>> All right,
we're settled in. Good evening,
everyone. How we doing? Are you
having an exciting discussion
about our General Plan? Well,
welcome. Let's first
of all call this meeting
to order,
a special joint meeting
of the City Council and the
Planning Commission,
Thursday, December 17, 2015
at 6:03 P.M. And let's maybe
start with the role. This ought
to be fun.
>> For the role call,
we'll actually start with the
Planning Commissioners.
Commissioner Tong?
>> Here.
>> Commissioner Spease?
>> Here.
>> Commissioner Maita?
>> Present.
>> Commissioner Harris is
absent, and Commissioner
Murphy?
>> Here.
>> And for the City Council,
Councilmember Suen?
>> Here.
>> Councilmember Hume?
>> Here.
>> Councilmember Detrick?
>> Here.
>> Vice Mayor Lee?
>> Here.
>> And Mayor Davis?
>> Here.
>> I'd like to ask maybe the
Chair of the Planning
Commission to lead us in the
Pledge of Allegiance, please.
>> Will everyone stand? Hand
over heart,
pledge.
>> I pledge allegiance
to the flag of the United
States of America and to the
Republic for which it stands,
one nation under God,
indivisible,
with liberty and justice
for all.
>> Great, thanks very much. I
think this is going
to be an exciting workshop.
Obviously, any time we can get
the Planning Commission and the
Council together
with the community to talk
about anything is exciting.
But really to check in on our
General Plan and have a
workshop around that,
certainly is going
to be a productive use
of our time. So I'm excited
about it. We do have a formal
agenda in front of us,
so maybe we'll just jump right
in and look for--I'd like
to entertain a motion to
approve the agenda.
>> I move it.
>> Second.
>> Motion by Lee, second by
Suen. All right. All
in favor?
>> Aye.
>> Opposed? Abstentions?
Great, okay. So we've got one
item in front of us tonight,
and who's going
to kick us off?
>> Good evening, Mayor,
Council, and Commission
Members. Christopher Jordan
with the City Manager's
Office. Thank you so much for
giving us your time this
evening for this item and
for all sitting up there with
us low types. I very much
appreciate it. So tonight,
we're going to be talking
about the General Plan update.
This is a check-in opportunity
for where we've been
since we were last with you
in June and initially scoping
the project. We do have some
initial -- to share
with you and get your feedback
and further direction upon
to move into the next phase
in the new year. So our agenda
tonight in the updates,
we're going to go
through some finer points of
the status and the outreach
that's been conducted and what
we've been hearing
from the community,
from the residents,
from interested parties through
the engagement activities.
It's been a very
in-depth--we've had a very
broad cross-section
of community engaged
through our mobile workshops,
through the weekend workshops
that we held, I think, in
September and November, and we
also have a lot more planned in
the new year as we start
getting into the deeper policy
conversations. And we'll be
highlighting some
of those pieces
for you later this evening.
The next half
of the presentation,
the second half is going
to be talking
about the vision, that's the
document,
the booklet that you got
in your packet that you have up
on the -- this
evening. We do have additional
copies for the public
in the back of the room. If any
of you don't have hard copies,
we can certainly get them
to you. I want to really
highlight and stress the
importance of this. And there's
an analogy here I'll try
to use very briefly. This
process of creating the
General Plan is
about setting a direction,
where is it that we're going as
a community. I sort
of liken it to at the vision
level we're deciding we're
going to travel East. We're
going to the East Coast, we're
going to drive there. The
policies get
into how we get there,
what roads we're taking,
what modes of transportation.
So we want
to make sure that we're all
on the same page, that we're
going eastward or whatever that
direction is. And to the policy
conversations that we're going
to have in the first half
of next year, we're deciding
what routes we get there and
whether we're going to say
Boston or Miami. So this is a
critical point
in understanding that we're all
on the same page, we're all
holding hands together and
understanding it. The finer
details of what that direction
means and how it's implemented
on the ground
through development projects,
city actions, coordination
with outside service providers,
other things that happen, those
will be the critical decisions
going forward. So this is an
important first step
in the preparation
of the overall General Plan.
We'll have opportunities
to walk through the documents
and how we got there
at a staff perspective,
why we're recommending this
to you this evening,
and then opportunity
for further public comment
on it. And then seeking
direction
from you--did we get it right,
are we on the same page,
or what changes should be make
to this as we move forward
into the new year. This real
briefly, primarily
for the audience
of folks that are joining us,
we'll obviously be posting the
audio to the websites early
next week so others can take
advantage of it. The General
Plan, as it exists today,
was first adopted in 2003.
There have been a number
of amendments the City has done
to it over the following 13
years. Many
of them developer-initiated or,
obviously, city-initiated
for various topics, some
on the land use side, some
for various policies like our
sustainability element. There
are some upcoming amendments
that are already in process,
like the safety element update
dealing with 200-year flood
plan requirements
of the state. And there's other
changes that have occurred in
the broader law or regulatory
framework that we need
to take advantage
of and really address
in an updated General Plan.
These are the elements or
chapters or components
of your existing General Plan.
I think it's about 9 or 11
in all. Some
of these are required
components under state law,
like circulation, land use,
housing. Others are optional
elements or things that we've
chosen as a community
to include, such as: historic
preservation, economic
development,
and sustainability. What format
the General Plan takes
in its newer version,
the new edition that will come
out of this process,
whether it's an existing format
of the elements as individual
chapters or those element
requirements broken up into
clusters based upon the key
topics -- embedded and
explored so that we package
this thing in ultimately a
format that is user-friendly,
that really responds
to the interest
of the community, which is one
of the central tenents you gave
us
in initiating this process back
in June. You asked
for an up-to-date,
forward-thinking plan--what is
the next 15, 20, 25 years
of the City look like--to make
the document something that the
average resident can pick up
and understand and really be
able to see what the
community's vision is
for itself in the future and
how we're going to get there.
It needs
to be clear and understandable
but also flexible to changing
circumstances that exist. It
ought to be based upon active
and an engaged community, which
is what we have been striving
to do through these outreach
opportunities the last several
months and will continue
to do all the way through the
adoption process slated for
2017. We are engaging not only
the staff level but also
with the decisionmakers,
the ten of you or nine that are
here this evening,
through this process to make
sure we're understanding is and
how to articulate these things
appropriately. And finally,
and also very importantly, that
it's a fiscally viable plan.
Is this plan and the vision and
the goals that it's setting
out something that we can live
with in our financial means
to achieve. So real briefly
on the status, and we'll get
into some
of these detail points
in a little bit. There's an
Existing Conditions report that
documents where the City is
today. We did one
of these back in 2003
with the original General
Plan, so we're updating it. It
reflects newer regulations,
state law components,
and existing status of the
City. That report will be
coming out in the new year
for the public to review, and
ultimately would be an appendix
to the General Plan, informing
how we got
to where we would be
in the new document. Through
the community engagements,
we've been working since
August on a variety
of aspects. You'll hear
about those later this evening.
That outreach, again,
will continue through
into the ultimate adoption in
2017. And tonight we have this
draft shared community vision
and supporting principles.
This is the outgrowth
of the outreach,
what we've been hearing today,
and what we're understanding
and trying to vet this evening
and get final direction on,
that this is ultimately where
we are trying to go. That being
said, if we get through, let's
say, the next six months
of policy direction, policy
discussion, land use
discussion,
and we're analyzing things back
to this vision statement, back
to the supporting principles
for consistency and a tweak is
needed,
we can certainly do that. This
isn't something that is set
in stone. Tonight,
with your direction, it's
something that could be
massaged going forward as we
have these further
conversations. That's okay. But
it's important that we have a
starting point for the
conversations going forward.
As I've mentioned,
the ultimate goal is adoption
in 2017. So you can see where
we are in that process,
we're right on schedule
with the Conditions report and
the Visioning Workshop hasn't
been completed. And some of the
key issues and policy topics,
we're beginning to,
starting next month actually,
we'll get
into those policy pieces. The
goal is to have a draft
General Plan and the EIR
released at
about this time next year. So
we've got quite a ways to go
in the next 12 months
to get there. And ultimately,
into adoption, spring,
early part of summer of 2017.
So there's several folks with
me here this evening that will
be presenting various pieces:
Jeff Henderson, the overall
project manager, Sara
Allender, the assistant
manager, and Nora De Cuir, the
outreach coordinator. So I'll
turn it over to them to walk
through some
of these pieces now. Thank you.
>> Good evening, Council,
Commissioners. I'm Nora De
Cuir, an outreach coordinator
with the General Plan team.
And I want to take you
through just a refresher
of where we've been thus far
with our community engagement
program. I know many
of you have caught us either
at a workshop or out at one of
mobile studios that we've been
conducting. So as you can see
from the graphic that you have
in front of you, we kicked off
with a planning academy,
which is a focus event
to provide additional context
to set the stage
for the community in terms of
what a general plan is and why
it's important
for our future. It's hard
to want to engage in a topic as
broad as the general plan for
your community if you don't
have a sense
of how that relates
to local governance as a whole.
So the planning academy was
intended to provide not only
in person
for folks who attended that
on that Saturday morning,
but also
to have those materials online
for people who are digging in
to the General Plan and want a
little bit of that context. So
we moved from there
into events that went out into
the community and brought
essentially a mini workshop
in a doublewide tent to events
where people were already
gathering, like the Dickens
Fair and the Safety Fair and
Food Truck Mania. And what our
experience has shown us and has
really proven true throughout
the course
of this outreach effort since
August is that while a
community workshop is a great
forum for sitting down
with a focused group of folks
and rolling up your sleeves
to work on something, you can
reach more people just
numbers-wise if you are going
out where folks are already
gathering and they don't need
to think about scheduling
in that workshop on their
calendar or taking too much
time out
of a busy weekend morning
to attend. So the mobile
workshop, I will take you
through some of our results
from those, and we have more
of those planned as we move
into the spring. We did also
hold a community-wide vision
workshop which provided a forum
for folks who are interested to
come together and do more
brainstorming. We're thinking
about where we should be going
as a community, and Sara will
be taking you through some
of the results
of that workshop as well.
