What: The Planning and Preservation Department's requests for the FY27 city budget.
Where it stands: Presented to the ad hoc budget committee on 2026-09-16. A member questioned the staff archaeologist's workload; staff described a phased approach starting with an on-call contract. No votes.
People requests of about $363,000: senior planner upgrades (about $31,000), an office manager, a staff archaeologist and a staff architect.
Projects: a $300,000 Johns Island connector road study, a multi-year historic architectural inventory survey (see Architectural Survey Update) and a phased archaeology program with a new ordinance.
Operations: hosting for the new zoning ordinance (about $48,000), a fee schedule update expected to raise about $50,000, and fees to cover added notice and meeting costs.