COUNTY OF SONOMA
	PERMIT AND RESOURCE MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT
	2550 Ventura Avenue, Santa Rosa, CA 95403
	(707) 565-1900 FAX (707) 565-1103

Summary

It has been almost 12 years since the adoption of the current General Plan in March of 1989. Although the Plan is still strongly supported by the community at large and remains effective, a number of its provisions are in need of reevaluation and updating. With the pending release of the year 2000 census, coupled with the mandated update of the Housing Element, now is the time to update the Plan. In order to initiate this effort, PRMD is requesting that your Board:

1. Direct PRMD to begin an issue-focused update of the General Plan, hereafter referred to as GP 2020; and

2. Review and approve the Draft Work Program.

3. Review and approve the revised Comprehensive Planning Work Plan to reflect the Work Program

Preliminary cost estimates of the Draft Work Program, and implications of this program on PRMD and ISD staff commitments, are also included for your information. PRMD will rely upon the currently budgeted $400,000 for the remainder of FY 00/01 and return to your Board for the remainder of the necessary budget for FY 01/02.

Status Report on 1989 General Plan

PRMD has prepared a Status Report on the 1989 General Plan which identifies a range of issues for consideration as part of GP 2020. The purpose of that report is to assess the successes and shortcomings of the existing plan, and in so doing to create a baseline against which to frame the update work program. The report is intended as a starting point for a series of community meetings that would solicit public comment regarding the scope of the update. PRMD would compile the results of these meetings and report back to your Board for refinement of the scope.

General Plan Update Issues

The following is a list of issues, by General Plan Element, based upon the Status Report, the comments received at the November 30, 2000 Planning Agency meeting, and other input. These issues are those which are of continuing importance, have proven problematic under the existing plan, or which have arisen since adoption of the General Plan, and as such will likely warrant consideration during the update process.

Land Use

• development of new population and employment projections
• mixed use in commercial/industrial areas
• updating of urban boundaries/rural communities where new wastewater systems may be needed
• subregional planning strategies
• certificates of compliance

• Coastal Plan update (surface runoff, public access, housing)

• timber harvesting in non-TPZ areas
• land use policies related to updated circulation element

Housing

• a full update of the Housing Element in order to meet court-mandated August 2001 deadline (already in progress)
• a review of the 2001 Element for General Plan internal consistency

Open Space

• updated standards for riparian corridors and critical habitat protection
• designation of additional streams and creeks as riparian corridors
• reevaluation of policies OS-1c and OS-2c, which allow for additional development within community separators and scenic landscape units, respectively
• evaluation of the need for additional recreational facilities
• strategies to help implement the Sonoma County Agriculture Preservation and Open Space District Acquisition Plan

Agriculture

• additional visitor serving and support uses on agricultural lands
• consideration of larger rural residential properties as an agricultural land use
• consider broadening agricultural protection and priority to include "AR" and/or "RRD" lands
• consideration of "warehousing" and agricultural support services as primary uses on agricultural lands

Resource Conservation

• updated air quality assessment, standards, and mitigation measures
• timberland conversions
• groundwater availability assessment and policies/procedures
• sedimentation and water quality issues (TMDLs, etc.)
• grading and erosion control and policies
• agriculture impacts on biotic resources and habitat
• endangered species issues
• wetlands policies

Public Safety

• update geologic, flooding, and fire safety data and appropriate policies

Circulation

• updated countywide assessment of current and projected future traffic conditions
• a new evaluation of improvement needs, traffic reduction measures, and funding opportunities
• updated Airport Industrial Area Specific Plan Circulation element
• right-of-way standards
• rail policy

Air Transportation

• conformity with new Comprehensive Airport Land Use Plan (CLUP)
• airport safety zone combining district

Public Facilities

• updated assessment of water and sewer service availability
• streamlining approval process for public facilities
• review policies for approval of Out-of- Service-Area agreements
• package treatment plants for private uses
• need for additional recreation facilities
• future landfill sites and waste management strategies

Noise

• updated noise assessment, standards, and policies

Recommended Work Program

Choice of the appropriate work program for updating the General Plan will ultimately depend upon a number of fundamental questions that will determine the approach, level of effort, and time period required to complete the update. Among such questions are the following:

• Are we generally content with the existing General Plan land use maps and text format of the existing General Plan?
• To what extent do we want to limit individual requests for land use changes?
• What form, size, and make-up of input groups do we envision for public participation? Should there be a citizens committee, either formal or ad hoc? If so, should it be comprised of the public at large or technical specialists? How should members be selected?
• How can we best obtain input from other County departments? cities? regulatory agencies?

• How can we best keep the public, working committees, etc. informed throughout the update process?