We've also had an online
component for folks who have
not yet been able
to participate in person
but enables you not only
to receive information
but also just to provide
your--you can click a "submit
comments" button and have
comments come right through
to Christopher. So we've tried,
like Christopher said, to
provide as broad an opportunity
as possible
for participation, but
participation is always
something that you are working
on improving. And so as we move
forward, we really want
to build on the lessons that
we've learned in terms of how
to reach people, how
to recruit people
for the effort. We want
to encourage everyone
in this room to help us recruit
people so that we can keep
adding voices
to the process as we go long.
So if we take a quick look
at what we have heard thus far
for the mobile workshops,
we were interested in
understanding a little bit more
about the characteristics of
those participating and how
they've perceived their
neighborhood quality right now.
So we did ask in some
of the activities, which you
may have seen, for folks to
pick up a chip that was labeled
with an "E" if you lived on the
east side town or a "W" if you
lived on the west side
of town, so that the
information that you provided
during those mini workshop
activities would help us better
understand what your input said
relative to where you lived and
what your Elk Grove experience
is. So you'll see that the
results that I share on the
next slide are split here. We
can look at the
Input that we've received both
in terms of citywide, and also
on the neighborhood level
relative to whether or not
folks were participating as a
resident of the west side of
99 in Elk Grove or the east
side of 99. So as you see here,
some of the workshop results,
some items in common. That
multi-mobile transportation is
something that shows up as a
citywide priority when we asked
folks to put chips in a bucket
indicating their highest
priorities. You'll see that
shows up
for both east and west, though
in different order. You'll see
that open space
in resource management is also
on there. But you will see that
there is a, for example,
unique note that east of 99,
rural areas were a priority,
whereas
for folks participating as west
of 99 residents, that was not a
priority they indicated.
Neighborhood ratings also
showed some things in common,
things that are going well,
presence
of children and seniors. You
get a lot of feedback in terms
of quality of life
for children. We did have
children's activities that,
at the Merry Movie Night last
weekend, gathered a lot
of input
from folks just coming
in that are not included
in our head count, where
children are participating and
providing us good input and
parents are simply reviewing
the materials that are
out there. You will see here
that in terms of things that
are doing well and things that
need improvement,
we do have a common response.
So as Sara and Jeff will talk
more about, because we're just
at the beginning
of the process, we're
unearthing things that our
response that right now we know
we need
to dig a little bit deeper
into that because, obviously,
for some of our residents, it's
something that's working really
well in their neighborhood and
for others, it's not. And so
this doesn't indicate
to us where a policy might go.
We need
to talk a little bit more
with the community
about things like that,
that have turned up through the
mobile workshop responses. We
also started
out our visioning process
at the mobile workshops. We
wanted to capture some
of that brainstorming
about our vision from everyone
that we've interacted
with thus far,
not just the folks who came
to the visioning workshops. So
we did ask for some
of that input
to provide a comparable
exercise at both division
workshop and the mobile
workshop. And these results
helped feed into the vision,
which is the book that you have
in front of you
in draft form. And I'm going
to bring Sara up at this point
to help describe a little bit
more how this input was used
and what other elements played
into it. And I'll be happy to
answer more questions that you
have as you get
into your discussion
about --.
>> One quick question
for you.
>> Yes.
>> You don't need
to go back necessarily,
but the previous slide sort of
summarized strengths and
opportunities. And at the
bottom you said there's more
available online. So I think--I
mean just from a general
curiosity standpoint, I mean it
would be--I bet you the
differences are in geography.
Are we able to dig
in and see what parts of the
community see trails as a
strength and what parts of the
community sees trails as an
opportunity for even more,
that sort of thing? Or is it
just purely all lumped
in together?
>> We don't have fine-grained
geographic data on that, based
on just the type
of exercise that it was,
because we were just asking
someone
to identify as east or west,
not to put the--there was a map
where we were asking folks
to pinpoint where you live,
but that was just
to help us get a sense of how
representative the input has
been.
>> Okay.
>> But there is a summary.
Everything that we have heard
thus far,
all input that we've received
across the community engagement
program is in a memo that's
being continually updated as
events happen and as an event
happens and we update that
input. It goes online. Right
now it is really in transcript
form and doesn't have the sort
of key summary--the key themes
summary that it will eventually
have when it's concluded,
but it's there if you'd like
to take a look at it.
>> Okay, thank you.
>> Sure.
>> If I can ask a question.
>> Yes, please --.
>> -- for a lot
of the topics you're talking
about tonight
in that you haven't drilled
down far enough to find out why
the comments are being made
exactly?
>> Mm-hmm, exactly. Because
we're still
at a very early stage.
>> Obviously it raises
questions up here
from a different vantage point.
Thank you.
>> Thank you. And part
of that is going
to be discussed at some of the
topic-based workshops that
we're scheduling moving
forward. So Nora's example of
the walkability showing up both
on what we like and what could
be improved, that's one
of the proposed items
for our topic-based workshops.
And that would be an
opportunity to be able
to drill
down a little bit more based
on the participants who come
to that workshop. And we
actually have some
recommendations on a couple of
other topic-based workshops
based on the information that
we've heard thus far. So I'm
going to run through really
quickly the visioning workshop.
It would be a half-day event
held on a Saturday in early
November. We had just over 20
participants,
a pretty even split
between participants coming
from the east side of 99 and
the west side of 99. We had
several small group activities.
We had three focused small
group activities that I'll run
through quickly. And then we
also had what we call
free-flowing activities. I just
made that name up,
but it will probably work. And
that is--you know, there's
downtime when people are coming
into the event and walking
out and taking breaks. So we
wanted to really still provide
that downtime as an opportunity
for people to provide input.
So one of the events was an "I
like," "I wish," "I wonder,"
and that's people writing
down what they like,
what they wish for Elk Grove,
and what they wonder
about the process on sticky
notes and placing those on
poster format so we could get
that additional input
in that downtime. We also had a
"Where do you live," and that's
pinning a map, taking a pin
on putting it on a map. So we
had that distribution
of geography through the
planning area participants.
And then as always, we have a
general comments sheets because
there's always an opportunity
for people to provide us with
additional comments--excuse me.
So one of the first small group
activities we did was community
priorities. And this is where
we took sort of those nine
identified issues that we've
been talking about since June
and we asked folks
to prioritize what those are
from their own perspective.
And the top three that came
out
of that was economic vitality,
and this was really recognized
as like during discussions
throughout that event that you
can't really achieve all of
this fun stuff that we're
talking about and what we want
if you don't really have a good
vital economic base. So that a
key theme throughout the
discussions
from the visioning workshop.
Coordinated services,
technology and infrastructure,
folks talking about this item
were really more focused
on social services, so youth
services, senior services,
health services,
and school districts. And then
sustainable and healthy
communities which really ties
them a little bit with the
coordinated services and health
service aspects. The next small
group activity,
we call it important issues
for personas. And this was an
activity where we--it's more
of an empathy activity. So
whereas we asked folks
to prioritize issues
from their own perspective in
the community priority
activity,
we really wanted them
to take a step out of there own
thought process and their own
conform zone and try and answer
that same question
for another segment
within the community. So we had
seven identified personas, and
we asked them the same
question: Based
on this persona,
and we had a description
of that persona,
how would you think they want
to rank those priorities? And
this was really more
of an exercise
to get people thinking
about other people
within the community. And
important issues that came out,
there were some certain
overlaps, of course. The youth
and senior services,
which tied in
with coordinated services,
again, economic vitality and
some issues
on sustainability. The next
small group activity that we
had was the headline
development activity. And this
was just more
of an open-ended activity. We
asked participates to,
say they're in Elk Grove 20,
25 years from now, you go
to a store and buy a newspaper,
or more likely you go online,
and what are the headlines that
you see or would like to see
about how your community has
evolved
within that time. I won't read
through all of them,
but certainly you can see some
of the topics that were covered
within the headlines.
Examples, for someone,
job and economic growth,
alternative modes
of transportation,
-- service provision.
And while we didn't have a
large group of participants,
you can see that the
conversation really still
covered a wide range of issues
within that focus group. This
was one
of those free-flow activities.
This is the "I wish,
I wonder." Again, I won't read
through them,
but you can see that some of
the topics are really starting
to coalesce. There's some
similarities
across the board. Where we did
get some comments was a
distinction in one of the
issues where it was infill and
outward expansion. So a lot
of participants, it was hard
to make comments
on that because, of course,
sometimes those are competing
interests. So that is actually
one of the topic-based
workshops that we've identified
for additional discussion,
to be able to drill down
on that issue. And finally,
there is another component to
the outreach that we've been
doing. We've been doing the
mobile workshops. We have the
visioning workshop. And then
we've also had some interviews
with focus groups. As you can
see, there's a lot
of city committees
on this list. We also had
discussions
with service providers,
some regional agencies,
school districts. And these--in
your Attachment No. 1, the
summary,
that is where we have listed
all of the comments that we've
been recording
from these discussions. And
with that--oh, no, these are
those topics I was talking
about. Though Nora already
identified the last one
on this list, which is
transportation, planning,
and drilling
down a little bit deeper on
where we're finding those
comments that are really
diverging, and we want
to be able
to make sure that we're clear
in the understanding
of which way we need to go with
our policies. I also mentioned
the infill development and that
discussion on infill versus
outward expansion, and also how
you start balancing some other
trade-offs such as conserving
open space. And then the other
topic was how do you really
better unified Elk Grove.
Because throughout the
discussions--and part of the
reason why we were recording
that distinction
between the west side of 99 and
east side of 99 is that's the
one comment that we've been
hearing fairly consistently
throughout the process is it
seems like there isn't
necessarily one unified Elk
Grove, and how can we better
make that more
of a unified community. So
that's one
of the additional topics. And
part of that is talking about
neighborhood characteristics.
