Vista 2030: General Plan Update
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A good plan is like a road map: it shows the final
destination and usually the best way to get there.
H. Stanley Judd
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The City of Vista has begun the ambitious task of updating its General Plan. Once adopted, the updated General Plan becomes the basis for future decision-making on virtually all development projects within the City and its sphere of influence. While various components of the General Plan have been revised in the past, the City has never before prepared a comprehensive update of this important long-range planning document. This webpage is dedicated to keeping Vista stakeholders informed as to the current status of the update, soliciting stakeholder input and advertising future opportunities for public involvement. On this webpage you will learn where we have been and where we are going in our efforts to bring the General Plan in line with the present-day concerns and goals of Vista’s diverse population and workforce. You will also find on this webpage various ways to share your concerns and ideas regarding the City’s future.
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By clicking on the links below, you can navigate to sections of the webpage that answer some frequently asked questions:
•What is the current status of the General Plan Update?
•How can I participate in the process?
Latest News
The Pedestrian and Bicycle Trails Visioning Team held its final meeting on May 12, 2008. The team concluded its mission with presentations by three working groups that each evaluated a different component of the trails network: urban trails and sidewalks; recreational trails; and bikeways. In their presentations, the working groups highlighted what they considered to be high-priority improvements to the network and compared these priorities with those established in the 2002 Circulation Element. Click here to see the priority project lists for urban trails, recreational trails and bikeways. These lists will guide discussion of the trails network at this summer’s community workshop on transportation and circulation. Please stay tuned to the Vista 2030 webpage for the date, time and location of this public workshop. Your participation is encouraged.
Vista 2030 staff sincerely thanks our thoughtful and dedicated team members for their hard work and important contributions. Their collective insight into the present condition and future promise of the trails network will no doubt help to make Vista a more walkable and bicycle-friendly community.
Why is the City undertaking this effort now?
Nothing endures but change.
Heraclitus
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We must ask where we are and whither we are tending.
Abraham Lincoln
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.Preparing for growth and change ranks among the most important duties of local government. The General Plan – once referred to by the California Supreme Court as the “constitution for future development” – provides local government with the authority and direction needed to fulfill this important duty. Given its vital role in shaping the course of growth and change, it is essential that the General Plan accurately reflect the concerns of those who are impacted by development and land use. As the perspectives and priorities of stakeholders develop over time, as local and regional planning issues evolve, and as new standards and concepts in urban planning arise (e.g. smart growth, sustainability, environmental justice), the General Plan remains relevant and useful by adapting to such changes. Accordingly, it is common practice for the General Plan to be updated periodically, giving the community the opportunity to reevaluate and adjust its goals.
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The Land Use Element of Vista’s General Plan, upon which all other elements of the General Plan are based, was last updated in 1988. Since that time, the City has experienced considerable growth and change, adding over 32,000 new residents and more than 3,000 new housing units. (By clicking here, you can access the most recent population and housing statistics for the City as prepared by the U.S. Census Bureau.) Vista has also substantially increased its employment base with commercial and industrial development in areas south of Highway 78. Consequently, demand for roads, public utilities, recreational areas, commercial venues and other amenities has increased considerably over the past twenty years. The General Plan Update is meant to account for these significant changes to the City’s physical, social and economic landscape, and, in turn, to establish the means to guide and accommodate additional change over the next two decades.
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Updating the general plan is not only sound planning practice but also a legal obligation: every city in California must adopt and periodically update a general plan “for the physical development of the…city and any land outside its boundaries which bears relation to its planning.” These areas outside the City’s boundaries are typically lands under the County’s jurisdiction but within the City’s sphere of influence. In accordance with state standards, the General Plan must cover the City’s entire planning area and address the full range of issues related to the City’s development. (By clicking here, you can view a map of existing land use in the City and its surrounding sphere of influence.) In recognition of the growing interdependence of local governments, the General Plan must also deal with regional planning issues that extend beyond the City’s jurisdiction – e.g. transportation networks, air quality and flood zone management.
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Another state requirement for the General Plan is that all of its parts be consistent with one another. Additionally, the General Plan is expected to be consistent with any adopted specific plans. The General Plan Update will address this consistency requirement by evaluating and amending all elements of the Plan simultaneously, rather than in the piecemeal fashion that has occurred in the past.
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In March of 2007, the City commissioned a performance audit of its land development review process. Conducted by CityGate Associates, the audit determined that due to inconsistencies and outdated policies the City’s existing General Plan fails to provide sufficient guidance to City staff and residents. The audit concluded that a comprehensive update of the General Plan would provide a clearer set of expectations for developers and property owners and a more transparent and consistent development review process.
