The plan was announced in 2008 at a booth that was set up at the Upland Scary-a-Faire and again at the Upland Christmas Parade and Craft Fair. Passers-by were asked to tell what they wanted to see in the new city plan.
(This is not a time for thoughtful, researched answers – and was everyone poled from Upland?)
Four workshops were held – a legal notice was placed in the “legal notices” section of the newspaper and a notice was pinned on the bulletin board outside City Hall prior to each meeting. We believe that the workshops were held between 2008 and 2012.
An open house was held for the residents of the Gibson Senior Center.
The Plan states that “key stakeholders” and “others” were part of the planning and helped develop the themes and topic addressed by the general plan. “Residents” were not mentioned. No definitive list is available showing the stake holders nor are there minutes of the meetings that we can find as of this point. (We would like to know what went on in those workshops and in the private meetings conducted between the Development Service Department, PlaceWorks and the stake holders.)
The development of the Plan was driven by the City’s Development Services Department with no guidelines from the City Council or Planning Commission.
The City approved the hiring of Design Community and Environment, an environmental planning company, to flesh out the plan. They were purchased by another company and are now called “PlaceWorks.” They have boasted that they have written the plan for almost every city in Southern California. (Anaheim, Upland, Ontario, Chino, SANBAG, and more) They whole-heartedly ascribe to the tenants of “Man-made Global Warming” and their plans reflect this political philosophy according to their own web site. (Is there no other company without a political agenda to help write these plans?)
The Plan is 2,230 pages split between five documents. It was posted for public review on the City web site on March 9. The first meeting to review the plan was March 25 – 16 days to read 139 pages per day. If you read all pages by the Public Hearing on April 22, you would have to read 50 per day for 45 days straight.
According to the Development Services director, this plan is being implemented nationally. (Does this represent OUR values?)
The residents of the City of West Covina are fighting the implementation of their new plan to urbanize their city and add high density, low density housing and global warming regulations.
The City of Redlands passed a “slow growth” plan, Measure U, where they denounce urbanization. (YES!!)
