Planning Commission is City Council). The general requirements for advance notice of appeal are:

• Must be pre-appealed prior to a decision
• Requires a majority vote of the City Council
• That the action poses a special potential for land use consequences affecting the public safety or welfare, or the objectives of the General Plan
• Actions on certain industrial developments over 40% FAR are automatically Pre-Appealed as are Category B bingo games.

Details of appeal options for various permits are included in Attachment A.

Once an appeal is received on a land use permit, staff works with the applicant and appellant to establish an appropriate date for a hearing. Staff first notifies the applicant of the appeal (unless they are the appellant) and reviews the first available date for a hearing. Sufficient time is needed to observe the minimum noticing timeframe (typically 10-days). Staff will also identify the 2^nd available date in case the appellant has a conflict with the first date.

When an item has been appealed (or pre-appealed) by the City Council or an individual Councilmember, the application is scheduled for a hearing with the next higher body (i.e. an Administrative Hearing item is scheduled for a Planning Commission hearing). It has not been the staff practice to review the dates for appeal hearings for items pre-appealed by the City Council or for items appealed by a Councilmember, unless the application is to be scheduled for a Council hearing. Staff will then verify that the Councilmember who appealed the item will be at the hearing. Based on Council feedback, staff will now provide information to the Council on scheduled dates for all Council appealed items.

Note that when an application is appealed by a Planning Commissioner or a Councilmember, as an individual (not in their capacity as a decision-maker), an appeal must be accompanied by a written statement stating the reason for the appeal and the appropriate fee. Also note that the Commissioner or Councilmember may not participate in the discussion on the appeal.

Notice of the public hearing is mailed to:

• the legally prescribed property owners (e.g. within 300 feet, adjacent properties, etc.);
  
• resident tenants within that same noticing area; and,
  
• other parties expressing interest in the application.

The site is also posted with the notice of the public hearing.

A staff report is prepared for the public hearing. Staff offers comments on the appeal and includes the minutes from any previous public hearing.