What is the general plan comprised of?
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Eventually everything connects - people, ideas, objects.
The quality of the connections is the key to quality.
Charles Eames
In essence, the General Plan is an organized set of goals, objectives and policies that guide the way land is developed (or redeveloped) and used. The basic purpose of the General Plan is to define the vision of the City’s preferred future and to put in place the means of achieving this vision.
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According to state law, the General Plan is required to address seven topics or “elements” that relate to the City’s development and/or the infrastructure necessary to support that development. Those elements are: land use, circulation, housing, conservation, open space, noise and safety. The state allows the City to consolidate these elements under broader categories. The City can also choose to incorporate additional elements into the General Plan. Vista’s General Plan will merge the Open Space and Conservation Elements and consolidate the Noise and Safety Elements under the heading of “Community Health.” In 1998, the City incorporated an optional element entitled Community Identity; this optional element will also be updated during this process.
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Listed below are the principal questions addressed by each of the six elements that will comprise the pdated General Plan:
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Land Use: What can be built and how will land, both public and private, be put to use in different partsof the City?
Circulation: How will the City ensure the efficient movement of people, goods, energy, public services and communications?
Housing: How will the City ensure ample and adequate housing for all income groups?
Open Space/Conservation: How will the City provide parks and conserve open space, and to what use will these open spaces be put? How will the City manage its other natural resources to prevent them from being wasted, destroyed and neglected?
Community Identity: How will the City’s various neighborhoods and districts maintain and enhance their uniqueness?
Community Health: What are the major health and safety risks facing the community, and how will these risks be minimized?
While each of these topics will be addressed in a separate section of the updated General Plan, there are many development and land use issues that pertain to more than one topic. For example, in addition to being a concern of the Land Use Element, the provision of recreational facilities will also be discussed in the Open Space/Conservation and Community Health Elements. As another example, the form and function of the City's roads will likely be addressed not only in the Circulation Element, but also in the Community Identity Element. It is thus essential that the updated General Plan emphasize the interrelated nature of the six elements with data, analyses, goals and policies that remain consistent from one element to the next. To learn more about state requirements for the General Plan, click here.
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What does the update process involve?
All of the data-gathering, analysis, and citizen participation
are useful only if they help the community answer the question, “Where do we want to go?”
Eric Kelly and Barbara Becker
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The update effort formally began in May of 2007, when the City contracted with Jones & Stokes Associates to serve as its principal consultant for the effort. It is anticipated that the entire update process will take nearly three years to complete.
Establishing Existing Conditions
The initial phases of the General Plan Update involve the assessment of present conditions and emerging trends along with the gauging of public opinion regarding both the current state of the City and its future direction. To gather objective data on present conditions and emerging trends, baseline studies have been initiated on the following topics:
• Land Use
• Circulation
• Population and Housing
• Geology, Soils and Mineral Resources
• Biological Resources
• Hydrology and Water Quality
• Cultural and Historic Resources
• Noise
• Air Quality
• Aesthetics and Visual Resources
• Hazards and Hazardous Material
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These baseline studies will identify existing City conditions (e.g. public services and utilities, agricultural resources, cultural and historic venues) including deficiencies that may need to be remedied (e.g. road capacity, housing supply, contaminated sites).
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Public Participation
The city’s public outreach program involves scheduled meetings and workshops with community stakeholders along with a telephone comment line, an email address to which comments can be sent and a series of on-line surveys posted on the City’s website. Listed below are the anticipated public meetings and workshops:
• Community Visioning Workshops These workshops were conducted in August of 2007 at various locations throughout the City. Approximately 150 people participated in these workshops, where they identified Vista’s most valuable treasures and most pressing challenges and shared their personal visions for the City’s future. (By clicking here, you can read a summary of the comments generated at these workshops.)
• Youth Visioning Workshops Also in August of 2007, Planning Division staff tasked members of Vista’s Youth Commission and several of their peers to depict the City’s treasures and challenges and convey their visions for the City’s future through a series of photographs. The Youth Commissioners and their peers will present their photographs at the next Youth Commission meeting, scheduled for October 24, 2007.
• Stakeholder Meetings Social organizations, activist groups, service clubs, schools, land development interests, business owner associations and other local stakeholder groups host the General Plan Update team at a meeting of their membership. These forums will allow for more detailed discussion of particular issues. Representatives of stakeholder groups interested in meeting with the General Plan Update team are encouraged to call the Vista 2030 telephone line at 643-2891.
