Planning Team To Host Community Meeting on General Plan Update

Newark residents are invited to the first of a series of meetings in which the future of Newark’s development will be discussed.

Headed by the City of Newark and a planning team from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo's City and Regional Planning Department, the community meeting will center on the Newark General Plan Enhancement Project – the first of two phases to modernize the city’s General Plan.

The meeting will be held on Saturday, Nov. 19 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Silliman Community Room at the , 6800 Mowry Ave.

A General Plan is a policy document that acts as a guideline for county and city leaders when it comes to decision-making for future development.

“Its primary purpose is to define how a city develops as it develops,” said Newark Community Development Director Terrence Grindall.

The last update to the General Plan was approved in 1992, after eight years of developing the plan, Grindall said, who added that cities normally update a general plan every 10 years.

“But it is common to take longer in cities that are already built out [like Newark],” Grindall said.

The reason for the delay in revisiting the General Plan was based on costs, Grindall said. Grindall said the city had decided not to 10 years ago in order to save money.

An update to a General Plan could cost between $2-$3 million, Grindall added. The cost of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo’s City and Regional Planning Department’s involvement totals $20,000, Grindall said. Most of that cost will go toward the Cal Poly team’s travel expenses.

The Newark General Plan Enhancement Project is headed by 15 graduate students and one professor at Cal Poly who will be charged with surveying, researching and working with Newark residents in order to update the General Plan accordingly, according to the project’s website.

Numerous elements will be studied including: land use, housing, open space and recreation conservation, public facilities, safety, noise, economics and demographics, health, community design and traffic (listed as circulation in the document).

Grindall said he doesn’t expect that drastic modifications will be made to the General Plan.

“Not much has changed [in development] since 1992,” said Grindall, noting that the newest additions will likely include the specific plans for the and the , which city councilmembers approved in 2010 and 2011, respectively.

“We don’t want to re-invent the wheel. We’re bringing our existing plan to a modernization,” Grindall said.

Menlo Park-based Spangle Associates was the planning and research firm that updated the city’s General Plan in 1992 and has worked on Newark’s housing plan updates, which are conducted about every eight years, Grindall said.

Grindall said he is optimistic of the work being conducted by the team from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo’s City and Regional Planning Department.

“We all in the city know the General Plan. Having a new set of eyes and approach to it is very useful,” Grindall said.

Grindall said if everything is done properly, he expects the first phase of the General Plan update to be approved by the city council by May 2012.

The second phase of the project will be conducted by a consultant firm that has yet to be hired. That phase will include polishing up the first phase and producing an Environmental Impact Report and is estimated to cost approximately $250,000, according to Grindall.

The Nov. 19 meeting will include small group discussions to determine what works in Newark and identify necessary improvements, according to a flier. Lunch will be provided. It will be the first of a series of public meetings, but the dates for those meetings have yet to be determined.

For more information about the Newark General Plan Enhancement Project,  visit www.mynewarkplan.weebly.com.