So now with that, I'm going
to pass it back over to CJ,
who's going to open it up for
some comments and discussions
with Commission and Council.
Thank you.
>> So I know you asked a couple
of questions
during the process of this.
But I think the opportunity to
take a beat and really review
what's been presented,
and if there's any questions,
we ought to go over thoughts.
It's certainly an opportunity
for public comment if you'd
like to get it now
on this first half
of what we'd like to go
through tonight. Okay, well,
so you want to get feedback now
or questions and --,
yeah, so in this step so far,
in the outreach pieces and what
we've heard, and the summary
that we've presented you.
Okay. Any thoughts on the
outreach piece?
>> I've attended the first
joint session and the Chamber
of Commerce session and the
visioning session,
and there's a lot of very
general comments here that I
think are going to need a lot
of work on. So I think we're
going in the right direction. I
see a lot of commonalities
in some of the comments, even
though we're hearing where east
and west and highway come
together, there's still some
commonality there.
>> Councilmember Hume.
>> Thank you. Christopher, what
are we doing to reach the folks
who don't come out? In a lot
of the pictures I saw a lot
of familiar faces. I know
at these events
with the popup tents,
that's a good way to kind of
get people that wouldn't
normally take an interest
in city issues.
But do you feel like we're
really scratching the surface
of John Q. public that thinks
the City's going fine,
is happy where they live, but
still would maybe provide
valuable input
into the process?
>> One piece
of information we're waiting
on getting the results in,
we'll get a full presentation
in the new year, is the
biannual citywide survey.
That's another pulse point that
we'll be grabbing into this
process as we go forward. So
once that data is available,
we'll integrate it in.
At a certain point though,
you just can't pry some folks
out of their houses. And that's
an unfortunate thing.
But we'll continue to try
to find ways, whether it's
through online mechanisms or
in person,
to see things we can do to try
to gather as broad a
cross-section
of input as possible. So
obviously, we're interested
in any ideas anybody has
on how
to do that effectively.
>> Well, it looks
like you've had a number
of meetings with groups,
and that's summarized
in here. This memorandum,
Attachment 1, it looks like--is
that it? And there's a lot
of bullet points in there
about feedback that came
from that meeting. So I think
that's--I mean there's some
good stuff
in there. I guess one thing,
I'll just point
out a suggestion. I mean you
met with the multicultural
committee, of course, but--and
I think that's a--and that's a
representative body,
but I think another place
to consider going to,
as we continue the public
outreach, would be reaching
into, you know, other kind
of cultural and ethnic pockets
of our community and maybe
even, you know,
faith-based groups to just kind
of--I mean I think that's one
place where we could continue
to--and I think just showing up
is great too. I mean just
showing up at community events
clearly is giving you feedback
that otherwise you wouldn't
have received. And it seems
like the mobile events have
been pretty successful. But I
think the cultural groups are a
little harder to find because
they're--you know, we're not an
ethnic pocket-oriented
community where you can just go
find the leadership
of the community. But a lot
of it is faith-based and some
of it are--you know, they meet
in people's homes and whatnot.
But they're out there. So
that'll be one place, I think,
to look. Okay, thank you.
>> So, Chris, I actually
thought the list of outreach as
listed here is pretty
impressive as to what, you
know, you and your staff have
done. I guess I'm curious to
see whether or not there are
any baseline comparisons on how
the other cities conduct this
similar type
of civics planning. What is the
participation rate comparing to
the responses that we get?
>> We should let Nora answer
that because she does so much
of on a regular basis.
>> Sure. It's a great question.
So relative to other cities
of our size, I think this is a
relatively good rate
of participation thus far. And
the program that we've planned
is fairly robust relative
particularly
to the state guidance
on public involvement
for a general plan process,
which really fairly minimal to
workshops are recommended and
only public hearings are
required. And certainly the
program in place, it will be
far more robust than that. But
in my opinion,
there's always room to work on
more public involvement and
reaching into corners of the
community that have not yet
participated. So we're
certainly going
to continue trying, even though
we're exceeding the state
recommendations.
>> Councilman Suen.
>> I do want to commend you on
your outreach. I think the
mobile studios have been pretty
effective. I've seen them when
I've been out at events myself.
I would encourage us to--you
know, part of it is the
General Plan itself, to a lot
of people who may not even be
familiar with the term and
recognize what it's for. And so
maybe, you know, with
Kristin's help we can go on a
more aggressive marketing
campaign. We have our Next
Door apps,
we can start posting those. So
as any new City events come up,
you know, blast it out
through there. And so get folks
wonderful what's a general
plan, and then let them know
about the mobile events that
are going to take place here.
Thank you.
>> Thank you. Councilman
Detrick.
>> Yeah, Chris, one of the
things I was wondering when you
talked about the surveys, is
there anything to--we're
looking at doing
to incentivize folks
to return the survey?
>> There's two pieces
of the survey. One is the
statistically valid phone
survey, and the other is the
online piece. It's mailed,
I'm sorry. There's a mailed
survey piece. So there's two
parallel components to it.
>> But is there any incentive
to--
>> No.
>> --respond to those surveys?
>> No.
>> Is that something that we
could do,
is add an incentive?
>> At this late date,
probably--definitely not
for the mail survey. That has
closed. And we have just
received the draft reports
of those findings. We are
encouraging people who were not
selected to participate
in the mail survey
to participate
on the online survey,
and we're going
to keep that open
through the end of the year.
In fact,
there will be an article
in the local paper
about it within, I think,
next Wednesday.
But I'm not really sure at this
late date if there is really
any real way
to incentivize it. That is
something we can look at
for when we do it in two years.
>> I don't know if that's ever
been done in another city,
but it seems like people
in general,
if there's some type
of incentive,
they're more inclined
to respond. And that's our
goal, is
to get a response.
>> All right, thank you.
Commissioner Maita.
>> Yes, Christopher. First off,
I would like to commend as well
the--I've seen the mobile sites
and they--I've seen them pretty
well attended and a lot
of interest,
and it was gratifying. And
particularly, I did attend the
workshop where I think they
said it was 21 people.
Gratifyingly enough,
those few people who were
there, we did see some new
faces, which was nice and got
some new perspective. At least
at the table I was at. So I
appreciated that. But then I'd
like to back up and just have
you answer a couple questions
for me in a broader sense,
not specifically to outreach,
and that's just
to refresh my memory
of what your expectation
of the shelf life of the
General Plan is. And then
secondly, when it comes
to the elements, I understand
the state requirements.
But are they presently weighted
in any fashion vis- -vis each
other, and if they are not, can
they be and potentially should
they be?
>> On your first question,
the length of time,
it can vary from community
to community. Some are
on a very regular basis
of every 5 to 10 years they do
an update. We will have gone
about 15 years since our first
general plan. I would imagine
that this one
in its totality will last
for a similar period of time,
maybe longer, maybe less. It
depends on a number
of factors. Obviously, there
will be updates
along the way, amendments
to various things, changes
in state law. In terms
of the elements themselves, the
mandatory elements and all
other topics or elements that
are within the General Plan are
required by law
to have equal weight. So you
don't--land use or housing
don't have a higher level
of weight or character
between any of the others.
They all have
to be equal and they ought
to be consistent
with each other. So if you say
something on page 35, it must
be consistent on page 197. The
elements themselves, though,
the way the law describes them,
it uses that word "elements,"
it never uses the word
"chapters." Many communities
have interpreted or implemented
that by having each element be
its own standalone chapter. As
we approach this,
the dialogue we've been having,
starting
with the issues discussion back
in June and following through
with the outreach and where the
outreach may take us,
the discussion may take us
over the next six, eight
months, I would not be
surprised if the organization
of the General Plan, how the
information is presented,
is more in line
with those topic elements,
those topic components rather
than the more traditional every
required element or every
optional -- that has
its own chapter. Because
of the inner relationship
between those various pieces,
how can we talk about land use
if you're not also talking
about transportation? How can
you talk about air quality if
you're aligning that with what
your transportation issues are?
So based on how we've been
approaching this
for the issues' list,
there's a different
organization, a different
framework pattern that may be
more approachable for folks.
So we're going
to be exploring that.
>> Thank you.
>> All right, thank you. Now
Councilman Detrick?
>> On the 500-plus visitors
that--I've looked at this. Do
you guys keep track of unique
visitors versus total count?
>> No. That total count was
based off of map locations,
because not everyone--because
there's no requirement,
for example, to sign
in or check in when you visit a
mobile workshop. It was based
on those folks who wanted
to volunteer the location
of their residence within Elk
Grove. So what it is, is I
would say it's a good rough
estimate of the amount
of participation,
but it certainly doesn't
account for anyone who may have
given us a comment
but not put a pin on a map or
had their child color a piece
of artwork but didn't chose
to sign in. So it's really just
our best guesstimate as to how
many folks have participated
thus far through the mobile
workshops.
>> Chris, I noticed under the
regional agencies groupings
that one agency that wasn't
mentioned,
and there's been a lot of talk
about it
within the visioning workshop,
is transportation. I didn't see
regional transit as a
participant.
>> We will do coordination
with them as we get
into the specific policies,
particularly as we talk about
fixed transit opportunities.
Because we operate our own
local and commuter bus service,
there isn't as much overlap.
Their engagement has been
more--at this point
in time more to the extent that
it's been occurring--with the
comprehensive operational, and
now the transit is undergoing
right now. So we will be
involving them as we get into,
okay, what is the vision City
has
for whether it's light rail,
would be RT or something else,
how that gets coordinated
with them long term.
>> Okay. I know we've had a lot
of discussion, you know,
during SEPA,
and the college has mentioned
it in here too. So I want to
make sure that we do include
them at some point in time.
>> I'll say one thing too.
Something to keep in mind, I
mean, obviously, the General
Plan update doesn't come
around very often and, you
know, doesn't come around even
as often as it should.
