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CITY OF SAN LEANDRO STAFF REPORT DATE: September 17, 1998 TO: John Jermanis, City Manager FROM: Stephen Emslie, Interim Development Services Director BY: Oliver Jerschow, Planning Intern SUBJECT: General Plan Advisory Committee SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATION APPROVED AND FORWARDED TO CITY COUNCIL r v John Jermanis City Manager The City Council has decided that the City should begin updating the General Plan for San Leandro. Updating the Plan provides the City with a unique opportunity to write a visionary and useful document with broad citizen involvement. The West San Leandro/MacArthur Redevelopment and Affordable Housing Advisory Committees have proven to be effective ways for the City to involve citizens in the planning process. Therefore, it is recommended that the City Council approve the proposal to create a General Plan Advisory Committee (GPAC), and appoint a three member ad hoc subcommittee of Council members to formulate a recommendation to the full City Council for appointees to the GPAC. BACKGROUND The City's current General Plan was adopted in 1989 and is now out of date. It is no longer able to appropriately guide development in San Leandro. Although the Plan provides a good historical overview of the City and a general vision for the future, it lacks policies for addressing specific economic, land use, and transportation issues. Noise issues will be adressed in a subsequent element in the next phase of the General Plan. To the extent possible, noise issues will be discussed in the Land Use Element. The City has undergone demographic and economic changes, and the General Plan should reflect these. The Council recently committed the City to writing a new General Plan. Staff has begun the groundwork to initiate the preparation of the first two elements: Land Use and Circulation. Staff has also selected a team of consultants for this work, after reviewing the Submissions of Qualifications from numerous qualified firms. DISCUSSION Updating the General Plan provides the City with an opportunity to develop a vision for the City's future by involving a broad range of people who live and work in San Leandro. By encouraging and incorporating substantive citizen input, the new General Plan would be an accurate reflection of the City's goals and needs, and would have broad support from the community. The result would be a General Plan that would remain effective for many years. The following is an outline of how the process might proceed. 229 29