Item 4: PH on Ordinance Adopting PROS Comprehensive Plan

Home Browse Search

lY1a vor ami Ci t y GOUll ciL___ ~~__u_m~____u_~_-,QS~~',9J11bSli?_'u2 OO:L__uu___.__uu_u~_u_.__u_~____uu~__ Page 2 ..____uu_....Q___~ of reasons_ First, many or the adopted policies apply only to City actions and have no impact on land use applicants. For exarnp1e, tbe Delta Ponds policy ("Develop tbe Delta Ponds as a major recreational area and corridor including a variety of recreational and educational opportunities.") is direction to the City regarding the development of the Delta Ponds area. Second, the adopted policies that could impose a requircrnent on a land use applicant are already covered by specific land use application requirements. For example, the policy requiring pedestrian acce,,,;s to acljacent parks (EC 9.9550( l)(c)) is covered by EC 9.6835(1) which requires that "the city shall require within the development site the dedication to the public and improvement of accessways for pedestrian and bicyclist use to connect the development site to adjacent cul-de-sacs or to an adjacent site that is undeveloped, publicly owned, or developed with an accessway that connects to the subject site. . .." In fact, staffs decision to delete the Chapter 9 policies without replacement policies was based largely on the conclusion that the 1989 policies were already addressed in the existing Chapter 9 regulation and deleting the policies ehrninated the current redundancy. Because the 1989 Plan policies have no practical effect on subdivision, pariition or site review applications, repealing the policies that were incorporated into Chapter I) wiB not have practical effect on the City's processing of those types of land lJse applications. 2. The })ROS Comprehensive Plan as a Refinement Piau As explained at the November 28,2005, Council work session, in order to repeal the 1989 Plan, the City needed to follow the BC Chapter I) Type V land use process, the same process required for refinement plan adoption. The guiding reason behind the City's decision to adopt the PROS Comprehensive Plan as a refinement plan is the fact that it replaces the 1989 Plan, which was adopted as a refinement plan. Based on our review of state law and tbe Metro Plan, we conclude that, as tbe law exists today" the City's local parks plan need not be adopted as a refinement to the Metro Plan. The City could repeal the 1989 Plan and then adopt the PROS Comprehensive Plan as a standalone document, that is, not as a refInement to the Metro Plan. Due to the aspirational nature of the PROS Comprehensive Plan, adopting the Plan ~IS something other than a retlnement to the Metro Plan does not have any foreseeable consequences. The PROS Comprehensive Plan does not contain any legal requirements on land division applicants. Regarding the strategies contained in the PROS Comprehensive Plan, the strategies arc aspirationaJ and not binding on anyone but the City. To the extent any of the strategies implicate private development, City staff have determined that the strategies, like many of the 1989 Plan policies, are already covered by existing Chapter 9 code provisions. Thus, even though the strategies in the PROS Comprehensive Plan have no independent legal weight OIl anyone but the City, such an absence of legal weight will not impact the current land lIse regulations applicable to applicants as those regulations relate to the City's park and open space system. 3. Process for Adopting the PROS Comprehensive Plan as Something Other than a Refinement to tbe Metro Plan Even though the PROS Comprehensive Plan need not be adopted as a refinement to the MetTo Plan, because the PROS Comprehensive Plan will serve as part of this area's parks and recreation plan under Goal 8, we believe that the City should follow the Type V land lIse adoption process to adopt the Attachment 13