Reinventing the General Plan
Published: October 22, 2008
Why Reinvent the General Plan:
The General Plan is a key policy document to address public issues in California as witnessed by the desire of policymakers to continue to add elements to the General Plan. The issue of climate change and greenhouse gas emissions, especially with the passage of SB 375, presents a pressing challenge as to how general plans should be used to address this critical concern. Meanwhile, Cities and counties are making great investments of time and money to prepare general plans to suit their individual policy needs. Too often these expensive general plans sit on shelves after adoption.
Government resources to take up these issues are limited. The State Office of Planning and Research is focused on preparing an addendum to the General Plan Guidelines to address Green House Gases. Where is the comprehensive, innovative dialogue and analysis needed to address the role and create the effective models for a 21st Century General Plan? The California Planning Roundtable is prepared to take the leadership on this important project.
Status of the General Plan Reinvention Project:
The California Planning Roundtable initiated work on this project last year relying solely on the volunteer work of its members. The Roundtable recognized that we have a short time frame to bring this project forward to keep it relevant to the legislative and policy pressures California is facing. CPR is now seeking additional funding for this time sensitive project. CPR is a small organization and we have committed $5000 to hire a project manager, in addition to the participation of our members, to implement Phase 1. CPR also received $10,000, with the potential of an additional $10,000, from the California Chapter of the American Planning Association for Phase 1.
Phase 1 involves reconnaissance with foundations and stakeholders active in 21st century California planning issues to develop a proposal for foundation funding. Our Phase 1 objective is to listen to the foundations and the stakeholders and use that input to craft the CPR proposal for foundation funding. We are seeking ideas for the scope of the project, the collaborative process that should be followed, the stakeholders who should be involved and the content that should be covered. The product of this Phase 1 reconnaissance will be a project proposal that CPR will submit to foundations for funding.
CPR anticipates that Phase 1 will be completed in early 2009 and the project will take about 1.5 years with an estimated total budget of between 500,000 and one million dollars. That schedule and budget will be refined based on the input we receive In Phase 1.
The California Planning Roundtable:
The California Planning Roundtable (CPR) is an organization of experienced planning professionals. Membership is balanced between the public and private sectors, and between Northern and Southern California. The mission of the Roundtable is to provide a forum for prominent planners to exercise creativity and leadership in promoting an understanding of California's critical public policy issues, and recommending action. For over 25 years, the Roundtable has had a history of improving planning practice in California by producing reports, articles and conference sessions. The Reinventing the General Plan project builds upon that successful history and the broad experience and leadership of the Roundtable members to tackle this important project.