But keep in mind that,
obviously,
the end product is extremely
valuable, but the process is,
I would say,
equally as valuable. So I think
the fact that, you know, what
you've summarized here is some
outreach to those that are
involved--certainly our
committees or commissions,
folks that are already
involved, advocates, community
groups--those are folks that
are already involved in the
community. I think the mobile
studio gets you beyond the
folks that are already
involved. And, you know,
we threw out some groups I
think you could see them do a
deeper level of outreach too.
But also, you do have other
groups that are involved
in their neighborhoods
but not necessarily involved
in the City. And that's just
all of our neighborhood
associations,
community groups. So I think
that's another place. I mean if
you're going
to dig deeper for, you know,
some other nuggets,
I think there's a whole layer
beyond the mobile studio that
you can do
to really dig deep.
Recognizing that, again,
the goals are twofold,
I fundamentally believe. And
it's about the end product,
but it's also about engagement
and making sure this this
process is used in a way to
really engage folks. I mean I
think you're off
to a great start and I'm
excited
about this continuing. Other
thoughts before we go
to public comment?
>> With the neighborhoods, we
can piggyback their neighbor
watch 'cause we got
to keep the database already
on that. So the neighborhood
watch is a great one
to piggyback off of.
>> Yeah. Okay, let's see.
Well, let's see,
I've got someone signed up
to speak. Mark Doty?
>> I'm it?
That's so disappointing.
It's not often I--
>> Just first, that's all.
>> Okay, good.
Councilmembers,
Commissioners, it's a pleasure
to speak
with you this evening. I'm
Mark Doty. I'm Chair of the
Trails Committee,
but my comments
in no way reflect the Trails
Committee. I've been stuck on
that a few times. A couple
things I just wanted to talk
about tonight. It's already
kind of been discussed.
But when I was reading
through this, I was just kind
of curious what the community
has been bringing up, and you
saw trails was mentioned
numerous times. There's 500
people or so that have been
surveyed, and a lot
of it came up. So I mean I want
ahead and tabbed some things:
improved bicycle
infrastructure,
connect the trail system. Some
other interesting ones I saw
was the Multicultural
Committee said we need to
complete our bike path network,
we need a network where you
don't need to cross
at the intersection,
which I've been at Planning
Commission meetings and City
Council meetings hammering
on that.
>> Once or twice.
>> A few times. Apparently,
it's getting out to other
people 'cause I didn't expect
the Housing Youth Authority or
the Youth Commission--a lot of
different people mention the
trails--school district,
I was talking
about safe routes
to school and trail system.
Even Sacramento Safe Help
Housing mentioned active
transportation is key. The
streets in Elk Grove are almost
freeway-like and are a big
barrier
to biking and walking. Make
sure there are sidewalks
everywhere and make it safe
to walk and/or bike. Youth
Commission I thought was very
interesting. You know, same
thing: bike lanes should be
separated from the road.
Everyone drives
in the bike lane,
so it's not safe. Some
suggestion, green ways,
mixed use pass separated
from the roadways. The trail
should be connected,
and it should connect
to parks. And then overall from
the visioning workshops there
was also talk
about the trails and so on. So
I think that speaks pretty well
of what people like about Elk
Grove and what they want
to see continue. One other
thing that's not trail related
that I didn't even--wasn't
looking for when I read this
but came
across it is the expansion
of the City. I saw all these
different groups, but the only
group that was pro expand the
boundaries of the City was the
developers. The whole group was
a bunch
of housing developers. Some
of them are probably sitting in
the back and probably not
liking me right now.
But anyway, I'd just throw it
out there that it doesn't
seem--I don't see the
Multicultural Committee and the
Youth Commission saying we need
to expand our City, you know,
we need more housing,
more blowing past Kammerer
Road to the south. I know there
was probably a need for it and
will happen probably someday.
But, you know, so I have kind
of been out there. And
since I got nine of you here,
I'll throw it out there,
that you need to listen
to your constituents,
the people that live here. And
I don't know,
I read this whole thing cover
to cover and I didn't see one
group besides the developer
group that was, you know, hey,
we need a bigger city
to make a better city,
'cause we really don't. So
appreciate your time,
thank you.
>> Thanks, Mark. All right,
Leo, you're up. If anybody
would like to speak after
Leo, please get your form in
'cause I don't have anybody
else at this point.
>> Good evening,
Councilmembers and
Commissioners. I appreciate all
the work you're putting
into this whole thing. It's
very valuable. It's going
to be the most valuable thing,
I think, that the City has. As
for myself,
I'm a lifelong resident
of the area. I was raised
on what is now the Pilgrim
Ranch on Sloughhouse Road. And
I've lived
in my place for--before I moved
out here, I was the last class
out of the old historic
Rhoads School down
at the park. And I just tell
you that because I dye my hair
white, it's not because
of my age. But you're all
to be very much complimented
for doing this. I think it's a
very, very important element
for the future of this City.
And we all, us that live out
in the rural area,
we treasure it. And one
of the things that I've got
to compliment all of you for is
you've supported us all this
time through. And in talking
to Jason, it looks
like we're going
to finally put an end to the
General Plan, and that's very
important. That'll keep it
in place. The other thing that
I want to say is the biggest
issue that we have out there,
to my knowledge, is traffic.
So when the circulation element
is put together in the
General Plan, I would suggest
that staff meet,
have a few more meetings
with the people out there so
they can--you know, we can
express our concerns and maybe
they can get more information
that we can help them
with too.
But other than that, there's
nothing we can do other than
thank you
for everything you've done
to support us, all of you.
Thank you very much. And people
like Shane Diller here,
he has worked with us,
and every time there's an
issue, he gets it resolved.
And that's the kind of topnotch
people we have here and
in our City. You're
to be complimented. Thank you
so much.
>> Thank you very much, Leo.
You nailed it. I mean Shane is
an example,
but I think that is everybody
on City staff though.
>> Mr. Mayor, can we start
Leo's clock over again? I'd
like to have him come back up
here.
>> All right, thanks, Pat.
>> He was joking. Beth, you're
next. And by way,
I didn't announce it earlier,
so if you would like to
participate and make some
comments, you can. Just please
fill
out the speaker request form
at the back
of the room and bring it up
here to Jason.
>> All right, I'm Beth
Ruthven, and like Leo, I was
born and raised here in Elk
Grove, and I appreciate all the
work done on the General
Plan. And I'd like
to piggyback on what Leo said
in terms of the rural area.
That's extraordinarily
important to us. And I think
that's reflected in a lot of
community wishes. I think
perhaps that one of the issues
in bringing both east and west
together is that as long as
there are concerns about
whether or not the rural area
will be preserved,
that it's going
to be an us or them kind of
problem. I know working as a
teacher at Elk Grove High
School that when it comes
to promoting headlines for
Elk Grove, one of the things
that we do every year is we
take lots and lots of awards
through our ad program. Our
rural kids who attend our
school attend and have an
opportunity to participate
in one of the most amazing ad
programs. And these are our
country kids. And we'll lose
that if we lose the character
of our country areas.
Personally, I miss it. I still
live in the rural community,
but it does not feel
like it used to. And so I'd
like to see it reflected
in the General Plan that we're
working on taking care of that
and ensuring that it will stay.
And in fact, trying to maybe
make some changes so that
Sheldon Road does not become a
main artery,
so that the portion of Sheldon
that's just beautiful and
overhung with oaks,
that we can maybe extend that.
And I know our homeowners'
association is interested
in partnering with the City
in providing trees
to help make that happen. We do
need to look
at traffic calming measures.
But that really needs
to be respected in the
General Plan. And I think that
would resolve a lot of the us
against them stuff. As long as
the rural community kind
of feels threatened, when we
have such a long history there
and we have kids involved in
this stuff and this is just
such a part of our roots,
there's always going to be,
you know, some headbutting.
And I don't think it would be a
difficult thing
to resolve overall. Anyway,
just wanted to throw that
out there. And
in case you weren't aware,
right,
we do nationally recognized ad
programs, so we need
to support our kids,
right?
>> Yep, well said, Beth. I
think everyone here knows when
you go to the state fair,
the county fair, and that Elk
Grove dominates. And not just
Elk Grove High School, you
know, many of our high schools
dominate.
>> Nationally ----
>> Yep.
>> ---- so anyway.
>> Agreed. Thank you.
>> Not that I'm partial
to us --.
>> Okay. Anyone else care
to share? Do we have further
staff presentation?
>> Good evening,
Commissioners, Councilmembers.
I'm Jeff Henderson, Special
Projects Manager with the
City. And I'm going to take us
through the second half
of our presentation,
which is really on the draft
shared community vision,
two modifiers there. Draft
in the sense that this is, you
know, all of it looks kind
of glossy and flashy. It's a
work
in progress and it's meant
to be that. This is the
starting point, this is some
of the first texts, if you
will, that we're drafting
for the actual General Plan.
And the purpose
of tonight's discussion is
to share
with you our initial thoughts
on what the vision looks
like based on all
of the input that Nora and
Sara summarized earlier and
to relay that as a draft, to
say this is our starting point.
And as Christopher mentioned
earlier, it can and should be
tweaked a bit as the policy
discussion progresses.
But it sets
for us that initial course
for the direction that we want
to go for the next 15 years.
It outlines what we believe
to be a good vision for
essentially bringing the
community together
toward a common vision.
Again, trying to say, you know,
one
of the objectives potentially
of this plan going forward is
so that 15 years from now,
when we're here talking about a
potential general plan update
again, you know,
maybe the initial point of
conversation isn't an east-west
divide,
it's some other new challenge
or issue, but that that's
something that we've
potentially worked
toward resolving
over the course of the nest 15
years. So it's a more common
vision
toward a brighter future,
which is one of the key themes
of the General Plan update.
And it really represents a
summary of where the City is
going to go, what it's going
to do, and how it will do it.
