TO: HONORABLE CITY COUNCIL FROM: Mayor Mahan
Vice Mayor Foley
Councilmember Campos
Councilmember Cohen
Councilmember Casey
SUBJECT:SEE BELOW DATE: August 22, 2025
Approved Date: 8/22/2025
SUBJECT: GPT25-002 - General Plan Text Amendment to Amend Policy IP-2.11
RECOMMENDATION
Approve the staff recommendations with the following modifications and direction:
1. Amend Policy IP-2.11 to clarify that the City Council shall convene the taskforce or advisory body. The language in the Resolution shall read:
a. IP-2.11 During each Major Review of the Envision General Plan, the City Council shall convene a Taskforce, or an advisory group, such as the Planning Commission, that provides a public forum for community and stakeholder engagement in reviewing and evaluating success in the implementation of this General Plan and recommending any mid-course actions needed to achieve its goals.
2. Direct the City Manager to update the Outreach Plan (Exhibit B) to include the following actions:
a. Conduct outreach to additional community-serving organizations and partners that serve populations with unique and challenging housing needs. b. Develop materials promoting open house, virtual, and other public comment opportunities that explicitly solicit input from populations with unique and challenging housing needs.
c. Identify locations for the four in-person open house events with the goals of geographic diversity, accessibility, and meeting community members where they are. d. Explore the feasibility of organizing at least one citywide-focused virtual community meeting.
e. In collaboration with Council Offices, reach out to school districts to assist with the distribution of promotional materials.
BACKGROUND
We appreciate staff’s expeditious preparation of the General Plan text amendments necessary to allow the Planning Commission to serve as the advisory body for the upcoming narrowly-scoped Four Year Review, fulfilling Council direction provided in June. We also are grateful for the COUNCIL AGENDA: 8/26/2025
FILE: 25-913
ITEM: 10.2
2 Office of Racial and Social Equity’s collaboration with the Planning, Building, and Code Enforcement Department to prepare a comprehensive and thoughtful Outreach Plan, acknowledging that robust engagement of our diverse community will be necessary to ensure maximum participation in this crucial and important work to increase residential capacity citywide.
We encourage our colleagues to support the staff recommendations with minor adjustments.
First, we believe it is important to clarify that the City Council has the sole authority to convene the Taskforce or alternative advisory body. A comprehensive 4-Year Review scope may warrant a more robust advisory body, and the Council should have the discretion to determine the composition of the advisory body based on the magnitude of the changes to the General Plan proposed. Consistent with prior practice, if a Taskforce is convened, the Mayor shall appoint the members, subject to City Council approval. The Council has already determined that the Planning Commission shall serve as the advisory body for the Review underway.
Additionally, we recommend enhancing the Outreach Plan to promote diverse input in the General Plan update process. Engaging other community-serving organizations and partners will help ensure broader participation. These organizations should include but not be limited to: The Kelsey, Bill Wilson Center, YWCA, African American Community Services Agency, Asian Americans for Community Involvement (AACI), Senior Adults Legal Assistance (SALA), Destination: Home, and Next Door Solutions to Domestic Violence. Our list is not exhaustive, and we encourage staff and Council Offices to consider other potential partners.
Promotional materials for community outreach meetings must be written in accessible, easy-to- understand language. Further, we recommend that PBCE and ORSE staff collaborate to produce outreach materials that explicitly solicit input from communities with unique and challenging housing needs, who often are underrepresented in Planning processes. Such populations should include immigrants, survivors of intimate partner violence, large families, the unhoused, and households in overcrowded conditions.
We recommend a citywide-focused virtual community meeting, in addition to the four in-person open house events, to allow for greater virtual participation opportunities in the 4-Year Review process.
Finally, outreach to schools may help us reach populations that generally do not participate in General Plan update processes. A “light-touch” approach to see which school districts may be interested can help Council Offices distribute outreach materials as appropriate.
The signers of this memorandum have not had, and will not have, any private conversation with any other member of the City Council, or that member’s staff, concerning any action discussed in the memorandum, and that each signer’s staff members have not had, and have been instructed not to have, any such conversation with any other member of the City Council or that member's staff.