Press-Enterprise Article on Wildomar General Plan

From the Press-Enterprise article ( http://www.pe.com/local-news/riverside-county/wildomar/20131016-wildomar-city-embarking-on-land-use-... ) :

Five years after becoming a city, Wildomar is going to create its own master land-use guide that is distinct from the general plan it inherited from the county.

“Developers, builders and community members that have an interest in the development of the city would like to see a comprehensive standalone document,” City Manager Gary Nordquist said. “It would be a good idea to get this general plan update moving forward.”

A municipal general plan is a policy document that identifies how land should be preserved or developed in keeping with a city’s overall goals. It also includes sections on traffic circulation, housing, parks and open space, safety, noise and air quality.

After incorporation on July 1, 2008, the City Council adopted the county’s general plan to use at City Hall until Wildomar officials had the time and money to tailor one to the specific characteristics of the community.

The recession, combined with a state budget maneuver stripping $2 million from the city’s annual operating fund, handicapped the city in financing the general plan revision.

With the economy turning around and the city’s recent adoption of development agreements providing ongoing revenue sources, Nordquist said there will be enough money coming in that can be used to offset the cost of the general plan update.

City Council members recently agreed to authorize the update, including an analysis to ensure the new plan won’t cause environmental harm. The cost was estimated at $205,000.

“It’s going to be awesome,” Councilwoman Marsha Swanson said of the proposal. “It will be much easier for us, the staff and all of you (in the public) to go through. It will be totally separate from the county and it will be ours.”

The revision will be based on the approach taken by Eastvale, a city north of Corona that incorporated Oct. 1, 2010. Nordquist said Eastvale did a simplified update that focused on deleting extraneous material.

As proposed, the plan would not result in changes to existing rules and regulations.

Sheryl Ade, who was a member of the city’s first council, said council members then wanted to go forward with the general plan work, but were told the environmental analysis was unaffordable.

In the meantime, two residents sued the city in April based on their contention the city lacked a legally adopted general plan, a stance city officials say is inaccurate. The challenge is scheduled for a court hearing in January.

Because the county had revised its general plan for all unincorporated areas prior to Wildomar’s cityhood, Ade said the lapse in updating a plan for Wildomar hasn’t caused much of a problem.

“I’ll be glad to see this move forward because we don’t want to leave people hanging,” Ade said.

For most recent information on General Plan Update: http://wildomarrap.blogspot.com/2014/02/general-plan-update-meeting-recap.html