GPAC reviews outreach: staff say 1,500 responses informed land-use alternatives

Project staff reviewed the community engagement program that underpins the draft land-use alternatives, telling the General Plan Advisory Committee the outreach combined an in-person open house, booths at city events and an online survey that collected responses through February.

Staff reported roughly 80 attendees at the in-person open-house event and said about 60 survey responses were tied to that event; staff characterized roughly 1,500 total individual responses across the outreach program when all activities were combined. "The raw data pictures of all the boards ... and comments from the online survey are in a report that is on the website," Jonathan said, pointing to packet materials that include a quantified summary and raw comments.

Committee members pressed on representativeness: one member noted a city population around 105,000 and observed that 1,500 responses equate to less than 1% of residents, asking whether that meets statistical standards for citywide policy. Staff and consultants replied that the outreach used multiple modes (in-person and online) and that the outreach findings were intentionally complemented by technical analyses — market pro-formas and feasibility modeling — to inform site-specific recommendations.

Staff emphasized that most focus-area recommendations do not represent a change from current allowances; where recommendations diverge from public-preference data, staff said those sites (about half a dozen) were the explicit focus of discussion that evening and would be explained in the Planning Commission materials. The committee was reminded that the upcoming Planning Commission review would be a concept review to authorize environmental analysis and that formal adoption would come later with the full general plan.

The meeting materials — including the outreach report, photos of engagement boards and the consultant market analysis — were distributed to GPAC ahead of the meeting and are available on the project website, staff said. The committee's recorded concerns about sampling, neighborhood-serving retail, and design standards will be captured in the staff report to Planning Commission.