What is a General Plan?
The General Plan is the City's 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.

The General Plan sets forth the goals, policies, and directions the City will take in managing its future. The General Plan is the citizens’ “blueprint” for development; the guide to achieving its vision. California law requires each local government to adopt a local General Plan, which must contain at least seven “elements”, also referred to as chapters or topics:

• Land Use
• Transportation
• Housing
• Conservation
• Noise
• Open Space
• Safety
• Optional

Land Use – The Land Use chapter is the key chapter in the General Plan in that it designates the location, general density and use of the land for housing, commercial, industrial, public facilities, open space and other uses. This topic also includes a Land Use Map that shows the distribution of the various land uses.

Transportation– This chapter indicates the location and size of existing and proposed streets, bikeways, bus and other fixed transit routes, railroads, and other mobility systems. This chapter must also correlate with the Land Use Element.

Housing – This chapter has been recently adopted, and will not undergo a comprehensive update. However, existing issues will be reassessed in order to identify an affordable housing strategy for the City.

Conservation – This chapter addresses the conservation, development, and utilization of natural resources including water, soils, natural gas and oil, plants and animals, and air.

Noise – This chapter identifies noise problems within a community. Current and projected noise volumes that contribute to the noise levels within the community, including noise from streets, airports and air traffic, industrial plants, railroads, and other ground stationary noise sources, are analyzed and quantified. Noise contours are used for establishing the pattern of land uses within the Land Use Element in order to minimize exposure to residents.

Open Space – This chapter includes the identification and preservation of parks, open space, and other recreational opportunities.

Safety – This chapter 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 airplane crashes.

Optional – Optional chapters to address specific areas of concern to the community, such as Design, Air Quality, or Economic/Fiscal, may also be included in addition to, or incorporated with, the seven mandatory topics. State law allows the flexibility of combining topics or adding additional discussion as long as the content requirements of the mandatory chapters are met.

Goals and policies will be adopted for each of the seven topics (and possibly others) along with implementing strategies and programs. These will be developed by the City, public agencies, and residents of Inglewood. 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 General Plan has become outdated and no longer addresses the current concerns of the City, especially as the City has experienced significant growth and change since the last update.

The current General Plan for the City of Inglewood is outdated. Six of the seven elements were adopted in the 1980s and 1990s and have not been updated since that time. As the City has continued to grow and evolve since the last update, much of the data, analyses, and policies in these elements 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 Inglewood over the next 20 years.

What is the Update Process?
The update process will include the following steps over a period of approximately two years, beginning in early 2006.

• Phase I Document Existing Conditions
• Phase II Conduct a Visioning Process
• Phase III Develop a Land Use Plan
• Phase IV Formulate General Plan Goals and Policies
• Phase V Prepare Updated General Plan
• Phase VI Prepare an Environmental Impact Report

Phase I DOCUMENT EXISTING CONDITIONS
The first step in updating a General Plan is to understand where the community is today and what the major issues are. This will involve an analysis of the current conditions pertaining to the City, including its land use, economy, housing, circulation, etc. This information is compiled into a Technical Background Report, and will be used as the basis for the formulation of the updated General Plan and the Environmental Impact Report. The Technical Background Report was completed in August 2006 and is available for review now.

Phase II CONDUCT A VISIONING PROCESS





During this task, the consultants and City Staff will meet with community stakeholders and the general public to establish a vision and guiding principles that will be used to formulate policies for each General Plan topic. An example of a guiding principle may include the preservation of existing single-family neighborhoods or the development of walkable commercial districts. These principles will be based on the issues identified in the Technical Background Report, and other issues and opportunities determined important by the community stakeholders and general public. A series of community workshops and stakeholder interviews will be held throughout the City. Check the General Plan Events section for these upcoming community workshops.

Phase III DEVELOP A LAND USE PLAN

Based on the information from the Technical Background Report and Visioning Process, an updated Land Use Plan will be prepared. This will involve identifying areas of the City where land uses will be preserved, and areas where new development will be targeted. In areas where new development will be targeted, the Land Use Plan will specify what types of land uses are appropriate, including the density and character of uses within these areas.

Phase IV FORMULATE GENERAL PLAN GOALS AND POLICIES

During this task, goals, objectives, policies and programs will be formulated for each topic of the General Plan. These will reflect the issues, planning principles and land use plan from the preceding tasks. They will also reflect public input, as community workshops will be held to review preliminary drafts. These workshops will also be posted in the General Plan Events section when dates are determined.

Phase V PREPARE AN UPDATED GENERAL PLAN

Based on the input received from the previous task, a Draft updated General Plan will be prepared. This will be published for public review, and posted on this website along with all other General Plan Reports and Documents prepared throughout this process.

Phase VI ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT REPORT

The final task before adoption of the updated General Plan is certification of an Environmental Impact Report (EIR). An EIR evaluates the potential impacts of growth allowed under the updated General Plan on all affected resources. These resources include air, water quality, open space, etc. For those resources that will be negatively impacted, the EIR will recommend ways to reduce or eliminate the impacts. Once the EIR is certified, the updated General Plan will be adopted by the City Council.