Starting in the spring of 2010, the City Council discussed the 2006 Comprehensive Plan’s lack of effectiveness on several occasions and in a January 2011 work session identified potential improvements to increase the Plan’s usefulness as a guide to the community’s future. The topics for improvement were subsequently reviewed in March by the Planning Commission which offered a similar assessment. The City Manager and senior staff concur with these desires to make the Plan more effective. Although the City is not required by the State to conduct a full Plan update until December 2014, there is no penalty for completing an update earlier – the next mandated update will still be seven years from December 2014, i.e., not until December 2021. The City retains the option of preparing earlier updates as deemed locally desirable.
The major topics discussed in the Council’s January 2011 Study Session were combined into themes of plan improvement. Collectively, these themes seek to:
- Make the Plan more concise with fewer goals and policies
- Ensure that the Plan is more directive towards a well-defined future
- Put the goals and policies within a growth framework that realigns land use patterns and external growth interests to better pursue the community’s Vision
The Council also identified specific interests in revising certain zoning classifications, changing some designations on the zoning map, and adding capacity for new employment (particularly, selected light industry).
In April 2011, the City’s newly-appointed Planning Director, Chris Hugo, presented a “newcomer professional’s” assessment of the current 2006 Plan in his first meeting with the Planning Commission and his second with the City Council. This evaluation, “An Effective Comprehensive Plan,” provided 19 criteria to assess how well a plan performs its role in pursuing a community vision. From the generally poor assessment and the Council’s concurrence of the measures of an effective plan, the planning staff was directed to embark on an update of the 2006 Plan. A diagram of the general planning process and components was approved by the Council in mid-2011.
