The Comprehensive Plan
| Copies of the Comprehensive
Plan - Elements and
the various community plans and supporting
documents can be obtained at
Planning & Development's office,
123 E. Anapamu Street, Santa Barbara.
Click here to
view the structure of
the Comprehensive Plan
and its supporting documents. |
The Comprehensive Plan itself
is the heart of the Long Range Planning
Division's mission. California
Planning and Zoning Law requires each
city and county to "adopt a comprehensive,
long-term general plan for the
physical development of the county or
city, and of any land outside its boundaries
which in the planning agency's judgment
bears relations to its planning."
The County's first General Plan was
adopted in 1965. In the early 1970s
the County undertook a program to update
and revise the General Plan as an integrated
series of topical "elements" to
be known as the Comprehensive Plan. These "elements" corresponded
to the content explicitly required by
state law, but the underlying concept
reflected in the new title of Comprehensive
Plan was that the various elements would
comprise a consistent, integrated whole.
The various core Elements of the Comprehensive
Plan were adopted from 1975 (Scenic Highways)
through 1981 (Housing). During
the 1980s, the updating of the Comprehensive
Plan took place mainly through the development
and adoption of Community and Area Plans
that covered the full range of topical "elements" (issues)
within defined geographic areas such
as Summerland, Los Alamos, and Orcutt. As
part of this effort, the County settled
on a more formal structure for organizing
the content of the new Community Plans
into three "Super Elements":
-
Community Development - land
use categories such as Residential
and Commercial, redevelopment/revitalization,
and public finance;
-
Public Facilities & Services -
such as circulation, recreation,
and wastewater treatment;
-
Resources & Constraints -
such as biological resources, geology,
and visual aesthetics.
Community and Area Plans have been adopted
for Summerland, Montecito, Goleta, Los
Alamos, Orcutt, and Toro Canyon, and a
plan is in progress for the Santa Ynez
Valley. The remaining major candidate
area for a Community Plan is the
Vandenberg Village-Mission Hills area
north of Lompoc.
The current Comprehensive Plan includes
thirteen elements (seven mandate by state
law, six optional) and the Local Coastal
Program, six adopted community and area
plans, and over twenty major implementation
plans to ensure that adopted goals, objectives
and action plans are actually carried
out. Four separate zoning ordinances
also play a key role in providing
detailed guidance on implementing the
Plan. Substantial public involvement
is emphasized in the drafting and
adoption of all of these elements, community
plans and implementing documents.
Planning Documents
Coastal Land Use Plan
Land Use Element |