That's ultimately what the
General Plan does. This
document really kind of starts
with that first bullet point,
where do we want to go? What do
we want to be in 15 to 20
years? The vision is used
ultimately in conjunction
with the rest of the General
Plan--sorry -- back.
It's used in tandem
with the policies and actions
of the General Plan. This is
sort of the first step, the
very top level step that's then
implemented further
with goals, policies,
and actions. To use
Christopher's analogy earlier
about driving east, you know,
we know we're going to the
East Coast, just as an analogy,
we know we're going to the
East Coast. We don't know yet
whether we're aiming more
toward Boston or more toward
Miami. As we move farther east,
we start choosing highways,
we start determining the
timeframe, how fast we want
to go, and ultimately what the
final destination is. And
that's a process that can be
kind of drawn parallel
from this vision level,
where we're essentially
pointing east,
and an action level which says,
you know,
at what timeframe and by what
mode and how fast are we going
to get, say, Washington, D.C.
as our destination. So that's
really an analogy
for where this vision fits in
to the overall system.
In our next Roundabout Reach
that we'll initiate
after the first of the year, in
future joint study
sessions--and at the end
of the meeting we're going to
outlay the calendar that we've
selected for getting us
from where we are now
to a very key timeframe in
June where we'd be presenting a
preferred alternative that's
the basis for the plan,
and then ultimately
to the release
of the draft plan
toward the end of next year.
And those study sessions are
very important points. This one
is the first. These are very
important points for us
to essentially check
in and say, is this
on the right direction,
shall we proceed
to the next step? And that's
really the type
of direction we're seeking
from you tonight. So I'm going
to take a minute, and this is
the one slide I'm going
to read, because this is
ultimately the draft
of the community vision itself.
And it's describing Elk Grove
in fifteen years. So when we
talk about the tense
of this statement,
we're talking
about the community I 15 years.
"As Elk Grove is a great place
to make a home and a great
place to work, our community is
healthy and safe and is
family-oriented with thriving
schools and plentiful parks,
shops, and places to work.
Agriculture, rural homes, and
urban life flourish together.
Our natural resources,
including water and open
spaces, are protected and offer
a variety
of recreational opportunities.
Community members travel easily
by automobile, by bicycle,
on foot, or using transit.
The City's proactive is making
daily life healthy and
sustainable,
considering the needs of future
generations while protecting
what is valued today.
Well-maintained infrastructure
and the right mix of services
and amenities draw new and
dynamic businesses and
development to Elk Grove. And
development is guided to ensure
responsible growth and
opportunities for a diversity
of individuals that call Elk
Grove home." So you'll see a
lot
of different themes reflected
in there. And when we think
back to the topics of the
General Plan, one of the things
the vision statement is
intending to do is to try
to kind of touch all those
bases and make a statement
about what's the future
direction with regard to the
various topics that were
mandated to address in the
General Plan. So this then is a
narrative statement. The intent
would be to place this
in the beginning of the
General Plan as setting the
framework for the resulting
goals and policies. And it's
referenced in the booklet
that's been distributed tonight
on page 13 by way
of reference. That vision
statement is supported
by a number of what we call
supporting principles. So we
start
from that vision statement, and
then the supporting principles
dive in a little bit deeper,
providing still guidance
statements on a variety
of very important topics. It is
possible this could be one way
that the General Plan is
organized. Again, that's not a
decision that's been made nor
necessarily recommendation
at this point, but it is an
idea that we're potentially
kicking around. And that these
supporting principles then take
a topic like,
if we flip the page to 14, this
identifies the supporting
principles. If we go again
to page 17, it will identify,
for example, one
of those first,
the regional goals and
influence topic,
with another statement, a
supporting statement: "Our
regional neighbors know us and
our contributions." This
responds in many ways
to the dialogue that initiated
in June about Elk Grove's place
in the region and the way the
region and its overall
strategies consider perhaps
economic strategies,
sustainability strategies and
the like, how those influence
Elk Grove. But in turn,
this is also about Elk Grove's
place in this region from a
land resource perspective,
from an economic perspective,
what is it that Elk Grove
uniquely brings
to the region. And so it's a
statement that essentially says
in the future, as is true
today, Elk Grove occupies a
prominent place
in the regional dialogue.
That Elk Grove's contributions
to the region include
recreation, higher education,
job centers,
and quality neighborhoods.
That's a preliminary list. It
could certainly be added upon.
But I think from the types
of input that we've received,
these are the areas
around which the vision is kind
of stepping forward and saying
here are some ways
in which we're going
to contribute to the region.
And ultimately, jobs/housing
balance becomes an important
consideration from a potential
policy perspective under this
guiding principle or supporting
principle. And that's tied up
in the final statement
under that setting, that both
housing and jobs are available
in the community providing
flexible opportunities
for different lifestyles. Next
key topic is referred
to as "Development Fills
in the Gaps." This is one
that's really kind of
about the growth strategy for
the community and how growth
would be managed in the future
in Elk Grove. And it's
recognizing that, you know,
today there are a number
of kind of undeveloped gaps
within the communities and we
recognize that these are key
opportunities to help bring
in the types
of additions that are wanted
in the City
from a economic perspective.
There's an emphasis here
on small business preservation.
Again, from the principle
of the first step,
economic development is
to take care
of what you have, and then
to move forward and to attract
things that are compatible
with your overall vision. It's
a recognition that new housing
in the community is a need,
both
to protect affordability and to
improve that potential
jobs/housing balance and
potentially to help improve
commuting distances and similar
topics within the community.
And a recognition that the
City's growth strategy may
involve both infill
into these existing kinds
of gaps within the community
and establishing a creative
growth management strategy for
if and how outward expansion
occurs. And, you know, one
of the pieces of dialogue that
we've heard throughout this
process is, if the City's going
to continue
to expand outward, that the
General Plan should lay the
framework
under which that occurs. And so
that, you know,
there's some statement
in here that talks
about the types
of things that would be needed
in order
to enable that development
to occur
in a fashion consistent
with the General Plan. So
that's an important
consideration as we go forward
as well. The next topic is "Our
Economy Thrives and New
Businesses Add Value." This is
recognizing the fact that Elk
Grove is and should continue
to--is a diverse economy now
and should continue to
diversify its economic
strengths and become a more
major employment center
in the region. That's going
to be one of the important
strategies going forward,
that the City should encourage
an innovative technology
infrastructure and continue
to build upon the opportunity
to provide technical education
or opportunities,
and that plentiful goods,
services, activities and
entertainment remain an
important part
of the mix that, again, draws
people here and helps
businesses to thrive
in the community. The next key
topic gets to sort
of the balance between citywide
values and neighborhood values.
And this is titled "City Core
Heritage and Well-Known
Neighborhoods." And it
recognizes that
in the future, you know, the
City in 15 years from now,
we recognize the existence
of a civic core. You know, this
could include a civics center
and surrounding uses,
for example. So civic core, it
gives good central gathering
places for community members,
something in a physical sense
that unites the east and west
sides in that regard,
and that Old Town,
for example, continues
to grow and protect--I'm sorry,
not grow, but that Old Town
Elk Grove continues
to protect and showcase the
City's history and is a
valuable resource
for continuing
to communicate the history
of the City. And that
neighborhoods are an important
value. And that as they're
organized around your topnotch
parks and schools, and that
that interplay is valued going
forward and is indeed the model
for which new development
continues to occur. And that
the preservation and change
in neighborhoods is guided
by local values,
and local values centered
on diversity within the City,
neighborly spirit that exists
in current neighborhoods,
and ultimately protection
of small town character. Even
as a large community, by doing
good neighborhood planning, you
can protect that small town
character
by essentially connecting
people to neighborhoods. The
next topic is dedicated
to "Protecting Our Farming
Heritage and Rural Life." This
is where essentially the
strategies for the rural area
are incapsulated. And the
intent here is to use the
General Plan to celebrate rural
life as a part
of the community. And you think
back to the vision statement
that was the statement
essentially
about agriculture, rural and
urban, all coexisting,
and that that's part
of the vision
of the community. This really
gets
to celebrating the rural aspect
of that, while recognizing that
there's going to continue
to be a bit of a struggle
in balancing that rural
heritage
with all the other needs,
services,
and lifestyles that are desired
by Elk Grove residents. And so
it's an important thing, I
think, from our perspective
to document the commitment
to the rural area and
to maintenance of the rural
area and its character in the
General Plan. And they've got a
fundamental value of the
General Plan that then every
other planning decision on a
day-to-day basis is measured
against, but to do that in a
manner that also addresses all
the other needs
in the community. And so just,
again, reinforcing a commitment
that the rural area is valued,
and that that value is clear
and codified in all of the
City's planning documents. And
the best way to do that is
to start with the General Plan
and role down. The next
principle is "Outdoor
Recreation is Right Outside
Our Door." And this gets
to some of the open space and
conservation topics required
by General Plan law. And it
starts with really valuing the
parks and trails in the
community and ensuring that,
you know,
we are continually working
toward a consistent and
connected system that is
of high quality and continues
to be highly valued
by residents and those looking
to locate in Elk Grove and
really sort
of portrayed as an amenity,
portrayed as a community
amenity of Elk Grove, and that
we enhance and maintain our
recreational open spaces. And
again,
here we're conveying some
values for these open spaces
of safety, connection, and
accessibility, and building the
essentially open-spaced plan
around those principles. And
then ultimately,
looking outward and saying,
you know, we have a good
valuable trail system that's
only enhanced by connecting
to other things
in the region. It produces
potential transportation
benefits,
it produces potential health
benefits,
and further connects Elk Grove
to a larger region. The key
circulation principle here is
titled "Moving Around
Anywhere, Any Way." And it's a
recognition that people need
to move
around efficiently and they
need to be provided a variety
of ways to do it,
and that that results through
connected transportation
networks, further regional
coordination,
and providing options to the
single occupancy vehicle. Not
replacing single occupancy
vehicle but providing options
to it that are viable and
support everyday activity. And
that's done
through encouraging a variety
of transportation modes and
ensuring both efficiency and
safety in the roadway system.
