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Review Process
In May 2009 the City received a development application for the proposed Saltworks project. As proposed, this project would require a General Plan amendment.
At its meeting on August 10, 2009 the City Council voted to initiate the process for evaluation of a potential General Plan amendment. This allows the City to proceed with hiring consultants, preparing detailed analyses, commissioning technical studies, and developing a thorough community involvement and public environmental review process (the City will recoup all expenses from the developer for these and other resources needed to evaluate the proposal).
From its preliminary review of the proposal, City staff has expressed initial concerns regarding key challenges including water supply, transportation, and jurisdictional overlays, and would like to know more about each of these areas and how they will be addressed. In the process of evaluating a potential General Plan amendment process, the City will be able to begin an in-depth analysis of the proposed project so that the community, the Planning Commission, and the City Council have a thorough understanding of its scope and impacts.
It should be very clearly noted that the acceptance and review of this development proposal – and initiating a General Plan amendment process – does not constitute an approval or denial of the project. In fact, it is only the beginning of the analyses, review, and consideration. During the August 10, 2009 meeting, the City Council did not address other parts of the development application, such as environmental assessment, zoning map, etc. That work will require City staff and consultants to conduct a full evaluation of the submittal. If the project application is deemed to be sufficient in content and detail to be eligible to proceed through a formal review process, that process could begin in early 2010 with informational meetings and an EIR Scoping Session.
The City will continue to make details about the application process, required studies, and schedule for the review process available on this web site at www.redwoodcity.org/saltworks.
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