Organizations for Rural Quality (RQC/F)

Grass Valley Managed Growth Initiative

All supporting documents will be posted at www.ccatnc.org

Questions - Week One

What is a General Plan – and what is the Land Use Element that the Initiative ratifies? And why do we propose voter approval of any changes to it?

1. It’s our constitution! Every city and county is required by the State to have a general plan. A general plan sets out a community’s expectations and goals about how it intends to grow and shape itself in the years ahead. “A General Plan is often compared to a ‘constitution’ for local development, and serves as the policy basis for all land use decisions.”[1]

2. The Land Use Element and Map are critical to how, where, and how much we grow. The Land Use Element is one of nine elements in Grass Valley’s General Plan. It can be described as its core because it includes the Land Use Map which lays out where housing, commercial, industrial, open space and other uses are to be located as well as the maximum intensity of these uses, and the ultimate buildout population of the City.

3. The voters should be involved in changes to mapping our city’s future. Because growing communities like Grass Valley continue to evolve, a general plan must evolve, too, and continue to referee the competing proposals and expectations. “Ultimately, the General Plan strives to create a congruence between our values and the reality of the times in which we live.”[2] So it must provide processes by which to continue to referee and choose between evolving alternative visions for the future. Those changes become amendments to a general plan; eventually the general plan is wholly revised, building on the old one to produce a new one. For this reason, we think it is vital to include the entire community in any changes made to the Land Use Element and Map, so that it will evolve reflecting the entire community’s vision of its future.

This is why the “Managed Growth Initiative” has focused on seeking to reaffirm the Land Use Element as Grass Valley’s current map to the future, and requiring voters’ participation in future changes.

[1] City of Grass Valley 2020 General Plan (1999), p.1-1 (link).

[2] City of Grass Valley 2020 General Plan (1999), p.2-1 (link).

Next: Questions - Week Two (Link)