The Countywide Plan, the mammoth planning document that guides policies and programs for Marin, is set for an update that is being called a “tune up.” Though somewhat narrow in scope, the process is still expected to take four or five years, according to the Community Development Agency.
Marin developed its first Countywide Plan in 1973, updating it in 1982, 1994 and 2007. That last update represented a major expansion; whereas in 1994 the plan had 327 programs, the 2007 version had 791, with a broad aim of emphasizing equity, the economy and environmental issues, according to Brian Crawford, head of the C.D.A.
Among the aims of the next update is to finally implement a streamside conservation ordinance in the San Geronimo Valley; a previous ordinance was set aside due to a lawsuit.
The Board of Supervisors held a brief workshop on Tuesday, during which the agency presented a broad plan of action for the update. More details are expected later this year, and the update should commence in early 2018.
“We are not proposing [a total rewrite] since… the bones of the plan are very sound,” said Tom Lai, assistant director of the agency.
The update will take place in two phases. The first phase will develop tweaked policies for streamside conservation areas, which will then lead to a new ordinance that will affect the San Geronimo Valley. During this phase, the agency will also examine housing policy, specifically as it pertains to housing densities and conformance with state law, and align the plan with new state laws pertaining to fire and flood hazards.
The second phase will align the plan with Senate Bill 379, a law signed by the Governor in 2015 that requires local planning documents to include measures to adapt to climate change. The resultant changes will incorporate the county’s work analyzing the impacts of global warming on Marin’s coast and ideas about how to respond.
The agency will also review the 2007 Countywide Plan to determine which programs and policies have been implemented, which have yet to be put into effect, and which might be obsolete.
He noted that collective ambition had more or less resulted in an “overcommitment” to programs given staffing capacity, and that the agency did not want “to repeat that going forward.”
The recession that hit the country soon after that plan was adopted led to staffing cuts that made implementing the plan difficult, though the agency said it had been able to complete about 60 percent of its tasks.
The generality of the proposal presented to supervisors on Tuesday made it difficult for them to weigh in on the plan of action. “When we talked previously about amendments, we have talked about using a scalpel,” Supervisor Kate Sears said.
“I can’t tell…whether we’re following that notion or not,” she said, noting that it is hard to understand why such a narrow approach would take so long.
Mr. Lai responded that the issues presented were the “most pressing” and challenging, but that supervisors could offer other ideas, too. The agency expects the environmental analysis of the update to take about a year.
Supervisor Damon Connolly brought up the fact that the county is poised to release a supplemental environmental impact report for the 2007 Countywide Plan that will hone in on the cumulative impact of development in the San Geronimo Valley; he wondered how that factored in. Mr. Crawford said that the agency “may learn something” from it and that the analysis could help with a new streamside ordinance.