Title
General Plan Update
Body
To: Honorable Chair and Members of the Transportation Commission
From: Andrew Thomas, Planning, Building and Transportation Director
BACKGROUND
Maintenance of an up-to-date and internally consistent General Plan is a requirement of State Law. The General Plan must be an “integrated, internally consistent and compatible statement of policies for the adopting agency.” (Government Code section 65300.5.)
The General Plan establishes the local development and conservation policies necessary to guide physical development and protect the general health, safety and welfare of the community and the environment. The last comprehensive update of the current General Plan occurred almost 30 years ago in 1991. The 1991 Plan was designed to serve the City for 20 years or until 2010.
In August, staff completed a draft General Plan 2040 for public review and comment. The draft General Plan is available on the project website https://www.alameda2040.org/. On the General Plan website, the public may:
• Review the Draft General Plan as a single PDF or as individual chapters.
• Review the current General Plan for comparative purposes.
• Complete one or more of four surveys about key General Plan policies related to the four main themes that run through the General Plan.
• Participate in four scheduled virtual public forums on each of the four main themes.
• Submit comments and suggested revisions to the General Plan.
• Join the General Plan update email list for notifications on the process and updates.
As described on the website and in a postcard delivered to every Alameda household in August, the City of Alameda is encouraging all Alameda residents and businesses to participate in the General Plan update process. From August through December, the Planning Board and staff will be inviting public comment on the first Draft General Plan. The public is invited to review and comment on the General Plan through on-line surveys, submitting written comments via email from the website, and participating in the Planning Board forums. The comments and direction received over the course of the fall will inform the preparation of the 2nd Draft General Plan to be published in January or February of 2021.
In November, the voters in Alameda will decide whether to retain a citywide prohibition on multifamily housing and residential densities over 21 units per acre in the City Charter. The Planning Board’s review of the General Plan will be further informed by the voter’s November decision regarding Measure Z.
The Planning Board’s final recommendations to the City Council on the draft General Plan will likely occur in the spring of 2021 after conclusion of the forums and consideration of the Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) that will be published this fall.
Four Main Themes: Similar to the 1991 General Plan, Chapter 1 of the draft General Plan describes the four major themes that run throughout the entire General Plan. The four themes are:
• Developing a healthy, equitable and inclusive city. This is a new theme for the General Plan. The 1991 General Plan themes did not address health, equity or inclusivity as an overarching goal of the General Plan. This theme is implemented in policies in each element addressing the need to provide for housing, service, open space, safety, and transportation needs of all segments of the community, irrespective of income, race, cultural background, or physical ability. The associated survey related to this theme on the website focuses on a sampling of seven (7) policies in the General Plan that address the implementation of this theme.
• Preservation and enhancement of Alameda’s unique historic neighborhood character. The draft General Plan continues the 1991 General Plan theme regarding the importance of embracing and supporting Alameda’s island environment and preserving Alameda’s unique architectural and historic neighborhood character. The updated theme acknowledges that these goals must be achieved in a manner that is consistent with the goal of meeting regional and local housing and climate change objectives. The associated survey provides a sample of key policies related to this theme.
• Protecting the environment, responding to the climate crisis & meeting regional responsibilities. This theme is also new to the Alameda General Plan. The 1991 General Plan themes did not include protection of the environment as an overarching goal and it did not consider the impacts of global climate change as an issue that needed to be addressed. The General Plan policies recognize that to protect the environment, Alameda must not only reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and transform its transportation system (which produces over 70% of the community’s greenhouse gas emissions), but also must do its part to help the region meet its sustainability goals, including providing for the housing, economic, and service needs of all segments of society and future generations. The associated survey provides a sample of the key policies related to this theme.
• Enhancing mobility, accessibility and life on an island. This theme builds on the 1991 General Plan theme calling for the “de-emphasis on the automobile” as the primary strategy to improve transportation and mobility in Alameda. The General Plan includes the need to address making streets safer, protecting the environment, providing enhanced access to the waterfront and open spaces, and embracing the island setting as essential to improving life on our island. The associated survey provides a sample of the key policies related to this theme.
Four Surveys. The website includes four surveys. The City will keep the surveys open and available to the public throughout the next four months. The information received from the surveys will help inform the Planning Board’s review of the draft General Plan and inform the content and focus of the four public forums as well as the 2nd Draft General Plan. Since launching the website, over 1,500 people have taken surveys.
Based upon the early results of the survey, it is apparent that the City needs to work harder to engage specific segments of the community in this process. Based upon the first 6 weeks of the survey results, it appears that:
• Lower income residents are significantly underrepresented in the survey results received to date.
• Youth (under 25) are significantly underrepresented while seniors (over 65) may be slightly underrepresented.
• The Black, Asian, and Hispanic communities are significantly underrepresented.
Staff has been reaching out to the underrepresented segments of the community to encourage engagement in General Plan update process. With each monthly public forum, staff updates the participation and demographic survey data, which will allow the Planning Board and community to track progress toward achieving a more representative and inclusive public process for the General Plan update.
Four Forums. Each forum is an opportunity for the Planning Board to review and discuss the adequacy and appropriateness of each theme and a sampling of key policies that implement and support that theme. At the end of the public forum, the Planning Board reviews and comments on the selected theme and the sampling of key policies.
Based upon the feedback from the community and the Planning Board, staff will be able to revise the draft General Plan to better reflect the policy goals of the Planning Board and community. These revisions will not be limited to the few sample policies highlighted in the survey or at the forum. Instead, staff will use this policy direction to review all of the policies in each element to ensure that all policies reflect the policy direction provided by the Planning Board and that the General Plan is internally consistent, as required by State Law.
DISCUSSION:
Staff is reaching out to each of the major City Boards and Commissions to request Board and Commission review of the draft General Plan. Any comments received from the Transportation Commission prior to January 1, 2021 can be incorporated into the 2nd Draft General Plan, which will be published in February or March of 2021.
Staff is available and willing to attend future meetings of the Transportation Commission or work with a Commission sub-committee to develop a set of Commission recommendations on the 1st Draft General Plan. To further assist the Commission’s review of the document, staff prepared the following index of key policies and sections of the General Plan that might be of particular interest to the Transportation Commission.
Key Policies and Sections Relevant to the Transportation Commission:
Chapter 1 Settings and Organization. See Section 1.3 Looking Ahead: Alameda 2040 for a discussion of projected growth and the challenges to be faced over the next 20 years, and Section 1.4 General Plan Themes for the description of the four themes that govern the entire General Plan.
Chapter 2 Land Use and City Design. See Spotlight on page 18 and Policies LU-2, LU-15, LU-28 through 31 and LU-33.
Chapter 3 Conservation and Climate Action. See Policies CC 8 through 14 and CC-29.
Chapter 4 Mobility Element. The Mobility Element is an update of the 2008 Transportation Element. All of the policies in this element are relevant to the mission of the Transportation Commission.
Chapter 5 Housing Element. See Policies HE-10 and HE-11.
Chapter 6 Parks and Open Space Element. See Policies OS-7 through OS-10
Chapter 7 Safety and Noise See Policies SN-7, -8, -14, -18, -38, -47, and SN-50.
RECOMMENDATION
Staff recommends that the Transportation Commission review and comment on the draft General Plan.
Respectfully submitted,
Andrew Thomas, Planning, Building and Transportation Director
Exhibit 1: Survey Results Received to Date