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Slow and steady, steady and slow, is how General Plan update will go

By Shannon Burkey

The process to update Saratoga's General Plan, which has not been updated in 23 years, is steadily moving forward after an Oct. 24 study session to discuss the Open Space/Conservation Element of the plan.

Members of the planning commission, planning department staff and the outside consultants hired to work on the document met with members of the community to discuss changes and additions to the Open Space/Conservation Element.

Saratoga resident Denise Goldberg, who served on the Open Space/Conservation Element Update Committee, said the study session went very well.

"We are all pretty happy with how it came out," Goldberg said. "Everything we talked about previously was almost completely reflected in the document."

The General Plan is a state-mandated policy guideline consisting of seven key elements that all California cities must have. Each city is responsible for writing its own plan and updating it every 10 years. But some elements of Saratoga's General Plan have not been updated since the early 1980s.

In order to comply with state laws, the city is looking to do a "technical" update of the Land Use Element, the Open Space Element and the Conservation Element. A study session to discuss the Land Use Element was held on Oct. 10. By updating these three elements, Saratoga's General Plan will meet the state's requirements. The city can then go back at a later date and update the remainder of the outdated document.

In order to save the city money and try to make the document a little more user-friendly, the city has decided to combine the similar Open Space Element and the Conservation Element.

"We are combining these elements because they are compatible," said associate planner Therese Schmidt. "It is also for the ease of staff in interacting with the document, and it will reduce the overall size of the document. Combining the two elements also gives us the chance to adopt a new element."

Many of the items discussed at the study session pertained to the wording and placement of items in the document. Some of the items discussed were as simple as deciding whether Saratoga should be classified as a rural, semi-rural or suburban community. The planning commission voted that it should be classified as a rural/semi-rural community for the purposes of the General Plan.

Each element of the General Plan has a section that outlines the city's goals and policies with ideas on how to implement those goals and policies.

Many people at the study session did not seem to agree with the way the Open Space/Conservation Element's goals and policies section was written.

"A lot of these policies are reading like implementations," Commissioner Susie Nagpal said.

Trish Cypher, who served on the Land Use Element Update Committee, agreed, saying more organization of that particular section was needed.

"We need to give the policies and implementations back to the consultants and have them reorganize them, then bring them back," Cypher said.

Although Goldberg said she would like to see the goals and policies section expanded, she likes how the Open Space/Conservation Element is taking shape so far.

"It still needs more work, but it seems to be moving along and taking into account everyone's thoughts," Goldberg said.

Both the Land Use Element and the Open Space/Conservation Element will come before the planning commission for public hearing at its Nov. 8 meeting. At that time, the commission can send either one or both elements to city council for approval, back to study sessions or back to a later commission meeting.

"It seems there are people who have been involved with open space and parks who have some good ideas," Commissioner Joyce Hlava said. "I suspect open space will go back to a study session to include those ideas into the document. I would be surprised if open space got to the city council before next January or February. There is still more work we can do."