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Introduction This advisory memo supplements the General Plan Guidelines. The Guidelines details the state requirements for local general plans through discussion of each of the seven mandatory elements and their component issues. This memo provides additional information on formats that consolidate two or more elements of the plan in order to eliminate redundant discussions of issues. The general plan statutes describe the mandatory general plan issues element-by-element. Most general plan amendments and revisions occur similarly, in an incremental fashion one element at a time. In order to simplify the presentation and description of the required planning issues, the General Plan Guidelines focuses on each of the elements in turn. Merging elements to eliminate redundancies is of little interest where only small general plan changes are being made. On the other hand, when a city or county is preparing either to write a new general plan or to revise two or more related elements of their existing general plan, combining the discussion of related issues into functional chapters is worth considering. The following discusses some of the many ways in which cities and counties have consolidated the elements of their general plans. Like the General Plan Guidelines, the scope of this advisory memo is primarily limited to the elements and planning issues described in state planning law (Government Code Sections 65100 et seq.). However, local governments can and do combine optional elements in the same ways that the required elements are combined. Also, the new functional elements may include issues that are of particular relevance locally. |
| Local Flexibility | "The general plan may be adopted in any format deemed appropriate or convenient by the legislative body, including the combining of elements." Government Code Section 65301 (excerpt) California planning law establishes the minimum contents and scope of local general plans. Each general plan must address the issues identified in the Planning Law to the extent that such issues are locally relevant. Although the Planning Law categorizes planning issues under seven "elements" (land use, circulation, open-space, conservation, housing, noise, and safety), there is no requirement that local general plans contain seven discrete sections. In fact, where a decade ago many general plans were comprised of several stand alone elements under separate covers, nearly all new plans are written as a single document. The various elements are found in separate chapters or sections of that document. Numerous communities organize their general plans along functional lines, addressing the relevant issues in the context of elements that are different from those enumerated in the state code. Most general plans also discuss non-mandatory issues such as economic development, public facilities, recreation, or community design. Most general plans consolidate all of their elements in a single document. More often than not, these elements combine two or more of the statutory elements with additional issues of local concern. Each chapter or section of the plan describes a set of related issues under such titles as land use, transportation, housing, public facilities, natural resources, and health and safety. |
| Advantages | The advantages of combining elements are manyfold: redundancy is minimized; internal consistency is easier to maintain; functionally-related goals, objectives, and policies can be grouped together for easier reference; and, the general plan text can be held to a reasonable size, making the plan both easier to understand and to implement. Streamlining to minimize duplication and overlap is a primary goal of element consolidation. For example, the Planning Law identifies flooding as an issue of concern in the land use, open-space, conservation, and safety elements. A consolidated plan might have an "environmental hazards element" containing a single set of goals and policies addressing issues such as flood control, flood hazard, and land uses within areas subject to flooding. All too often, when separate general plan elements are revised or adopted, inconsistencies seep in among the goals, objectives, policies and programs of the various elements. This is a real danger when the same or related issues are addressed independently in more than one element. Consolidation reduces the possibility of inconsistencies by reducing duplication. Because of the overlap among the planning issues in state law, there are certain elements that are particularly suited to consolidation. For instance, under state law the land use and circulation elements must be correlated; with the overlap between issues, a combined element may meet this requirement more efficiently. Safety and noise elements share the goal of avoiding environmental hazards. The open-space and conservation elements have many resource-related issues in common. Although housing element concerns overlap land use and open-space issues, in order to ensure that the state Housing and Community Development Department can perform its mandated review of draft housing elements, we do not recommend that the housing element be combined. |
| Consolidation Models | Around the state, new general plans are commonly placing all their elements under one cover. The following models and examples illustrate some the ways in which consolidated plans may be organized. There is no "best" method - each community selects the format meeting its particular needs. In practice, general plans often incorporate more than one of these methods of organization. When selecting the format of the general plan, keep the following goals in mind:
In some communities, the general plan consists of "super-elements" which combine related issues - that would otherwise be found in several elements - into broad functional categories such as land use and transportation (addressing land use and circulation), environmental hazards (addressing safety and noise), natural resources (addressing open-space and conservation), and housing. Other communities have taken a conservative approach and base each of their plans' chapters on one or more of the seven statutory elements (and any optional elements). This welds the plan into a single document, but does not necessarily reduce redundancy or increase efficiency. Now let's look at four basic ways of organizing a local general plan.
Keep in mind that these are idealized models and may not exactly match any
existing plan. Functional Consolidation The General Plan Guidelines suggests consolidating along functional lines.
For example, the planning issues identified in the seven statutory elements
can be reorganized into four elements: Housing and Economic Development;
Resources; Health and Safety; and Public/Quasi-Public Facilities and Services.
Each of these would constitute a chapter in the general plan, along with
any optional elements the jurisdiction wishes to include. Natural Resources Emphasis Some communities have adopted the Environmental Resources Management Element (ERME) concept of a resource-based plan. These plans combine the elements relating to resources or natural phenomena, such as Open-Space, Conservation, and Safety (e.g. wildland fires, landslides, surface rupture zones, etc.) and similar issues from the land use element, such as flood-prone areas and timberland productivity zones. This type of plan is suited to the areas with a concentration of natural resources or that must resolve conflicts between resources, natural hazards, and development. A resource emphasis plan might combine statutory elements as follows:
Similarly, the statutory general plan issues can be organized around development constraints and opportunities. Here's an example:
Land Use Emphasis This combines the issues that are central to land development into a comprehensive "community development element." This model is used in urban areas. A land use emphasis plan might combine statutory elements as follows:
Or, opt for further consolidation in the following manner:
Policy and Background Documents Some communities have chosen to separate the policies of their general plan from background data and analysis. This makes it easy to refer to the policies at a glance. At the same time, background information is available for reference when it's needed. Where the general plan is a large document, policies and background may be separate volumes. |
| Sample Layouts | This chart conceptually illustrates how statutory issues can fit into the resources emphasis, land use emphasis, and partial consolidation models. |
| City and County Examples | The Tables of Contents from several city and county general plans are linked here. These illustrate some of the possible ways to organize a consolidated general plan. The examples are offered to stimulate ideas, not because they are the only or the "best" approaches. Madera County General Plan |
| We hope you have found this information helpful in preparing or updating your general plan. While consolidating the elements can minimize redundancy, make consistency easier to maintain, and reduce the text within a general plan, the various issues identified in Section 65302 must still be addressed as described in state planning law (Government Code Section 65100 et seq.). For a detailed description of the state requirements for local general plans, please refer to The General Plan Guidelines which are available by contacting the Governor's Office of Planning and Research (OPR), (916) 322-3170. If you need further assistance you may call OPR's planning unit at (916) 445-0613. Additional planning information is also available at the Land Use Planning Information Network (LUPIN) website. |