General Plan Update

By Jane Parker

The General Plan Update has been being discussed for 3 or 4 years now, to the tune of nearly $4 million, with no process timeline or budget. The Board of Supervisors needs to stop bickering and trying to pass off the difficult decisions to committees or consultants. The people of this County deserve to know what the rules are and we should insist that the rules are fair to everyone and applied equitably.

The current General Plan Update outlines some important principles, giving guidance for policy in ways such as:

·Preserving the distinction between urban and rural areas, ·Highlighting the development of affordable housing and a jobs housing balance as priorities, ·Recognizing the need to preserve the physical resources of the County, ·Requiring that infrastructure needs be addressed prior to project implementation.

These are fundamental building blocks of sound land use planning.

There are some areas of the general plan that could be improved. I believe we need to address the affordable housing issue more aggressively. Also, the supervisors have already begun to allow some landowner requests + exceptions to the plan before it's even adopted + in violation of the guiding principles. There are some special interests who would like to undermine the 40 acre minimum requirement. I oppose erosion of those guidelines; the County already has an unsustainable amount of development in the unincorporated areas and needs to set strict limits on future development.

The people of this county deserve to have a General Plan; the Supervisors should move this draft forward promptly for approval.