And one of the provisions
of state law that we are
working to comply with
within the General Plan update
is the requirement to address a
complete streets transportation
system. And so there's
recognition at the vision and
guiding principle level,
so all the way up
at this level,
that there's necessary
to provide facilities
for peds, pedestrians,
bicyclists, and transit users
as well as a variety
of other users in clean, safe,
and well-maintained facilities.
The next is "Clean Green
Practices and Healthy
Living." So this is really
getting to sustainability and
health considerations of the
General Plan. And it's a goal
for the City to, you know,
looking back on this General
Plan and its implementation as
the City accomplished the goal
of being a leader in regional
conservation efforts and
understanding the roles
of organizations, businesses,
and residents in assisting in
accomplishing that objective.
Embracing innovations and green
technologies is a good
connection, if you will,
between conservation goals and
economic development goals
potentially and looking
at that and understanding, you
know, can we develop policies
that advance us
toward those objectives. And
that the City's layout and land
uses promote healthy living
with healthy food options and
destinations nearby. So those
are also important
considerations under the clean
green practices and healthy
living principle. And the final
one is "Services for the Needs
of All Residents." This really
gets to community services,
infrastructure and potentially
social service impacts of the
General Plan and laying out a
strategy that connects those
services and facilities to the
broader land use perspective.
And under this, you know,
safety and services are
recognized as important
to all members
of the community,
with particular emphasis on
youth and seniors as well as
disadvantaged families
within the community. And then
the City stepping forward to
ensure that services are
provided, not committing
to provide services itself,
but in its role, ensuring that
residents and businesses have
access to adequate social,
housing, transportation,
health,
and education services. This is
something that was underlying a
lot of the dialogue with the
community that we've had over
the last several months and
something that we as a team
were kind of very intrigued
to hear,
was a strong emphasis and value
on social services
within the community
in the context of a General
Plan. And so it's something
that we felt important
to bring forward
at this level. And that
entertainment and social
centers, kind of thinking more
about the economic component
of this, support a thriving
economy and give residents
places in the community
to shop, to play, and just
to relax and enjoy aspects
of the community. That
summarizes the overall vision
and supporting principles. I've
got a couple slides just
to summarize next steps, and
then we'll have another period
for discussion and public
comment. And I'll invite
Christopher to come up and
conclude the presentation.
>> Thanks, Jeff. So very
briefly, as you'll see
on the screen, are what we see
as the next steps
to dive down. And we talked
about this a little bit ago.
And some of these key points
are the three workshops that
Sara identified a minute ago
and are summarized here: a
discussion
about neighborhood identity,
about growth strategies, and
about transportation and
mobility. As you'll see
in the next slide,
we're identifying the end of
January and first part of
February to have that community
engagement and go through that
process and dialogue those
issues
in more detail and start
to prepare the initial rounds
of a policy discussion
around those. That would be
followed up
by your next joint study
session on February 11th,
where we kind
of summarize the results
of that and start to articulate
where that information is
taking us and how we can
proceed forward
in the drafting of the plan.
So that brings us
to nearly the midpoint
in the overall work process.
So the dates that we're
targeting
for that community engagement
on those three topics,
and we don't have dates
specific to those topics yet,
we'll be working on those
over the next couple of weeks
and then announcing them in the
new year once folks are back
from the holiday.
But the dates themselves
in this room are January 26 and
28 and February 1st. So they're
right on top of each other. But
given the importance and the
schedule over all
of where we are and trying to
keep this process moving and
getting the information
together and developing the
plan from a time schedule
perspective,
these are important dates
for us. So with that,
we'll open up
for comment and discussion,
both from -- and
from the public.
>> Okay. Councilman Detrick.
>> You know, from where we are
in the process, I think you
guys nailed it so far. You
know, there's still--obviously
there's going
to be some tweaking going on,
but for where we are, I'm very,
very impressed what's been put
together and the all that the
variety
of topics you've been able to
hit. I'm just--and the piece
itself is not only towards the
General Plan, I mean the
marketing of the City of Elk
Grove. And I give you guys--you
know, you guys hit it out
of the park. I look forward
to hearing some other comments
from everybody. But I'm very,
very impressed. Thank you.
>> Councilman Suen.
>> Yeah, I would definitely
echo those comments and that
sentiment. You've taken a very
complex document,
and the way things are
connected together,
there's a lot of nuances
to every single topic. And so
you're approach thus far I
think has been very good
in terms of your outreach. And
what's coming out was
resonating amongst the public.
I would risk saying that all
of us up here agree with
everything that's been stated
thus far. So I look forward to
the next steps and additional
outreach opportunities.
Thanks.
>> Councilman Hume.
>> So I'll echo those comments.
I mean I think
from where you are,
you're tapping
into things that I wanted
to see come out
of this process, and
from listening to some
of the comments here tonight,
certainly echoing what the
residents are wanting
to see come out
of this process. I'm going
to go into little more specific
comments about some
of the items though,
other than just heap praise
on you. My first question is,
what is the horizon of this
General Plan once this update
is completed? Does it--another
20 years?
>> So this has actually been a
discussion amongst our group at
a staff level. I professionally
am of the opinion that while
you do an update on the
General Plan, maybe it's 10,
15 years, whatever's right
for the community,
you should never box yourself
in to a specific timeframe--so
by 2030 we're going to be
this-- because the community is
always changing. There's always
something new to think about.
And you should be visionary
at a vision level
of what's the broad approach.
And certainly, as you get
into the implementation,
there should be benchmarks of
how you are working towards
achieving that vision. But to
just unilaterally say there's a
date and we're going
to hit this by this date,
I think shortchanges the intent
of what a general plan is
supposed to be. Now that said,
from an environmental review
perspective, it has to go
along with this, there has
to be a sort of timeframe. You
have to start marrying these
things together. And
from that standpoint, what will
likely be used is--and we
talked about this from the
regional supporting statements
of connecting with other plans
and other studies
around the region--the
Sacramento Council governs its
metropolitan transportation
plan,
the sustainable community
strategy,
and the growth timeframe. It
identifies from a
transportation perspective,
is what's commonly used
to do that. So I think it's
2036, the current version. So
that information at a
transportation level would
likely be a benchmark date
to use. When you're looking
at that, puts you at about 20
years--yeah, 20 years out.
>> I appreciate that answer
because you're right, it is a
living document that you refer
to as you're going along. It's
not something that you blow the
dust off of and go,
how did we do at the end
of it all? But I want to point
out something that I think it's
kind of shocking to me and it
takes a little while for it
to sink in, and that is it'll
become more apparent in
January 'cause the math will
become easier, but
at some point in June, we are
now closer to 2030 than we are
to 2000. And that's just
mindboggling
to me when I think
about it.
>> Thanks again --.
I'm getting old.
>> But--so one
of the things that I saw in
this callout is that by--and I
think 2030 was the date
used--that the projected
population adds another 40,000
or so residents to the City
of Elk Grove. And so that's
more than doubled the size of
Elk Grove when we grew up,
maybe the size of New Helvetia
when Leo grew up.
But those are a lot
of people. And then when you
look at what is the overall
glacial speed
of growth absorption, you know,
for local examples, Laguna
Ridge took over six years
to plan,
and it's probably going
to be close to 12, 15 years
for full buildout. We're
already 10 years
into it now. SEPA,
similar lead time
on the planning effort. And
these were in areas
of that were already sort
of cleared for growth, so
to speak. And so I want
to talk
about the infill and expansion.
Infill is always important.
You always want
to use up your available land,
because if you pass it
over and growth just keeps
on going,
then it's less desirable
to come back to. And there's a
lot of problems created
by empty lots. But what I want
to make sure that this
General Plan definitely does is
remove the Sheldon area or the
rural area
from that equation. Those large
parcels
of land are not available for
infill development and they are
not to be calculated when other
agencies and other folks take a
look at where Elk Grove can put
more density. It's not
on the table. And so I'd like
to see the General Plan
absolutely crystal clear
on that point, and not just in,
say, land use,
but that the fingers of it go
into the other elements as
well. And so in that regard,
on page 18
of the document where it talks
about infill and existing
development, it says, "A create
growth management strategy
allows expansion to recur only
when economic need, community
vision and regional goals
align." I appreciate the
sentiment of that statement,
but I think if that gets
codified into a General Plan,
that's a very dicey situation.
Because you have a very
constrained qualifier and only
followed by some very nebulous
conditions that aren't clearly
stated. Economic need
for whom? Who's benefitting
from it? Community vision as
stated by whom? Regional goals
that who established? And so I
just want to be careful that
when we use language
like that,
we're not pinning ourselves
into a box that somebody else
is going to use our words
against us at the end of it.
But, Jeff, you said something
that I thought was great,
and something that I've heard
from the community, and it's to
really strengthen and document
the character
of the rural area. This is not
a vision of what we want
to be, it's what it is and what
it's going to remain to be.
And I know that
in the initial General Plan we
put actual policies, no wet
utilities, into the area.
Things that will by the nature
of them keep that
from happening. And so I'd
like to see areas where we can
strengthen those ideas. The
other thing I'd like to see
in respect to that is our
farming heritage,
and that that not only goes to
strengthen the rural character,
but it also talks about our
economic development and our
infill strategies and these
types of things. You know,
farm to fork is a huge regional
moment right now. We should be
looking
at food processing facilities.
We should be looking
at micro farm--how does the
City encourage micro farming
in the Sheldon area,
so that these chefs can have,
you know, Sheldon Road carrots
for their whatever. You know
what I mean? And this type
of thing. And that's what I
like about the General Plan is
that it establishes the
overarching goal. This is what
we want
to be when we grow up,
this is how we're going
to get there, and then it has
the policies that say these are
the things that we would like
to see happen,
and then it calls out
like some action items that,
well, we will put this in place
so that it feeds back up
to that overarching goal. And
so, you know, I'd like
to see how we can kind
of take the talk and get it
down to the walk the walk.
