Required Format:
Prepare your response in a separate document then upload your response as a “file upload”.
Format to be 1-2 single-spaced pages with 12-point font and 1-inch margins.
Organize your assignment into the four subsections listed above.
Insert a copy (or screen shot) of the city’s land use map. The map can be inserted into the main text, or can be included at the end of your assignment as a separate page.
Make sure your responses include at least the minimum number of sentences listed for each question.
PTP assignments provide you an opportunity to review and critically reflect on planning tools and processes. This PTP asks you to review a city’s General Plan and its Land Use Element.
As you know from class readings and lecture, every city in California is required by state law to maintain a General Plan (also called a “comprehensive” plan in some states) that provides an overview of the city’s vision for its future development patterns through a series of policy statements and maps. A city’s General Plan must include required sections or “elements”, but may also include optional elements. The required Land Use Element provides an overview of how permitted land uses (residential, commercial, etc) are distributed within the city, and must be consistent with other elements such as the Circulation Element (which addresses how different land uses and areas of the city are connected by roadways and other forms of transportation).
Step 1. Select a City for your General Plan Review
Select a city in California that you would like to learn more about or study for this PTP.
Locate the city’s General Plan on the city’s website and make sure you can easily view the entire plan either online or downloaded as a pdf. You must be able to access sections pertaining to:
The plan’s executive summary
The city’s vision statement
The land use element (including the land use map)
The public outreach and participation process
Review the above part of your selected city’s General Plan to prepare to address the following components of your plan review/reflection.
Step 2. Conduct your Review and Critical Reflection
Organize your assignment into the following subsections:
Plan Information
Name of the City
Date that the General Plan was last updated. (Some plans may be fairly out of date and not reflect current challenges and conditions, while some may have recently undergone major updates.)
Provide the online link to the City’s General Plan.
Vision Statement: This section briefly describes the plan’s guiding principles and the city’s vision for future growth (sometimes these vision items are included in different sections, such as an introductory vision section, a list of guiding principles, or in a preamble.)
UPDATED NOTE: Some General Plans may not publish their vision in an introductory chapter or preamble. If you cannot find a statement of the city’s vision, you should looks for a vision or values statement in the Land Use Element of the most recent update to the Housing Element section of their General Plan. Please contact the instructor if you cannot locate related content in your chosen city’s General Plan.
Describe and discuss (3-5 sentences):
What are the city’s values and priorities?
How does the vision describe and frame the city’s goals and plans for the future?
What future challenges does the vision anticipate for the city, and how will the city address them?
Critically reflect (2-4 sentences) of the vision statement: Do you think it provides an adequate vision and values to guide future growth and development? Is there any important priorities missing from the vision, or parts of the vision that you feel should have been stressed more?
Land Use Element: This required section provides an overview of how permitted land uses (residential, commercial, etc) are distributed within the city to guide future physical development, and includes a required land use map.
In your assignment, you must include a land use map from the land use element which depicts the general arrangement of planned land use and development patterns.
Describe and discuss (4-6 sentences):
Referencing the map, how are the land uses distributed (residential, business, retail, industry, open space, etc) within the city?
For instance, for a hypothetical community you might observe that “The majority of single family residential land uses are located along the foothills far from major transportation corridors, but industrial uses are generally clustered by ….”
Critically reflect (3-5 sentences) on the Land Use Element (with a focus mainly on the map): Are all of the land uses necessary to implement the plan’s vision present? Do you think there is an adequate geographic separation (or clustering) of land uses? What changes (if any) would you propose to the city’s land use, and why?
Public Participation Process: Public outreach and consultation is an important part of the process of generating and updating a city’s General Plan because the plan should convey the values and priorities of the community and long range strategies to achieve those goals. As we will discuss in class, approaches to public participation can vary widely. Each plan will have a section which describes the process and approaches for soliciting feedback from the residents and other stakeholders (business, social service agencies, educational institutions, etc).
UPDATED NOTE: Sometimes the main General Plan document may only have limited information addressing public participation, which does not leave you much content to work with. If that is the case with your chosen city, you can also review and critically reflect on the public outreach and participation associated with the city’s most recent update to the Housing Element section of their General plan. The Housing Element of each city’s general plan must be updated about every four years, and in many cases this includes more extensive public outreach.
Describe and discuss (4-6 sentences):
What was the city’s overall process for conducting outreach and public consultation? How was this process distributed across the different stages of plan development?
What were the approaches or techniques for public outreach and public consultation (neighborhood meetings, online survey, workshops, etc)
Critically reflect (3-5 sentences) on the plan’s public participation process: What outreach and public consultation approaches do you feel would provide the most valuable insights? Why? Do you feel the level of public outreach seems sufficient? What improvements or alternative strategies would you recommend for the plans’ public participation process?
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