By Tara Fischer

Staff Writer

The Berlin Town Council unanimously passed the extension of the temporary moratorium on specific actions of the planning commission, including rezoning, annexation, and final site plan approval, until the start of next year.

The Berlin Mayor and Council agreed to stretch the moratorium, or temporary suspension, on the specific actions of the town’s planning commission until Jan. 15. The decision was approved at the municipal leaders’ Tuesday, Oct. 15 meeting.

Town Administrator Mary Bohlen emphasized that the moratorium can be lifted at any point if deemed appropriate by the Berlin Mayor and Council. The pause was initially implemented in July after former planning director Dave Engelhart’s passing in April so as not to overburden staff. Since then, Rick Baldwin has provided consulting services to the group but cannot act as the final authority on site plans, annexation, and rezoning requests. The plan was to resume normal operations once the position had been filled and the candidate settled, yet the town has struggled to find a new person to fill the vacancy.

“Just so that everybody knows, we are not sitting on our hands in this process,” Berlin Mayor Zack Tyndall said. “We have extended offers to other candidates. We have been unsuccessful with those getting across the finish line.”

However, things are looking up, and a new planning director may be imminent. The mayor maintained at the recent meeting that a potential new hire is coming in for “hopefully the final process” at the end of this month.

“It is looking favorable, and hopefully this will be the last time we have to extend it,” he said.

Still, the council opted to push the moratorium until 2025 to give whoever is hired time to settle into the role as well as acknowledging the holiday season.

“I think extending it to January with the asterisk that we know we can pull it back if we do get somebody in and hit the ground running, but I also think we need to be realistic that we are in the middle of October and that time goes slow in this process,” Councilmember Steve Green said.