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Front Page

General Plan Update Takes a Step Forward

John VanLandingham
Connection Staff
March 2008

Community Input Sought—Joint City Council, Planning Comission Hearing Set For March 22nd

Emeryville residents later this month will get another look at the ongoing update of the city’s general plan when the City Council and Planning Commission meet jointly to discuss ideas for the city’s future.

A city’s general plan is both its master guide for land use and development. It also is a vision of the city’s future, particularly for a city in transition as Emeryville is. Over the past decade, the city has diversified, moving away from its traditional manufacturing base toward a city of retail centers, schools, urban housing and 21st Century industries, such as biotechnology, nanotechnology, stem cell research and biofuels.

The City continues to clean up the once-polluted sites left by manufacturers, turning them into parks, commercial and residential centers. The City’s last remaining Superfund site, currently located under the Amtrak Station parking lot, will finally be cleaned up and removed upon the approval of the Transit Center project.

But as progress continues, city leaders decided to review Emeryville’s vision of where it wants to be in another 20 years. A general plan update steering committee was appointed in 2005 to look at the city’s plan and talk with all elements of the community about the City’s future direction.

There are sixteen members on the General Plan Update Steering, all appointed by the City Council. They include two sitting Councilmembers, Dick Kassis and Mayor Ken Bukowski; two members of the Planning Commission, Patricia Jeffery and Gail Donaldson; a member of the Emery Unified School District Board, plus two Emery Secondary School students; and representatives of the business community and other residents.

While that committee continues its update review, several core ideas have emerged and the panel wants to review them with the council and planners during a 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. meeting at City Hall, on Saturday, March 22nd. This meeting is open to the public and in fact the public is encouraged to attend, and participate.

The purpose of this meeting is to give the City Council and Planning Commission an opportunity to discuss the plan’s framework prior to the General Plan Update Steering Committee moving forward on developing the full plan.

Deborah Diamond, general plan update project manager, said that Emeryville is a long way from asking the council to review a draft general plan. Even after the March 22 meeting, there will be further review and recommendations from the update review committee, preparation of an environmental study and hearings by the Planning Commission before a proposed final version is presented to the council.

In an article for the city’s online newsletter, Diamond outlined some of the ideas that will be examined at the March 22 meeting, calling them a “conceptual framework.”

This framework is contained in a document called the Preferred Plan, which presents goals and strategies for the future in five areas:

• Land use

• Building height and size

• Transportation, including pedestrian,

bicycle, transit and auto

• Parks, open space and greenways

• Structure of the city

“The Preferred Plan is the result of broad public outreach by the General Plan Update Steering Committee,” Diamond wrote.

John VanLandingham is a writer for The Emeryville Connection.

If you have a question or comment, please contact him at

ecocnews@gmail.com