Is Your General Plan Compliant? Let’s Get You There.
Recent legislative updates have added new requirements for California general plans. The two most significant updates to general plan requirements come from SB 1000 (Environmental Justice) and SB 379 (Climate Adaptation), although several other bills have been passed with changes related to fire hazards, military installations, and other planning topics.
Addressing these new required planning topics can be a challenge for small communities in California. Many of the new topics, including climate adaptation and environmental justice, require additional research and data collection. The Provost & Pritchard strategy for climate adaptation planning utilizes existing policy documents, including Local Hazard Mitigation Plans, to identify areas for local planning focus. Additionally, tools for environmental justice analysis, such as CalEnviroScreen, are maintained by the State to assist with these research tasks but present data at the census tract level. For small cities comprised of only one or two census tracts, census tract level data often does not provide the level of nuance necessary to craft community-specific goals and policies for inclusion in the general plan.
Provost & Pritchard’s focused general plan update strategy utilizes a variety of data sources to complete a policy analysis: a review of all existing policies and planning efforts currently in place, as well as an existing conditions analysis. The policy analysis is used to identify recommended updates to the general plan, which are added through element-specific changes. This focused update strategy brings general plans into compliance with legislative requirements while being mindful of resource limitations by retaining existing planned land uses, utilizing existing policy resources, and focusing on local concerns.
Provost & Pritchard has completed focused general plan updates following this strategy for:
- City of Porterville (2024)
- City of Kingsburg (2026)
- City of Mendota (Ongoing)
Additionally, Provost & Pritchard utilized this research-based approach to complete the Environmental Justice and Safety element updates of the 2040 Fowler General Plan, a comprehensive update adopted by the City in 2023.
Are you a good candidate – Call Sara Allinder, AICP at (559) 449-2700 to discuss your Plan today!