Title
Planning Board Review of General Plan Chapter 1 Settings, and Organization of the General Plan Update. The review of the General Plan Chapters are exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act
Body
To: Honorable President and
Members of the Planning Board
From: Andrew Thomas
Acting Planning, Building & Transportation Director
Date: April 22, 2019
BACKGROUND
Every city and county in the State of California is required to adopt and maintain an up-to-date General Plan, which establishes the local development and conservation policies necessary to guide physical development and protect the general health, safety and welfare of the community. The General Plan should be an "integrated, internally consistent and compatible statement of policies for the adopting agency." (Government Code section 65300.5.) The City of Alameda General Plan is available at: https://alamedaca.gov/community-development/planning/general-plan.
As described in prior reports to the Planning Board and City Council, the General Plan Introduction (Chapter 1. Settings, and Organization of the General Plan), Land Use Element, City Design Element, Parks Element, and Open Space Element have not been comprehensively reviewed since adoption in 1991.
Staff has begun a staff review of these chapters and will be proposing a comprehensive update for community and Planning Board review at a future meeting of the Planning Board. In preparation for these future discussions, staff has prepared an update to Chapter 1 Settings, and Organization of the General Plan for Planning Board and community review and consideration.
A first draft revision to Chapter 1 is attached as Exhibit 1. For comparison purposes, the existing Chapter 1 adopted in February 1991 is attached as Exhibit 2.
DISCUSSION
The revisions to Chapter 1 shown in Exhibit 1 are intended to:
* Update the text from the 1991 Chapter 1 to reflect 2019 state and local requirements, priorities and needs,
* Ensure intern...
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