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| Written by PI Editorial Staff | |
| Saturday, 06 October 2007 | |
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Take the time to do planning right If one thing was clear after Thursday’s joint City Council and Planning Commission meeting, it’s that developing a new city general plan will be no easy task. However, the process is off to a good start. Both the planning commission and City Council appeared to carefully weigh the opinions of the city’s General Plan Advisory Committee and staff and consultants before reaching their own conclusions. It was a grueling, four-hour meeting, but good ideas were discussed, such as creating a large-scale park along the San Joaquin River and lowering Patterson’s desired population to 100,000 in 40 years. As in past general plan-related meetings, scads of brokers, lawyers and major landowners lined up trying to persuade appointed and elected leaders why their pet projects were ideal. Given all the pressure, it was good to see those leaders making independent decisions. Some members of the General Plan Advisory Committee may question the need for the alternative vision created by city staff and consultants, but the extra advice from full-time planning experts is a good thing. If it makes sense for people to get a second opinion from a doctor at times, then certainly it’s wise to get a second opinion from a consultant, particularly one the city is paying $1.3 million for expertise. The advisory committee is important because it consists of people who have a stake in the community. Yet, it’s also nice to get an unbiased opinion from those who have no stake in the community but have been trained in good planning. City leaders could only benefit by hearing advice from consultant Dave Moran about the potential environmental challenges of building in Del Puerto Canyon and by being warned that the city should not rely on the general plan to ward off county plans south of town. It’s also good to be reminded that the city must be able to provide infrastructure for the places it expands to, and that it cannot shrink Patterson’s 40-year target population to 100,000 while further expanding its boundaries. Planning 40 years into the future is a complex matter, and it may take a bit of back-and-forth dialogue with the consultant before an ideal plan is reached. Time is of the essence, but this shouldn’t be a rushed job. Mayor Becky Campo expressed wisdom when she said the council should take some extra time for the process if needed. After all, this is perhaps the most important thing a city can develop — the roadmap of its future. It behooves the city to do it right. Comments
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Unfortunately the GPAC committee didn't see the staff and consultants version until our packets arrived. It was too late to have much input by the joint PC and council meeting.
I feel the GPAC process was unesessarily rushed to ours and the cities disadvantage.