About the Project
Background
Monte Sereno is updating its General Plan, a document that serves as a road map guiding the community’s vision into actionable policies and programs over the next 20 years. General plans are required to have several elements focusing on particular aspects of the built and natural environment:
Land Use
Housing (updated in May 2024)
Circulation
Open Space
Conservation
Noise
Safety
Environmental Justice (new requirement)
Cities can organize these elements as standalone or shared chapters, as well as accompany them with optional elements and an implementation guide. In Monte Sereno, our current general plan was adopted in 2008. The General Plan Update will follow the same general format as the current 2008 General Plan and will update policies where needed. This will include new Environmental Justice policies, addressing State requirements that address wildfire evacuation issues, linkages to Santa Clara County’s ongoing Multi- Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan (HMP) update, and more.
As part of the General Plan Update, the project team will pursue environmental documentation appropriate for the scale of change envisioned by the Policy Framework.
The Update Process
The General Plan Update is a multi-year process, and community engagement is crucial!
The first major milestone will be the Existing Conditions Report. This is an overview of the existing 2008 General Plan and changes in the build and natural environment, as well as updates to State law, since that document was adopted. From there, the project team will develop a draft Policy Framework for public review and to confirm policy direction. Following that, the Public Review Draft General Plan Update will be published and – following public review of the draft – an Adoption Draft General Plan Update will be brought to Monte Sereno City Council for two adoption hearings. All documents will be published on this website as they become available.
There will be several public meetings throughout the process where community members will have opportunities to give their input. In addition, a survey will be released to give individuals the chance to provide their thoughts from their phone or computer.
If you have any additional comments or questions about the General Plan Update, or just want to let us know what you are thinking, please Contact Us!
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