• Focused Issue Community Workshops Community members wishing to provide input on specific aspects of the General Plan are encouraged to attend one or more of these workshops, each of which will focus on a particular element of the General Plan. The topics covered in these workshops will be: land use/community identity, traffic/circulation and open space/conservation/community health. These workshops are tentatively scheduled for the spring and summer of 2008.
• Public Hearings for Plan Adoption The updated General Plan is subject to review and approval by both the Planning Commission and the City Council. These hearings will be noticed in the local paper, and everyone who requests to be placed on the update mailing list will be personally notified when they are scheduled. Community members are invited to attend all of the public hearings devoted to review of the updated plan. These hearings are expected to occur in spring of 2010. If you would like to be added to the update mailing list, please send your name, address, telephone number and e-mail address, if available, to vista2030@cityofvista.com or call 760-643-2891.
• General Plan Update Open House & Reception Community members will be invited to celebrate culmination of the update process and the adoption of the City’s new General Plan!
Sphere of Influence Study
A city’s sphere of influence constitutes its ultimate, probable physical boundaries and service area. The city’s general plan is required to address the future development of all area within its jurisdictional borders, as well as any territory outside its boundaries which bears relation to its planning. Related areas are usually, although not always, a city’s designated sphere of influence. Areas outside would bear relation due to such factors as the ability to provide utility services, topographic barriers and location of open space.
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This study will review the current sphere boundary as it relates to other factors of physical development and, if necessary, petition the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) for an amended sphere.
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Click here to see a map of Vista’s municipal boundary and Sphere of Influence.
Drafting of the Plan
It is anticipated that the actual drafting of the updated plan will commence in early 2008, with the Land Use Element being the first component of the plan to be drafted. The updated Land Use Element will provide much of the basis for the subsequent amending of the remainder of the document. A draft of the entire plan is expected between late 2008 and early 2009.
The drafting of the updated General Plan will be a dual effort involving both Planning Division staff and the City's principal and secondary consultants. To insure that the updated General Plan is mindful of the City's history and existing conditions, consistent with the stated goals for the future, and composed in such a way that it can be readily and effectively implemented, Planning Division staff will participate directly in defining the scope and the character of the document. Guided by data from baseline studies, public input and its own experience in implementing the policies of the existing General Plan, Planning Division staff will work with the City's consultants to refine existing goals, incorporate new goals and develop objectives, principles and policies that allow both existing and new goals to be achieved. In the end, the updated General Plan will embody the professional acumen of the consultants as well as the local knowledge and practical experience of Planning Division staff.
Environmental Review
The draft plan will be subject to environmental review in accordance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). While environmental review is noted here as a distinct component of the General Plan Update, identifiying and analyzing environmental issues will happen concurrently with the updating of the plan. In this way, environmental considerations can inform the policies ultimately put in place to guide future development and land use.
The CEQA process will include public scoping meetings that give local stakeholders the opportunity to share what they perceive to be potentially significant impacts of the updated General Plan. These scoping meetings are meant to assist the City and its consultants in identifying the updated plan’s full range of possible impacts on both the natural and built environment. The scoping process is scheduled to begin in early 2009, once a draft of the entire plan has been completed.
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The scoping process will be followed by the preparation of an Environmental Impact Report (EIR). The EIR will evaluate the potentially significant impacts (both direct and secondary) identified through the scoping process and outlline various means of avoiding or minimizing these impacts. Specific mitigation measures identified in the EIR will then be incorporated into the updated General Plan.
The EIR is expected to be available for public review and comment in the fall of 2009.
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Final Plan Adoption
Following completion of the EIR and any necessary revisions to the draft, adoption of the final general plan will occur during public hearings before both the Planning Commission and City Council.
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Click here to read a chronicle of the General Plan Update process, updated periodically by Planning Division staff.
How can I participate?
Not only is the general plan a technical achievement
and tool, it also is a tool of local democracy.
Frank So
Committed to an open, inclusive and wide-ranging dialogue throughout the General Plan Update process, the City has already sponsored several community workshops, with several more public workshops and meetings to follow in the months ahead. You are encouraged to check this webpage periodically to find out about upcoming events. You are also encouraged to provide comments by one or more of the following means:
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Telephone Comment Line: 760-643-2891
Email: vista2030@cityofvista.com
On-line Survey
