SCH Number 2021070359

Project Info

Title

Blueprint SD Initiative, Hillcrest Focused Plan Amendment to the Uptown Community Plan, and University Community Plan and Local Coastal Program Update

Description

The General Plan provides a policy framework for land use decisions that balances the needs of the City as required by state law (Government Code Section 65300). It expresses a Citywide vision and provides a comprehensive approach for how the City should develop, provide public services, and maintain and enhance the qualities that define the City of San Diego. The overarching strategy of the General Plan is based on the City of Villages, which focuses growth into mixed-use activity centers that are pedestrian-friendly districts linked to the planned regional transit system. The General Plan provides a vision and policy framework to guide the development of each of the City’s 52 community planning areas. Community plans are written to refine the General Plan’s citywide policies and provide location-based policies and recommendations to guide development over a 20-to-30-year timeframe. Community plans provide more detailed land use designations and community-specific policies on a wide array of topics including housing, mobility, open space and parks, public facilities, safety, noise, sustainability, environmental justice, urban design, and historic preservation. The General Plan and community plans play a critical role in meeting the City’s Climate Action Plan (CAP) goals and contributing to the region’s mobility vision and needs. They also help the City implement other Citywide policy documents such as the City’s Climate Resilient SD Plan and the Parks Master Plan. The General Plan and community plans identify land uses and public improvements that work toward achieving the Citywide mobility mode share goals. As such, the City has shifted away from accommodating additional vehicular travel to instead focus on reducing vehicular travel through strategic land use planning, primarily by locating new development within walking distance to transit stops and stations, and through investments in walking/rolling, bicycling, and transit improvements. The Blueprint SD Initiative includes a comprehensive amendment to the General Plan to better align the City of Villages Strategy to reflect the latest goals, policies, and plans for housing, mobility and transit, environmental protection, and climate change adaptation and sustainable growth. The Blueprint SD Initiative would amend the General Plan to reflect an updated Citywide land use framework designed around the 2050 regional transportation network in the San Diego Association of Government’s (SANDAG’s) Regional Plan to promote reductions in per capita greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and vehicle miles traveled (VMT). The Blueprint SD Initiative identifies complementary land use, transportation, and related policies to support future development according to the revised land use framework. The land use and policy amendments would build upon the climate goals outlined in the City’s CAP and Climate Resilient SD Plan. The Blueprint SD Initiative’s land use and policy framework would apply Citywide and future land use policy, community plan updates and amendments, and San Diego Municipal Code amendments to implement the Blueprint SD Initiative may apply Citywide. Consistent with the Blueprint SD Initiative, the City anticipates that future community plan updates, specific plans, and focused plan amendments would involve the redesignation of existing land uses within specific areas, referred to as the Climate Smart Village Areas. These are areas that have access to existing or planned transit and demonstrate the greatest likelihood to encourage walking/rolling, biking, and transit use.

3 documents in project