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The Livermore City Council has adopted the plan intended to guide the city’s decision-making for about the next two decades regarding its growth, development and resources conservation.
The approved Livermore General Plan 2045 maintains city priorities such as protecting open space as well as supporting downtown and South Livermore vitality and multi-modal transportation. It also places a new emphasis on climate resilience, environmental justice and healthy communities, the staff report states.
Developed from 2021 to 2026, creating the plan cost about $3 million via consulting contract. Input was taken from the public, General Plan Advisory Committee, Livermore Planning Commission, city staff as well as the previous and current council.
Councilmembers unanimously approved the General Plan at its July 27 regular meeting following a public hearing. In the same motion, the council certified the General Plan 2045 final environmental impact report and introduced an ordinance to amend the Livermore zoning map for consistency.
“In 2045, Livermore will be a community with a big heart where families and individuals flourish, and people with diverse experiences and perspectives work together for the common good,” the General Plan vision states. “Insightful land use policies and wise resource management will ensure services and infrastructure for a high quality of life and enable Livermore to be safe and welcoming for all.”
The vision as well as guiding principals such as excellent city services and infrastructure are meant to inform the rest of the General Plan.
The plan includes 10 elements with over 45 goals as well as associated policies to implement the goals. The elements cover land use, community identity, mobility, housing, infrastructure, community services, open space and conservation, noise, safety and economic development.
“Topics such as environmental justice and climate adaptation and sustainability have been woven in to all the elements,” the General Plan states.
Under the land-use element, the city aims to create neighborhoods that feature mixed use development and a range of housing types. It also intends to locate new developments in places that maximize the use of existing public services and facilities.
More specifically, the city intends to develop the Isabel Neighborhood into a “complete neighborhood” and create a mixed-use neighborhood in the Midtown area, according to the plan.
It also intends to preserve and support the South Livermore Valley as an agricultural region and wine country economy.
The plan identified east of Greenville Road as an area for potential evaluation of land use changes under conditions such as a jobs and housing imbalance or service and infrastructure challenges.
During the meeting, the majority of eight public commenters requested maintenance of the urban growth boundary or removal of language in the General Plan for potential study of the area east of Greenville Road.
“It is very important to the citizens of Livermore not to change our urban growth boundary unless it is absolutely needed,” Livermore Valley Arts director Jean King said during the meeting.
“This council does not have the authority to break the urban growth boundary. The only entity that can do that are the voters of Livermore,” Mayor John Marchand later replied.
The General Plan focuses on growth within its borders, Councilmember Evan Branning explained.
“In the (committee) meetings, some of the comments people made, and even some made tonight, make it seem more contentious than it really is,” Vice Mayor Kristie Wang said of the General Plan.
There was “great consensus” getting to the plan, Marchand added.
On the subject of land use, the council supported the conversion of 40 acres in the Midtown area from heavy industrial zoning to commercial service once a Midtown Specific Plan is adopted. The land is part of an approximately 130-acre property owned by McGrath RentCorp.
The council considered, as a separate item that night, an amendment to a development agreement with McGrath.
The council also supported the conversion of open space zoning for an approximately 122-acre site at 3658 Las Colinas Road in the process of allowing limited residential development, according to a zoning map of the proposed change areas and an errata regarding land use. A development agreement with property owner Adventus was up for council consideration during the meeting as a separate item.
Alongside the General Plan, the council certified the final EIR.
The General Plan has significant and unavoidable impacts that cannot be mitigated to a less-than-significant level, according to the staff report. Impacts are expected on elements of the environment such as agricultural resources, air quality, greenhouse gas emissions, mineral resources and noise.
Due to the findings, the council approved a statement of overriding considerations finding that the benefits of the General Plan outweigh the unavoidable environmental impacts.
Of note, the finding of impacts is at a plan-level. At a project specific level, impacts could be less significant and potentially mitigable, according to Livermore principal planner Andy Ross.
Benefits of the plan include support of infill development for future housing needs and economic growth, protection of resources while also maintaining infrastructure and public services as well as promotion of fiscal sustainability.
The EIR study area accounts for a total population of 131,750 people during 2045 at maximum theoretical build-out.
The theoretical population was used to evaluate potential impacts, Ross explained.
“They are not forecasts and they are not projections,” he added.
Under a separate cover, the council voted to retain existing general plan scenic corridor policies until new scenic resources standards are considered and adopted in the future, according to the staff report.
Following adoption of the General Plan, city staff intend to present work programs to the council to the document.
The General Plan and associated final EIR are available online at ImagineLivermore2045.org.
