2007-03-02 TGP AMENDMENT - Laserfiche WebLink

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is provide a formal mechanism for the public, which may include a landowner, to initiatea change and have it either accepted or rejected for further processing. The landowner ora member of the public that wants to do a General Plan change can also ask the County Council to do it; and then the County Council can initiate it by resolution. Now theres also nothing that prevents the public from trying to persuade the Planning Director to initiate a General Plan amendment without paying $500. But, you know, this is different than a rezoning in that a landowner can initiate a rezoning under the Code but the Charter says that only the Planning Director or the County Council can initiate a change to the General Plan. So if the public wants to initiate a change to the General Plan, they basically have to persuade the Planning Director or the Council. If we didnt have a procedure like this, that would be their only recourse. The only point of this $500 thing, this $500 application, is to formally, is a formal way to make a request and to get the Director to say, yes, Im going to do it or no Im not going to do it. But there is also an informal route to do this both withthePlanningDirectorandtheCountyCouncilthatwouldnotinvolveafilingfee. GRAHAM:CommissionerDomingo? DOMINGO:Isortofagreewithyou,Mr.Yuen,inthefactofthematterthatIhave regarded the General Plan as a primary planning document for the County. Its somewhat sacred, so to speak, because, you know, it is a General Plan that sets the direction of growth; and the General Plan states its policy in which the direction of growth is dictated upon, you know, with all the studies and comments and whatever that is attached to it. And thats why I consider it a sacred document. And if the public wants to initiate a General Plan Amendment, then it can be done during the review process and their point be made known, whether how strong itd be or what. Because if you just leave it up to the public and anyone who cannot afford a $500 fee, there will be a number of proposed boundary amendments to consider; and that would create an unwieldy situation which the Department would have a lot of work to do. GRAHAM:Commissioner Domingo, are you suggesting that this whole section about general public initiating amendments not be included? DOMINGO:No, no Im not suggesting it. The fact of the matter is if they want to they can. But the fact of the matter is they need to pay for that filing fee. And I think anyone whod be faced with that would certainly think very seriously about whether or not it should be done. And what Im saying again is that if anyone would like to propose any amendments that can be done by the citizen review process as hearings are being conducted. GRAHAM:Thank you. Commissioner Watanabe? WATANABE:If were ready, Im ready to make a motion. GRAHAM:Do we have any questions for Mr. Yuen? WATANABE:Oh, do we need to take any testifiers? 6EXHIBIT B