General Plan Update

Background:

The City Council firmly believes that the current General Plan, created and adopted in 1975, is a masterpiece of visionary planning that has served the City well over the past 31 years. However, the Council also acknowledges that certain portions of the General Plan are either outdated or factually incorrect and need a fresh look. Some portions of the Plan that need to be reviewed and updated include traffic, geology and open space from the aspect of existing conditions as well as a vision for the future.

Included in the 1975 General Plan is a list of 28 Goals and 190 policies. These goals and policies were generated by a “grass-roots” organization of over 200 City residents who formed themselves into thirteen committees to look at different elements of the General Plan including land use, recreation and parks, safety and fiscal policy and offer their ideas to guide the future of the City.

The City if currently working on two major updates to the General Plan.  The first is an overall update to the entire General Plan; and, the second is a specific update to the General Plan Housing Element, as required by State Law.  A description of each of these efforts is shown below.

Overall General Plan Update (As of February 19, 2008):

As a first step toward updating the entire General Plan, the City Council created a 15-member General Plan Update Steering Committee. The purpose of the committee was to review the existing Goals and Policies of the General Plan and determine which Goals and Policies need to be eliminated, revised or maintained, and if any new Goals and Policies should be proposed, and what technical areas of the General Plan need updating. After over two years of work, on November 4, 2004, the General Plan Update Steering Committee completed their task of reviewing all of the existing goals and policies of the 1975 General Plan. The Steering Committee’s recommendations, along with a General Plan Update Program, were presented to the City Council on December 21, 2004. To find out exactly what changes have been proposed by the Steering Committee, you can access the most recent copy of the "General Plan Goals and Policies - As modified by the General Plan Steering Committee" by clicking below.

At the December 21, 2004 meeting, the City Council (1) Directed Staff to proceed with drafting proposed amendments to the General Plan Goals and Policies as recommended by the General Plan Update Steering Committee for future review by the Planning Commission and City Council; (2) Directed Staff to proceed with an update of the factual information within the General Plan for future review by the Planning Commission and City Council; (3) Directed Staff to proceed with the proposed improvements to the general format of the General Plan and the mandatory elements for future review by the Planning Commission and City Council in order to make the Plan more user friendly; (4) Directed Staff to release an RFQ to obtain consultant assistance with updating portions of the General Plan; and (5) Disbanded the General Plan Update Steering Committee.

Progress on the General Plan Update had been delayed since the December 21, 2004 Council meeting while Staff focused its attention on a variety of high profile development projects and other issues. In April 2006, Staff sent out a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) to obtain consultant assistance with updating the General Plan, and on February 20, 2007, the City Council entered into an agreement with three consulting firms to assist Staff with the update.  It is anticipated that the consultant’s work will be completed within 10-12 months with the draft General Plan elements presented to the Planning Commission sometime in early 2008.

Housing Element Update (As of February 19, 2008):

The State requires that each local government periodically review and revise their Housing Element.  This is the only element within the General Plan that a local jurisdiction is required to update.  Normally, local governments are required to update their Housing Elements every five years.  The last update to the City’s Housing Element was certified by the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) in 2001.  The next Housing Element update for all cities was due in 2005.  However, due to constraints, the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) was unable to prepare a new Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) – a critical component in the preparation of a Housing Element – in time for cities to prepare their updates.  As such, current State Law requires that the City, along with all other cities within the SCAG region, update its Housing Element by June 30, 2008.

Working with a Housing Element consultant, Staff has prepared a Preliminary Draft Housing Element as a way of soliciting public input on the Housing Element update before submitting it to the State HCD for review.  A public hearing/workshop was conducted with the Planning Commission on February 12, 2008, and a public hearing/workshop will be conducted with the City Council on March 4, 2008.  The purpose of these hearings/workshops is to obtain feedback on the document and to allow the public additional input into the Housing Element process.  As a result of any feedback received at the Planning Commission and City Council meetings, Staff will make any necessary changes to the Preliminary Draft.  The document will then be submitted as a Draft Housing Element to HCD for a 60-day review period.  Once HCD provides comments back to the City, the Housing Element will be brought back for review by the Planning Commission through a public hearing process.  The Planning Commission will then make a recommendation to the City Council.  The City Council would then conduct a public hearing to formally adopt the Housing Element.  At the same time, the appropriate environmental review (in accordance with CEQA) will be prepared for the Housing Element Amendment.

To view the Preliminary Draft Housing Element, please click on the appropriate link below.

More Information:

The City’s project manager overseeing the General Plan Update is Deputy Planning Director Greg Pfost. He may be contacted by telephone at (310) 544-5228, via e-mail at gregp@rpv.com, or via U.S. Mail at City of Rancho Palos Verdes, 30940 Hawthorne Blvd., Rancho Palos Verdes, California, 90275.

The City’s project manager overseeing the Housing Element Update is Senior Planner Eduardo Schonborn.  He may be contacted by telephone at (310) 544-5228, via e-mail at eduardos@rpv.com, or via U.S. Mail at City of Rancho Palos Verdes, 30940 Hawthorne Blvd., Rancho Palos Verdes, California, 90275.

If you would like to be placed on an "interested parties" list to receive any future notices related to the General Plan Update project via e-mail, you may subscribe by joining the list server group here.

Click here to view a copy of the current Rancho Palos Verdes General Plan.

Click here to view a list of all of the Goals and Policies contained within the General Plan.

Click here to view the “General Plan Goals and Policies - As modified by the General Plan Steering Committee"

Click here to view the Preliminary Draft Housing Element.