But I think you're totally
on the right track, and these
are just initial comments that
I have, but I'm going to stand
against and process. So thank
you.
>> Well said, thank you.
Commissioner Tong.
>> Hi. So I'm not going
to do anymore echo
on the kudos, because I was the
first one that gave the kudos
that the guys up here just
followed that. But I do want to
make a public comment and
perhaps some suggestions
for you to consider. First
of all, going back
to the outreach effort,
I do want to mention,
I believe the Mayor might have
mentioned this,
that the process of itself
of developing this plan,
if it's not just important, in
many cases it's more important
that the final plan itself. So
I do like
to see--'cause I look at the
next step as further outreach
effort. Somehow insert more
excitement and energy in
promoting this because that's
going
to translate more engagement
from a resident, number one.
Number two is that the more
targeted areas,
the convenience
for the neighbors
to participate in this. And I
think it's a great idea
with the mobile as well as to
the fairs and events people are
attending. But somehow
to the neighborhood, I know a
colleague here mentioned the
neighborhood watch group.
But then there are also a lot
of sports activity where all
the parents, you know,
taking their kids Saturdays,
those are a perfect time
because of the kids are riding
around the soccer field can
score, sometimes the parents
will be good to look
for some diversion. So I
think--think about if some of
those activities and it would
be a good opportunity
to just go out to them.
Third, something to--I don't
know if this is stored
out there for you--community
college students area. I
thought about high school, but
perhaps they're a little bit
young. But I'll also get their
feedback. And I know you guys
reach out to the Youth
Commissioners. But
at the same time,
the community college,
the reason is this: People who
are college age are looking
very much on their career path
where the jobs will be
attracting them as well as
they're going to be settling
down with their family. And I
think sometimes getting that
perspective of what is going
to attract them to, you know,
find the community,
to continue to develop. I'm
sure the first thing is, well,
where the job is. Well, and we
have that economic development
plan here of what type
of jobs people are looking to
have. I think somehow you can
tie this together and get that
level
of engagement. I just wanted
to throw it out there that,
you know, community college
students will be a great group.
Finally, what is the
perspective
of residents outside of the
Elk Grove City? And as people
are traveling here
to attend events, again,
coming back to the youth,
I know there's a lot of
regional youth sports events. I
have residents that are coming
from Elk Grove, not so much as
what they want to see in Elk
Grove, but it's always good
to get on neighboring
communities' perspectives.
What is their perception of
Elk Grove? What would be
something that would attract
them to the City of Elk
Grove? Or what are the things
that are, uh,
this is the reason I don't.
Just get a more
of a 360-degree kind
of a perspective
in addition to, you know,
the residents who live in Elk
Grove. So just something
to think about.
>> Great points. Thank you.
Vice Mayor Lee.
>> Just a couple
of things. I am pleased with
the progress. I do appreciate
that report. The other thing I
want to echo and kind hone in
on specifically is one
of the things special in Elk
Grove is the fact that you have
areas like the Sheldon area.
And I think that Councilman
Hume hit the nail right
on it when he talked
about that. And I certainly
will be in favor
of building that into the
General Plan as well, to make
it perfectly clear that this is
something that -- we
want to preserve. The third
item is in terms
of continued outreach,
I've heard a couple
of things: faith-based, sports
group, neighbor association,
the watch groups. One other
thing I might add is, you know,
I think it's really the
nonprofits that are prominent
in our community as well.
Certainly those that are
involved
in nonprofits are --.
It'd be great if you include
that.
>> Thank you. Commissioner
Spease.
>> Yes, thank you. So first I
want to give a hearty amen
to the support for Councilman
Hume and his position relative
to the rural area.
But my piece to add in this is
to the east. We talk
about--excuse me,
to the west. When we talk
about infill and
to look upon building
on what's out there, we need
to look at clusters
for coworking spaces, places
where entrepreneurs can get
their footing. And we see a lot
of that good growth up in
Sacramento and the surrounding
areas. We have beginnings
of that, but I'd like
to--hopefully we can see some
of that flush out as we move
down the road on it.
>> Great points. Councilman
Suen.
>> Yeah, something that
Councilman Hume mentioned that
sparked a thought of mine. As
you do the outreach, I want
to encourage you to talk
to folk about implementation.
So to take you back
off of--there is a lot of
speculation or misperception,
I should say,
that there's a lot
of open land to be developed,
and a lot of times the Sheldon
area,
the rural area is included
in that. And so people don't
quite understand. And there's a
lot of great suggestions. And
Commissioner Tong mentioned
about college campuses and a
lot of great ideas out there.
But then if you look
on a map and you take
out the rural area,
where do you put those things?
So it's great
to have a vision,
but I would encourage you,
when you talk to folks
about that vision,
make them take one extra step
about implementation and seeing
whether or not, you know,
that vision can be realized.
And if not,
then what could be done
to make it realized. So thank
you.
>> Chairman Murphey.
>> Yeah, Chris. Let me borrow
this, if you don't mind,
Steve. As no surprise, I agree
with Councilman Hume. But to be
a little bit more specific,
I'd like to see what policies
and other items,
such as the real road policy,
the recent mobility study we
did,
how that can be incorporated
to kind of--you know, those are
items that I think can
strengthen the protectors
out there. So, Pat, you said it
well. Thank you. On page 22
of our glossy, the one thing
that struck me was the phrase
including both east and the
west sides. That kind of--it
just struck me in that we're--I
know we have a bit
of a divide and a difference
in opinions sometimes,
but I don't know if we want
to put that
out there so much. It just kind
of struck me that, you know,
we understand it, we can work
on it, we're working on it. I
don't know if that needs to be
in there right now. And the
last thing that hit me was on
the draft staff--on the staff
report draft recap was the
suggestion
of a social services element
in the General Plan. A lot's
been said about some
of the needs relating
to that. And I don't know,
to me, if another layer is
needed if we can capture those
needs
under our existing elements.
It's just one more thing we
have to look
at and people have
to go through. A lot's been
said about it though. And I
think with most of our policies
and--I mean our elements that
are in our General Plan, those
things are doable. And also,
some of the services, as was
said, are really related
to what other agencies can do.
We can facilitate that and we
can encourage it, but it may
not be totally
within our purview
to provide those services.
Unless you can show me a strong
reason for including that,
I'd be hesitant
to include that.
>> Yeah. Comissioner Maita?
>> Yes. Well, we heard a lot of
good thoughts up here and the
consensuses have worked so far.
I would like to back up Pat
in his regard, is that we need
to make this understood. And I
think in having that,
and I think it was Darren's
suggestion
about having that conversation,
you know, just sort
of engrained,
because there is a perception,
and particularly, I think,
from some outside agencies,
that see that as a potential.
And frankly,
it's very difficult for people
to understand the nature
of that. You know,
we're getting so far away
from our -- ways,
that I think it's kind
of tough for some people
to grasp the value there. And I
would also agree with George
about the social services
element. And I would like
to make a comment related
to east and west as well.
Because I think--in my
experience, I think there's
more concern and more
imagination related
to it than reality. And a
portion of that is--I think
where the big difference is,
is really it's the maturity of
the community and the stability
of some--long-term stability on
the east side that a newer
community has just a tough time
getting. Than you have a lot
of commuters. They can't spend
time--they're
on the road so much,
it's very difficult for them
to do the--a lot
of what we--well,
what I would consider sort of
normal community activities
when it comes to civic life,
if you will, because their
stresses are different. And I
think that needs to be
acknowledged or understood how
it would work
in here. I don't know.
But that's more
of a rhetorical thought that
I'd like us to keep
in mind and not get into this
east-west thing as much either.
I think if anything,
when it comes
to the west side,
we just need more opportunities
for them to engage in a similar
fashion that the east has had.
And how that's accomplished,
I mean I'm not going to
-- that's what I would
like to see happen.
>> Well, going last is an
advantage and a disadvantage.
One, you know, a lot of you all
said what my notes say here,
and, secondly, you know,
chomping at the bit
to join in. But I do want--so I
think that as we start off
by giving praise,
and I think it's due, and I
think we've done a good job
to start. However, I think that
we've got a little ways
to go. Number one,
this is just a round thing.
One, this is a nice-looking
piece of material. And I don't
know if it's intentional or
not, but there's a lot
of photos in here of
communities that are not ours.
So I'm not sure if that was
intentional,
but I think we got a little
work to do on the photos.
Yeah. Secondly, so as I--yeah,
I think we're getting a lot
of good data from our--I mean
we are getting a lot
of good data
from our residents. And as we
dig deeper, we're going
to get more and more.
But as I think
about what's unique about our
City, the three things that
really pop out to me are, one,
of course, we've all echoed it
here, is the ag rural nature
of our City. I mean how many
other suburban, you know,
middle-class communities have
as large of a chunk of their
City that's zoned
ag-residential as we do,
right?
With no water going in, no
sewer coming out. I mean it's a
powerful statement
for a city. It really can be a
major part
of what defines us,
I believe. And so we need to
make sure that that's reflected
here. There are, certainly,
a lot of rural areas that have
these components, but how many
cities have that much
ag-residential within them? So
I think that's one thing that
really makes Elk Grove unique.
Number two is our diversity.
We're the seventh most diverse
city in the United States. And
in addition to diversity,
we have integrated diversity.
We don't have pockets
of diversity. We're fully
integrated in just
about every part
of our community. And so I
think that as we look at this
from a high level, that's the
second thing that makes Elk
Grove sort
of unique that should really,
I think, stand
out when we're looking
at who we are as a city. And
the third piece I would put out
there is youth sports and
recreation. Although I'm sure a
lot of other communities around
the country have youth sports
and recreation opportunities,
we have the largest youth
soccer program
in the country, and I believe
we have the largest --
and baseball program
in the country,
and I'm sure the list goes
on and on. So it is a
differentiator for us. So I
think
from our perspective I just
want to make sure that those
things that make Elk Grove
unique, shine, and are kind
of overarching goals
of this as we move forward. So
that's the macro level.
