At the February 27th Redding Planning Commission meeting on the Redding Final EIR and draft General Plan 2045 did not get a majority vote and on a 3 to 3 tie it passed it on to the City Council without a majority approval. Commissioner Partin had to abstain from the final vote due to a conflict of interest. The GP was changed over several meetings following input from the community, with weak and unenforceable language such as “strive to” and “consider” removed. However the previous city attorney submitted a clause in the introduction to the GP, that weakened the entire plan which Commissioners Greene and Hatch objected to, while Commissioner Middleton wanted several changes to the plan on other issues.
Here was the language that two commissioners found objectionable.
“As such, terms used in this document such as “require”, “shall”, “prohibit”, “protect” and similar words are not intended, for purposes of policy implementation or general plan consistency determinations, to provide absolute certainty, direction, urgency, or otherwise dictate precise and immediate actions.”
This language was inserted to make the interpretation of the GP malleable to unforeseen circumstances according to the city attorney. To SEA this takes away much of the strength of the GP and the protections that many citizens who spent many hours providing input during the GP focus groups. Fortunately, the many comments from the public, both written and oral were responsible for eliminating much of the previous weak language in the General Plan.
Thank you for your vigilance and guidance regarding this important element of our Future Planning. It was apparent to me that the people on the commission seem to lack something.
Wish I were younger.
Keep up the good work. It’s a challenge I know but the SEA has done and is doing a good job bringing issues related to the environment to our attention and of interest!
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