Oxford Village’s planning commission wants to stick with a lucky number.

Last week, commissioners voted 4-0 to recommend the village council keep it a seven-member board as opposed to reducing it to five.

“I have very strong feelings on this,” said Commissioner Maureen Helmuth, who also serves on the village council. “I think the more opinions this planning commission gets, the better decisions they make for the whole community.”

“I feel the same way,” said Commissioner Bonnie Staley. “I don’t think five is enough.”

The proposed reduction was a suggestion from the village administration because the commission currently has two vacancies, so now would be the time to make a change if one is desired.

Chairman John DuVal believes having seven members allows the commission to be “more efficient” in that there aren’t a lot of meetings that must be cancelled due to a lack of quorum to conduct business.

With a seven-member board, the quorum is four.

“We’ve missed one meeting, I think, this year because we didn’t have a quorum,” DuVal said. “We had two other meetings cancelled because there was no business to tend to. I don’t recall any meetings in 2015 that were cancelled because of a lack of quorum.”

Finding residents to serve on the planning commission has been a challenge for the village.

So far, only two people, Dave Bailey and William Meyer, have applied for the current vacancies. Bailey, who has previously served on council, was interviewed that evening.

“Maybe there needs to be a greater effort placed on getting more people involved,” DuVal said. “I just don’t think limiting, or lowering, the number of people (on the commission) is actually addressing the core issue that we have.”

Paraphrasing something Commissioner Jack Curtis previously said, DuVal said, “Often times, people don’t get involved until whatever the issue is (on the table) has a direct impact on them.”

People with this narrow, single-issue focus are commonly referred to as NIMBYs, an acronym that stands for Not in My Back Yard.

In DuVal’s view, more people need to look beyond the issues that simply affect them and “embrace the notion of what their participation (in the planning process) might do for the overall community.”

To apply for a planning commission seat, please call the village at (248) 628-2543.