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The General Plan is a comprehensive policy document that defines the type, amount, and location of future growth and development within the City and forms the basis for the City's planning activities and its decisions regarding development proposals.
The General Plan sets forth the direction the City will take in managing its future based upon a shared vision for the community. California law requires each local government to adopt a General Plan which must contain seven mandatory “elements” or chapters. These elements include a series of goals, policies, and implementation actions designed to achieve the community’s vision. A General Plan may include optional or permissive elements that address specific topics of local concern. The Simi Valley General Plan contains eleven elements, seven required by State law, in addition to four permissive elements, as summarized below:
State Required Elements
* These topics are consolidated in one element in the
Simi Valley
General Plan.
Permissive Elements
Land Use – Designates the location, general intensity, and use of the land for housing, commercial, industrial, public facilities, open space, and other uses. This chapter includes a Land Use Map that shows the distribution of the various land uses.
Circulation – Indicates the location and capacity of existing and proposed streets and roadways and identifies bikeways, truck routes, and other fixed transit routes, railroads, and other mobility systems. This chapter is correlated to the Land Use Element.
Housing – Identifies the community’s housing needs and provides strategies for the production of housing for current and future residents of Simi Valley.
Conservation – Addresses the conservation and utilization of natural, cultural, historical, and archeological resources within the community, including water, soils, minerals, air quality, as well as plant and animal resources.
Open Space – Identifies open space resources in the community and strategies for protection and preservation of these resources, including hillsides, canyons, and wildlife corridors.
Noise – Identifies existing and potential noise sources within the community and strategies to minimize the exposure of residents to noise and to mitigate noise impacts to the extent feasible.
Safety – Plans for the welfare and safety of the citizens and their property by identifying and mitigating potential effects of natural and man-made disasters, including, but not limited to, earthquakes, flooding, fires, and other natural or man-made disasters.
Recreation – Presents programs and strategies for providing a broad range of recreational opportunities for all segments of the City’s current and future population, including privately-owned and commercial recreation facilities.
Community Services – Plans for the provision of public services including infrastructure, education, police services, fire and health services, consistent with the City’s growth and development strategy.
Economic Development – Identifies the strategy for maintaining a strong economic base and fiscal balance that permits continued and enhanced levels of high-quality public services within the community.
Air Quality – Projects future air quality, taking into consideration the effects of adopted plans and current legislation. This element also describes the types of air pollutants affecting the Simi Valley area, the source of these pollutants, and their physiological and environmental effects.
The General Plan Update involves preparing revised elements that include updated goals and policies along with strategies and programs to implement these goals to achieve the community’s vision. These will be developed by the City, public agencies, and residents of Simi Valley. It is important for all of these parties to work together toward a unified vision of the City in order to create a place where people enjoy living, working, playing, and spending time now and in the future.
Why Update the General Plan? – The current General Plan for the City of Simi Valley was adopted in 1988 and has not been comprehensively updated since that time. As the City has continued to grow and evolve since that time, much of the data, analyses, and policies do not reflect the current conditions and priorities in the City. Thus, a comprehensive update of the General Plan is necessary to reflect current conditions as well as the community’s vision for development within Simi Valley over the next 25 years.
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