While answers to all these questions have not yet been confirmed, staff believes that the range of work program options fall into three general categories. These are listed below from most comprehensive to least comprehensive in scope:

1. Major General Plan Re-Write. This effort would include a visioning phase to revisit the primary goals of the current general plan and the community's vision for Sonoma County. In addition, it would include a major effort to address endangered species and conservation issues, a re-evaluation of the land use maps, and full-scale consideration of individual requests to modify land use designations.

2. Focused Update of all Elements. This effort would include all elements of the General Plan but would focus the update on projections, housing, and circulation, with limited review of land use changes. Updating of the remaining Elements, including conservation issues, would be limited primarily to existing policy refinement and the specific issues listed above.

3. Focused Technical Update Only. This effort would be restricted to projections-related elements only (housing, land use, and circulation), and would not consider individual requests for land use changes. Remaining Elements (i.e., Open Space, Resource Conservation, ...) would not be changed except as necessary to bring them up to date with state and federal statutes, or as necessary to accommodate changes in the three listed Elements.

The level of effort, time line, and total costs associated with these options would be greatest for Option 1, least for Option 3, and intermediate for Option 2. As detailed in the Status Report, we believe that the existing General Plan enjoys, for the most part, broad-based public support and acceptance. Assuming this support is confirmed by your Board during the preliminary public outreach phase of the update program, the first Option would seem unwarranted. The choice between the latter two Options is one of degree. However, based on the preliminary analysis, staff believes that the focused, broad-based approach represented by Option 2 will best meet the update needs.

At this time we estimate that an Option 2 work program would consist of eight key tasks, and would require about 2 1/2 years to complete. As shown on this time-line, the tasks are not strictly sequential and often overlap. The following summarizes each of these tasks.

Task 1 Housing Element

PRMD has already initiated a full update of the Housing Element in order to meet the court-mandated, August 2001 deadline. Because the updated Housing Element will be completed well in advance of the updated General Plan, a review of the 2001 Element will be required during Task 7 (Draft General Plan/EIR) to ensure internal consistency. The General Plan update also serves as an opportunity to carry out any of the Housing Element implementation programs that may be adopted in August.

Task 2 Program Initiation

Staff will initiate the consultant selection process, circulate the Status Report, and conduct a series of public meetings throughout the County to educate the public about the General Plan and hear issues important to county citizens. These meetings will present a forum for local concerns regarding land use, transportation, the environment, public safety, and service issues in various parts of the County, solicit suggestions as to how the General Plan should address these issues, and provide an early opportunity for the Board refinement of the Work Program. Presentations would also be scheduled for each of the cities. Staff will also work to identify an ad hoc working group of senior managers from each city who would meet with County staff as needed to assure sustained city/county coordination.

At the conclusion of this phase of the update program, staff will report back to the Board and Planning Commission, as needed, to present the results of the outreach program. At these meetings staff will summarize public sentiment regarding issues that should be addressed in the revised General Plan, and present options for Board refinement of the Work Program.

Task 3 Database Development

This phase of the program includes several steps designed to produce a GIS database that integrates County land use and parcelization with census demographic data. The two primary products will be digital land use maps and a census/assessor layer that can be used for community level analyses of population and housing. These are the building blocks for evaluating new population, housing, and job projections for 2020.

Task 4 Technical Analysis

This phase includes the primary technical research conducted for each of the elements. It has four main components; the development of alternative population projection scenarios for the Land Use and Public Facilities Elements, the selection and calibration of the circulation model for the Circulation/Transit and Noise Elements; research associated with the Open Space, Public Safety, Agricultural Resources, Air Transportation, and Resource Conservation Elements; and the initial stages of the Draft EIR. An important milestone during this phase will be the selection of the preferred projections of jobs, population, and housing to be utilized in the Plan and Draft EIR.

Task 5 Local Coastal Plan

A focused update of the Coastal Plan is proposed to run concurrently with GP 2020, beginning in the fall of 2001. The scope of the update will to some degree depend upon the decision of the Coastal Commission later this year on the County's 1999 proposed revisions to the LCP. But it is proposed that this update would be focused primarily on surface runoff, housing, and public access issues. It is anticipated that this portion of the work program would be the subject of two sequential one-year planning grant applications submitted to the Coastal Commission beginning in the fall of 2001.

Task 6 Policy Review/Development

This phase naturally follows the technical research phase and involves the development of preliminary policies that will eventually appear in the Draft General Plan. During this period, the staff and consultants will prepare Working Papers for sequential review by the Committee(s) and County Departments, the Planning Commission, and your Board. There will also be ample opportunities for public review and additional presentations to the Cities as appropriate. As these draft policies are formulated and accepted by your Board, the impact analyses portion of the Draft EIR will begin. Public outreach will continue during this period as appropriate.

