What happened with the General Plan? The Council and Planning Commission thought they had a plan that reflected what most of the citizens wanted but 57% of the voters turned it down.
We need to find out what the negatives were and redo the plan. I am asking our residents to tell us here what they liked about the plan if they voted yes and what they disliked about the plan if they voted no. That will help us make a new start.
First, however, let me summarize the major points in the present plan.
1. Existing zoning is not changed anywhere in the plan. Future growth is what the plan is about.
2. Residential areas are projected to grow with low density, large lots.
3. Commercial land is kept as-is. There are presently about 175 acres zoned commercial with enough vacant to hold over one hundred future stores including a dozen that could be supermarket size.
4. Industrial land is also kept as-is. There are over 500 acres, mostly the Mine and Smelter area presently under EPA study. There is enough vacant land for fifty or more companies to locate here in the future.
5. Future requests for zone changes must be reviewed by the Planning and Zoning Commission and approved by the Council before they can be effective. If zone change requests involve residential land over 60 acres or any rezoning from Residential to Commercial or Industrial, then a number of additional limitations are contained in the plan.
6. The Road System in the plan is projected to add better access to the whole area West of Highway 69 and to complete the missing links in the system on the East side.
So, tell us what you want to keep and what features of the plan should change. We will be using this blog and other methods to gather citizen input to help us create a better plan over the next few months and then send it back to the voters in the fall of 2009.
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2 comments:
Earl,
My wife and I voted via mail from CA. I wasn't terribly pleased with every aspect of the GP, but thought it was an improvement over previous, which was decades old inherited from county that basically froze assets since the incorporation- not good. Property owners and residents deserve a plan- realize this one remains in force until a new one is adopted.
One problem that you and others may or may not have been aware of was the confusion of the ballet itself. My wife and I are reasonably intelligent and functional people with a fair amount of experience in business law, real estate, etc. We both were in favor of the GP, but voted differently because we translated the language differently- didn't realize it until talking about it after the fact.
One of the problems with democracy in an increasingly complex world is that citizens don't or can't understand what they are voting for (whether by accident or all too often by intent.
In our case the problem wasn't the plan, but the ballot. - MM
Correction- "ballot"
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