State urges city to update general plan

Mathis Winkler

NEWPORT BEACH -- During her 25 years in city government, Asst. City

Manager Sharon Wood hasn’t seen a letter quite like the one the city

received from California’s attorney general a few weeks ago.

In the three-page document -- clearly a form letter since it refers to

the city as “your jurisdiction” and never as “Newport Beach” -- Atty.

General Bill Lockyer, or his chief assistant, Richard M. Frank, expressed

concern over the city’s sluggishness in updating its general plan.

“We urge you to prepare and adopt [an update] ... as soon as

practicable,” the letter reads. “We also request that you provide us an

update of your progress toward completing, and/or your plans to prepare,

a comprehensive general plan update, including a schedule for this

activity.”

What follows are lots of numbers for government code sections and

legal precedents through which cities and counties have been taken to

court for falling behind in their general plan updates. (o7 Families

Unafraid to Uphold Rural El Dorado County et al. v. Board of Supervisors

of El Dorado County, et al. f7 clearly being the one with the most

imaginative title.)

“What the Atty. General is saying is that if you haven’t done [an

update in a long time,] there could be internal inconsistencies and we

could be in an uncomfortable position,” said Wood, adding that the

general plan’s housing element was the only one that required by law an

update every five years.

“It’s just a gentle reminder to move forward with an amendment on all

elements,” said Councilman Tod Ridgeway. “Some we have updated, but the

land use and circulation elements we have not updated.”

It comes, in some ways, belatedly. Together with council colleagues

Norma Glover and Gary Adams, Ridgeway was ready to participate in a

general plan update committee, scheduled to meet for the first time Oct.

9. Other committee members include planning commissioners and

representatives from the environmental quality advisory, economic

development, aviation and harbor committees.

“Our first charge is to map out the process and agree on an approach

to the update,” said Adams, who will chair the committee. After coming up

with a plan to update the plan, the group would get involved in a

“community visioning process.”

“How we would do that is really up to the committee,” he said.

Glover, who said that she pushed for a “long overdue” update ever

since City Manager Homer Bludau began work in May 1999, already had some

ideas to involve residents in the work.

“What I thought would be great to do is for every single councilman to

take their district and determine which way to get input from residents,”

she said. “What works well in getting information in one district doesn’t

work well in another district.”

Glover said that she plans to set up meetings throughout her district

and involve people that might not even know who she is.

She’d present them with different options for the city’s future and

ask them to choose, she said.

“If you want more development, what development do you want?” she said

she’d ask her constituents. “If you want less development and less

revenue [for the city,] what would be the services that the city provides

now that we could take away?”

Personally, Glover said, she favors a plan to spend city money on

revitalizing areas such as Mariner’s Mile.

“If we took money and started redeveloping to make our city beautiful,

we would get the high-end tourist,” she said. “I’m convinced of that.”

One final note to the people in Sacramento: Maybe it wouldn’t be such

a bad idea to update your data base when you send out update reminders.

Honorable he might be, but Dennis O’Neil’s no longer Newport Beach’s

mayor, as your letter suggests.

FYI

The Ad Hoc General Plan Update Committee will meet Oct. 9 at 3 p.m. in

the Fire Conference Room at City Hall, 3300 Newport Blvd.

o7 Newport Beach’s General Plan elements and most recent updates:f7

Land Use Element 1988

Circulation Element 1988

Conservation of Natural Resources Element 1974

Noise 1994

Public Safety 1975

Growth Management no date specified

* The law requires an update for the Housing Element every five years.

Although the last update occurred about seven years ago, Wood said the

city is still in compliance. An update is scheduled for this year.