Task 7 Draft General Plan/EIR

This task covers writing the draft of the revised General Plan, preparing the graphics, and integrating the text and graphics in an attractive and user-friendly format. Desk top publishing options are being explored. The existing document format or a similar goals/objectives/policies format is proposed to be used in the updated General Plan. However, staff will assess ways to utilize graphics (charts, drawings, and photos) in ways that make the document more user friendly. Staff would first prepare Preliminary Draft Elements based upon additional research/analyses emanating from the direction received at the workshop after which a Preliminary Draft (as one policy document or separate elements) would be published for review by the Planning Commission, your Board, and different interest or technical groups if desired. The Preliminary Draft Elements would also be circulated to counsel and other county agencies and departments (county committee) for review and comment. Next a Preliminary Draft General Plan would be prepared, including a complete Preliminary Draft text and associated text maps, that would also be presented to the Planning Commission and your Board.

This task also involves preparation of the Draft and Final EIR. The impacts analysis will identify potential physical effects of Plan implementation, including growth projections and policies. Potentially significant impacts will be mitigated to the extent possible by the proposed policies and implementation strategies.

Task 8 Public Hearings/Plan Adoption

Subsequent to release of the Draft General Plan and Draft EIR, there will be a series of public hearings to review the Draft EIR, the Final EIR, and the proposed General Plan. Formal public hearings will be conducted before the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors. Further briefings for the cities will be scheduled as needed.

Public Involvement

A key aspect of the update will be public participation and review. The most important value of public participation is generating and retaining the community support that is the hallmark of a good General Plan. The challenge is providing opportunity for public participation without unnecessarily delaying the process.

The level of public participation needs to track with the scope of the update. Unless Option 1 is desired, the extent of formal committees need not be as broad as the 40 people who participated on two committees during the last update.

PRMD recommends a combined strategy that involves the following:

1. Two representatives each from the Board of Supervisors and Planning Agency who would advise staff on a day-to-day basis.

2. A 10-person citizen steering committee, two members for each Supervisorial District, that would meet in public on a regular basis to guide the Draft Plan.

3. An ad hoc County Staff Working Group consisting of representatives from County Counsel, Sonoma County Water Agency, Department of Transportation and Public Works, Emergency Services, County Administrator's Office, Permit and Resource Management Department, Community Development Commission, Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District, Regional Parks and other County Departments that would meet as needed to assure interdepartmental coordination.

4. An ad hoc working group of city representatives consisting of a senior manager from each city who would meet with County staff as needed to assure sustained city/county coordination. Staff presentations to the City Councils will be offered at key points in the process.

5. Periodic noticed Board/Commission workshops and meetings at critical junctures in the process to assure broad public involvement.

6. A GP 2020 Website providing current information on the update effort.

7. Formal public hearings on the General Plan and EIR.

General Plan Update Schedule

Although a firm timeline has not yet been determined, our preliminary analysis reflected in Exhibit C indicates the following:

• Assuming the existing land use maps remain essentially the same as they are now, we estimate the General Plan update will require about 2 1/2 years to complete. This schedule assumes that PRMD staff will perform the primary research and draft preparation, and private consultants will be utilized for traffic, noise, and air quality modeling efforts, EIR preparation, policy guidance, and meeting facilitation.
• The initial development of baseline demographic data, using parcel-based census geography, cannot begin until the 2000 Census maps become available in March, 2001 at the earliest.
• Detailed baseline data from the US Census on population and housing will not be available until September, 2001. This database will be needed in order to begin the population scenarios and the traffic modeling efforts.
• The traffic modeling effort must be completed before air quality and noise modeling efforts can be completed.
• GIS and Web Site technology will be utilized during the update process, including newly digitized land use and open space maps.

Should options 1 or 3 be selected, the implications for the tasks and time lines would be as follows:

Selection of Option 1 would likely require at least an additional 9 to 12 months to complete as compared to our proposed work program:

- A visioning process and larger committees (add 4-6 months)

- More consultation with federal agencies

- More individual land use requests (add 2-4 months)

- More time for public hearings and need for public meeting facilitation (add 2-3 months)

Selection of Option 3 would reduce consultant costs and staff time, but would not substantially shorten the time line. Cost reductions would relate mainly to the fact that those Elements not affected by census information would not be revised, and individual land use requests would not be considered. The Housing Element, Local Coastal Plan, and development of the data base would take the same amount of time, and the time required to process and adopt the General Plan and EIR in accordance with the procedural requirements of CEQA and planning law would be about the same.