At the micro level,
I have a few thought too. Just
talking about the infill,
we do have a lot
of legitimately infill sites.
If you look at Laguna west,
if you look to the north
of our City at Bruceville and
Sheldon, there are sites
in our City that are absolutely
infill sites that are hard to
develop and that need extra TLC
if it's ever going to happen.
And so I think we need
to ensure that we're aggressive
in those areas. I'm glad I
didn't--you know,
I was thinking about, okay,
should I bring up the east
versus west, but I didn't have
to because everybody else
seemed to bring it up. But on
one hand we prescribe a
solution in here --
divide the gap
between east and west.
On the other hand,
you start the dialogue
by asking people
to self-identify if they're
on the east or the west. So I
think that that may be--I think
that maybe we need
to change that, and maybe it's
about your neighborhood. So if
we're going to ask folks
to self-identify, maybe what
neighborhood do you live in,
because we do have unique
neighborhoods in our City for
sure. I think our challenge is
making sure that the uniqueness
of each part
of our community is connected
to the whole so that we're a
strong city overall. And then
just echoing what was talked
about on the specifics
in the rural,
I'll just take it a little
further,
'cause everybody did as we went
down the line. Two lanes,
roundabouts. Let's put it
in the plan, let's solidify it,
let's be done. And then the
micro farming, the hobby farms,
you know,
I think that's really about
inspiring the next generation.
So we have--you know,
people will want to engage
in farm to fork. We certainly
have a very successful farmers'
market here. As we got the
Old Town Plaza moving forward,
there's going to be a space
to do more. How can we make it
easier for folk
in the rural community and,
frankly, even
in the suburban community
to micro farm
in their backyard, whether it's
one acre or an eight of an acre
and take fruits and vegetables
to market. So it would help
just to continue to encourage
not only our consumption
but helping some, you know,
folks find some economic
advantage in doing it too,
which I think ultimately is key
to long-term sustainability
of the rural community too.
Those were most
of my thoughts and Councilman
Detrick's got another one.
>> When you've done all the
outreach -- seeing
Darrell Donn, our Economic
Development Director, come in,
are we--so all the public
outreach that it looks like has
been done has been internally?
Have we looked externally
to see what would be attractive
to residents and businesses
to come here? Because part of
what we're doing is offering
that smorgasbord. So if we're
not including those elements
in not only what we want
but what we need in order
to be a complete city to make
it where we're covering all the
bases, sometimes you have to
look outside because somebody's
going to have a vision
different than what we have
on the inside. So hopefully
that can be included. It'll be
a good resource.
>> Councilman Suen.
>> Yes, I heard
from project-specific things,
so I have to throw one
out there. And I don't see
Mark Doty
in the audience anymore, but I
hope he'll appreciate this. I'd
like to see a connected
bike/pedestrian trail that runs
all the way up parallel
to I-5 that connects us, if we
can, to the Sacramento area or
pocket up there to create a
regional connection so someone
could bike all the way around
Grant Line Road, through the
City, all the up back into
Sacramento. Thank you.
>> All right, great. Any other
closing comments? No? All
right. Let's go
to public comment. Sharon? And
anybody else,
if you have final comments,
because I think we're towards
the end here.
>> I'm --. Thank you,
it's been very interesting.
First thing off the top is
there's no sign-in sheet
at the back. And I've seen a
lot of faces I've never seen
before, which is really nice
to see. So we don't have the
advantage of signing in with
our email or our phone number
or anything like that,
and it's unusual. Usually every
city event has a sign-in sheet.
So I don't want
to lose these folks
in the process,
if they read it
in the paper or whatever. So I
think that's really important
to get
before people start leaving.
Just a couple of comments. I
certainly appreciate
Councilman Hume, I always enjoy
his speaking. Anyway, he has a
fun way of talking,
I love it. So anyway,
what's interesting
about that, I do appreciate all
the support you folks have
given to the rural area 'cause
that's where I've lived for
over 40 years and I hope I
continue there
for a long time. Anyway, Pat
was--I mean Mr. Hume is one
of the only members of all
of you that worked
on the original General Plan,
and there's only a few of us
in the audience that did that.
But I want
to encourage the rest of you.
It was a long process. The
public and the original
Council worked together. It was
a real learning curve for all
of us. Don't give up. I think
it's a great learning process.
I learned a lot. Just hang
in there and you'll come
to speed. So just
to encourage you on that. I did
appreciate so many of you
mentioning--and I hope I
haven't forgotten
Commissioners Murphey, Maita
and Mayor Davis about the
east-west. I totally agree
with your comments. It divides.
Just those two--those three
words divides us immediately
off the bat. And I think that
needs to be deleted, as you've
said, from the process and
from any words in this document
that we were given tonight,
anywhere else in the
Powerpoints and all that. So I
appreciate you bringing that
forward because that's
extremely important. And I
like Gary's ideas
on the diversity I've known
since I've lived here that our
community for 40 years has been
diverse. All our welcome,
especially
within the school district.
It's been fabulous
to see that. I grew up
in a very diverse neighborhood
Downtown Sacramento after
World War II. You talk
about diversity, we had it.
And it was wonderful. What a
heritage it gave me. I lived
in the projects on X Street. I
grew up there
until the sixth grade. And then
we moved into a real home. So I
have real history with that.
And I'm so glad Elk Grove is
known--it's wonderful and I'm
glad my kids were raised in
this community as well because
of that very fact. So I
appreciate that, Gary. So thank
you so much. Keep up the good
work.
>> Cheryl, before you leave,
since you mentioned the quest
about east to west,
how would you feel
about if they were to ask what
district they live in?
>> Sure, that's be great.
Anything but that. Or as they
said, what neighborhood do you
live in? I think that's a good
way too. Council district,
you mean?
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah, I think that's a good
idea. Yeah,
but just not that east-west.
We already feel it,
but I think it--
>> It would help the Council
District bridge 99, so that
kind of takes away the
east-west issue,
but splits it up
into quadrants.
>> Right.
>> This gives you at least a
rough geographical area.
>> Yeah. But that east-west,
we know it exists,
but I think the City has looked
at getting that eliminated
from our vocabulary. So we need
to keep working on it. Thank
you.
>> All right, thank you. Bill
Myers.
>> Thank you. You're used
to seeing me talk
about the rural area.
But you've done such a good job
of it, I have nothing to say
about it. Just I'm very happy
--.
>> Thank you very much.
>> So I want to talk about
other professional sites that
you don't know about, okay?
And I look ahead to some of the
things I think might be worth
taking note of, especially
in regard
to the economic component.
First of all,
several years ago several of us
around town--I used to teach
local economic development at
Davis for a while. I forgot
to say that. And some of us
around town got together and
took a look
at what the resources might be.
This was our own thing. We
weren't commissioned by the
City or anything. And Elk
Grove is full of people
with really interesting skills.
Some of these skills are future
skills,
they're not past skills. We're
not making use of them. They
all go to work
for somebody else. So we
asked--you know, they go to
Folsom and they go to the Bay
Area or whatever. So we
actually worked
with our local bank, you know,
just kind of
behind the scenes, and we kind
of took a look
to see what would it take to
actually mobilize what we
already have here in terms
of our human resources. Set up
an idea bank or something. I
actually think these are done
somewhere, and I won't go
into details here except
to say that there are a number
of ways of working with the
people that you already have
to give them a chance
to put their skills to work
on their -- they want
to go into business or
to do something here. Not just
to attract outsiders
to come in. In other words,
it's growing your own,
not just buffalo hunting. And
this is something I think would
be really worth looking at,
because I think we have some
really interesting human
resources that could be
cultivated in that way. Second
point, talking
about education,
I think you're dead on,
that anything we do needs
to be tied
to constant education,
not just for youth. We're all
going
to be educating ourselves, you
know, -- all
through our lives
for one thing or another,
and it's not going
to be just the standard stuff.
But I would be a little careful
about the brick and mortar,
because brick and mortar is
getting to be a--well,
be brick
around your neck is what it is.
Everything is happening online
and that's going to expand.
We're getting very good
at putting at whole courses,
you know, for everybody. My
daughter, for example, is
changing her profession and she
does three-quarters
of her stuff online from our
local institutions here, okay?
But it's basically going
to work out of homes,
very small pods,
and we're not going to need
classrooms and parking lots and
all of that kind of thing
in the future
like we've needed it so far.
So it's worth just thinking
about where the world is going
and not where it's already
been. Third,
about the farming. We actually,
for some time,
have actually been wanting
to move
toward the micro farming area.
The big problem has been
marketing and a place
to market. And we keep trying
to remind the City over and
over that this would be a
really nice city function. You
know, it's something we can't
very well do on our own. There
have been ideas around. The
county actually put $20,000,
$30,000 into a study we did
with Charlotte Mitchell and the
Farm Bureau
on this and it went nowhere.
But there is a backlog
of thinking
about this and what's
to be done. And I think that
could be tapped if you wanted
to get into that. Thank you
very much.
>> Well said, well said,
Bill. Thank you. Okay, I don't
see anyone else signed up. Do
we have any further staff
comments?
>> We appreciate all the
feedback this evening. I think
it's been really productive. I
think we have the direction we
need, therefore, we're
on the right track. There's a
little bit of fine-tuning
in a few places. We've heard
that. We'll work on that. And
certainly we'll keep continuing
to revisit these as we progress
through the process and
hopefully memorialize it
into the document
at a later point. So thank you
all very much and thank the
public for being here. We
really do appreciate the time
this evening. Thank you.
>> Agreed, wonderful. Well,
yeah, thanks to the Planning
Commission, City Council
for your time, staff
for preparing this. And we're
going to adjourn. And everyone
please have a safe and blessed
holiday season.