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City's updated general plan is finally ready for a public hearing

By Shannon Burkey

It has taken four study sessions and one public hearing, but the Saratoga Planning Commission members finally feel the city's General Plan, which has not been updated in 23 years, is ready to move forward.

At its Dec. 13 study session to discuss the update of the Land Use Element and the Open Space/Conservation Element of the General Plan, the commissioners cleaned up some of the language to make it more reflective of Saratoga.

After a four-hour study session, commissioners decide they're ready to hold a public hearing on the plan, at which time they will vote on whether the plan is ready to go before the city council for approval.

"I'm very happy with how things went," Commissioner Joyce Hlava said. "I think all of the discussion was very productive. There was no major disagreement and a great deal of consensus."

The General Plan is a state-mandated policy guideline that all California cities must have. It consists of seven key elements. 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 '80s.

In order to comply with state laws, the city is looking to do a technical update of the Land Use Element and the Open Space Element/Conservation Element. By updating these 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 The city can then go back at a later date and update the remainder of the outdated document.

Since the process to update the document began, community members have been involved trying to make sure the commission puts out a document that is reflective of what Saratoga represents. Many members have asked the commission not to rush the process that they feel is so vital to the community.

"You have done a really good job listening to people in terms of maintaining Saratoga in the way people want it to be," said Wanda Kownacki, who was co-chair of the Land use Element Update Committee.

Trish Cypher, who served on the Land Use Element Update Committee, said she really wants to see the city have a General Plan that makes sense, and so far the process to get there has not been smooth.

"You have elements being pulled out, handed to a consultant, then handed back and stuffed into an out-of-date document," Cypher said. "That's what we have right now. Some elements are updated and some are not. There is not one document we can call the General Plan. We have a lot of fragmented elements we call a General Plan. I think we need to look at that and understand that at one time we had a document called a General Plan that didn't look like this piecemeal sort of thing, and I would like to see us have that again."

The commission plans to bring the General Plan updates to a public hearing at its Jan. 24 meeting.