Project Management

PRMD would be responsible for the program with a lead Planner III assigned as project manager to work with PRMD management to coordinate the work products of other staff and consultants. The program team would also consist of other PRMD planners and staff participating on a part-time basis.

The Work Program for the update will require a major effort by PRMD and other County staff regardless of the number of tasks assigned to consultants. The recommended Work Program is estimated to require the following PRMD staff time over the course of the 2 1/2 year period:

The estimated Planner III time of 5770 hours will also impact the Comprehensive Planning Work Plan during the remainder of this fiscal year and for the entirety of the next two fiscal years. However, it appears that the Division's current staffing level, recently increased to eight full time planners, would be sufficient to accomplish this program and to carry out the other programs listed in the revised Work Plan included as Exhibit D. However, additional programs could not be accommodated unless new revenue were available or existing programs were reprioritized.

Participation by other departments, particularly Transportation and Public Works, County Counsel, and the CAO's office, will also be necessary. In addition, The Information Systems Department (ISD) estimates that an additional 840 hours of its time will be needed in order to assist PRMD with the database development portion of this program.

Consultants

The Recommended Work Program relies upon significant assistance from one or more consultants to perform a number of tasks. The selected tasks consist primarily of those that are beyond the expertise of the existing department staff, namely circulation, air quality, and noise. However, it is also recommended that consultants provide assistance to the department in facilitation of public and committee input and policy development on an ongoing basis. The EIR would also be prepared by a consulting firm.

It is anticipated that the RFP for the program would provide the county with the option of selecting one firm that would perform all of these tasks, or selecting a combination of different firms that would each perform specific tasks.

PRMD has had limited discussions with several consultants regarding possible update scenarios and estimated costs for various update tasks. Although not based upon formal consultant proposals, the following summarizes estimated consultant costs based on these informal discussions. A preliminary estimate for consultant work based upon the above tasks is $760,500 as follows:

Finally, we estimate approximately $15,000 in equipment, printing, and related production costs, as follows:

These additional costs would provide for additional PRMD GIS work stations that will improve the application of GIS data and production efforts throughout the General Plan update process.

In summary, the total estimated cost of this program is $775,500. The current PRMD budget includes $400,000 already appropriated by your Board for the General Plan update. Assuming your Board agrees with the Draft Work Plan, portions of the $400,000 would likely need to be rebudgeted for next year along with the additional $375,500.

Comprehensive Planning Work Plan

The addition of the General Plan Update program will have a significant impact on the Comprehensive Planning Work Plan over the next two fiscal years. The estimated 5770 hours of planner time will require slightly more than one FTE from the March, 2001 start date until the projected completion in July, 2003. Coupled with eight ongoing programs, several Water Agency programs, and four high priority programs, the Integrated Development Code, the Outdoor Recreation Plan, the Local Coastal Plan Update, and the Airport Comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP), all of the available staff is accounted for through June 2002. Only 1860 hours would remain available for FY 02/03 in the event that new programs are desired.

A revised Work Plan Summary Chart is attached that reflects the recommended GP 2020 Work Program. The revised Chart also includes a recommended reprioritizing of thirty List #4 programs requested by your Board last year. The attached Work Plan would reduce the number of these programs from 30 to 15 as indicated below. Detailed descriptions of these programs are on file with the Clerk of the Board.

Recommended deletions (4):

• New Specific or Area Plans
• Transferable Development Rights (Report or Proposal)
• Agricultural Advisory Committee
• School Facility Master Plans

Recommended for reevaluation or implementation as part of the General Plan Update (11):

• Revise Road Standards
• Annual Report on Wastewater Management Services
• Standard Plans for Year-Round Farmworker Housing
• Industrial Employee Housing
• Commercial Industrial Density Bonus
• Community Separator Implementation Plan
• Scenic Landscape Unit Visual Study
• Safety Hazards Info/Related Amendments
• Circulation Monitoring Program
• Specific Plan Circulation Elements
• Certificates of Compliance

Recommended for retention on List #4 (15):

• Groundwater Study
• FishNet4C (SCWA)
• Camp Meeker Wastewater Project (SCWA)
• Russian River CSD Boundary Study (SCWA)
• Noise Ordinance
• State Scenic Highway Status for Highways 1 and 37
• Erosion and Sediment Control Report
• Grading and Erosion Control Ordinance
• Resource Management Plans
• Laguna De Santa Rosa Conservation Program
• San Pablo Bay Area Conservation Program
• Sonoma County Airport Approach Protection Plan
• Sonoma County Airport Noise Monitoring Program
• Public Facility Master Plans
• Russian River Watershed Council