PHOENIX GENERAL PLAN UPDATE - IMPORTANT NEWS‏

IMPORTANT NEWS! NEW TIMELINE AND PROCESS FOR THE PHOENIX GENERAL PLAN UPDATE -

Staff appeared before the City Council Subcommittee on Transportation, Infrastructure and Sustainablity on September 2, 2010 to get direction on the General Plan Update timeline given the fact that last May an amendment to the State Statutes was approved giving cities more time to complete their updates given the current economic conditions. This amendment establishes a new deadline of July 2015 for adopting or readopting our general plans.

Three options were presented to the Subcommittee:

1) complete a very limited edit of the existing plan by November 2010 in order to place it on the ballot in August 2011,

2) conduct a more comprehensive update that would include new 2010 Census data and incorporate two regional MAG transportation planning studies, in addition to other studies, by November 2012 and place it on the ballot in August 2013 (if there is a city-wide election item) or August 2015, or

3) complete a limited edit of the existing plan and put it on the ballot in 2011 and continue to work on a more comprehensive update that would be put on a future ballot.

The Subcommittee approved option 3. Given the limited time available, our plan of action breaks the update into two phases:

Phase I includes sorting the existing goals and policies under the four focus area which were developed last Fall and used to organize all of our public input - community, economy, environment and infrastructure.

These areas are based on the 3 E's of sustainability (equity, environment and economy) with the addition of infrastructure. Once the existing goals and policies have been sorted under these focus areas, we will identify gaps between what exists and what the you told us was important during the Village Visioning Workshops.

Phase II will inlcude a longer term work program for filling in those gaps; incorporating new data and studies currently in progress; and developing performance measures, strategies, and an action plan.

It is anticipated that the public hearing draft will be released no later than November 29, 2010. A notice will be sent to the listserve once the document has been posted to the www.phoenix.gov/planphx website and is available for your review.

Important dates for Phase I of the General Plan Update -

November 29, 2010: Public Hearing draft to be released for 60-day review

January 2011: Village Planning Committees review and recommend

February 9, 2011: Planning Commission reviews and recommends

March 2, 2011: City Council reviews and acts

April 6, 2011: City Council schedules election

August 30, 2011: Public votes

Please email at carol.johnson@phoenix.gov or call me at 602-261-8289 if you have any questions or comments about this revised process and schedule.

Source:

Carol Johnson, AICP
Planning Manager