General plan’s early draft set to go to public in July

San Bernardino received $3million three years ago to amend its archaic general plan.

The first piece of the ensuing work is expected to be revealed this summer.

PlaceWorks, the Santa Ana-based community planning and design firm the city contracted in 2020 to prepare modern planning and development documents, expects to have a draft Downtown Specific Plan and the associated environmental impact report ready for public review in July, officials told council members this month.

And more is on the way. City leaders on May 4 committed an additional $500,000 in state grant funding to prioritize planning activities that accelerate housing development to meet San Bernardino’s needs. The Local Early Action Planning, or LEAP, Grant funds will allow PlaceWorks to identify sites where new affordable housing can be built, among other supplemental tasks.

Also that evening, elected officials balked at giving PlaceWorks another $300,000 in general fund money to enhance public participation activities as work winds down.

“We’ve got to get the general plan” finished, Mayor John Valdivia said May4. “That’s the focus. That’s the issue.”

PlaceWorks has received more than $4 million thus far to carry out the task of overhauling the city’s general plan, a long-range policy document that steers future growth and development that was last updated in 2005.

While such a document looks 20years into the future, cities tend to revamp them every five to 10 years.

Over the past several months, PlaceWorks has created a website to encourage public participation in the process and open a line of communication to the community.

PlaceWorks representatives also have held several in-person and virtual community workshops, as well as pop-up activities at school sites and local events across town.

They also have collaborated with community stakeholders and organizations.

All input has been provided to a pair of advisory committees filled by appointees made by city leaders.

A handful of these advisory committee meetings remain.

Even with such extensive outreach efforts, Councilman Fred Shorett called turnout at certain community workshops “very disappointing.”

If residents aren’t attending, he told PlaceWorks representatives May 4, “I would say you move on and cut your losses.

“We got to fish or cut bait,” he added.

“This is something we have to do. We need to get this done.”