General Plan Overview

A city’s General Plan is considered the constitution of local government for land use and related policy matters. It serves as a roadmap to guide policy actions and development to further the vision for the community. Each local government must adopt a comprehensive, long-term General Plan for the physical development of the jurisdictionas well as for the land outside its boundaries over which it may have future control – its sphere of influence.

General Plan State Requirements
State law does not mandate how often the General Plan must be updated except for the housing element, which is required to be updated every five years. State law, however, does require that a General Plan be updated periodically so that it remains a true reflection of a community’s values and goals. It should also be updated as needed to update technical information and address locally relevant issues.

Updating the General Plan
A general expectation is that General Plans should be comprehensively updated every 10 to 20 years, and Hemet’s General Plan is now 13 years old. Since adoption of the General Plan in 1992, there has been no comprehensive assessment of the goals, policies, and programs in the General Plan except for those in the Housing Element. Technical data is outdated, new environmental information has become available, new development has occurred, and new issues have arisen in the community, which are not addressed in the General Plan.

General Plan Elements
State law requires that each city and each county adopt a general plan containing the following seven components or "elements": land use, circulation, housing, conservation, open-space, noise, and safety (Government Code Sections 65300 et seq.). At the same time, each jurisdiction is free to adopt a wide variety of additional elements covering subjects of particular interest to that jurisdiction.

The Hemet General Plan will include the following Elements:

Land Use and Community Design Element – Incorporates three-dimensional aspects of land use planning into the traditional approach

Housing Element – Responds to the housing allocation for the upcoming cycle for the region. If the State legislature extends the cycle, we will work with you to adjust this task

Community Mobility Element – Incorporates traditional Circulation Element requirements with a detailed treatment of alternative modes of mobility in the community

Open Space, Conservation, Parks and Recreation Element – Meets State requirements for the Open Space and Conservation Elements

Public Safety Element – Identifies natural and human-cause hazards in the community, and addresses City’s plans to provide a high level of public safety services

Community Facilities and Services Element – Addresses all community facilities and services provided within the community, including parks, schools, libraries, water and sewer facilities, utilities, solid waste services, etc.

Links to General Plan Resources

The links below will take you out of the Hemet General Plan website. Links which take you out of this site are not under the control of the City of Hemet, and the City is not responsible for the contents or any further links from those sites.

The California Govenors Office of Planning and Research
http://www.opr.ca.gov/

The California 2003 General Plan Guidelines (PDF File PDF File: 1.83 MB) http://www.opr.ca.gov/planning/PDFs/General_Plan_Guidelines_2003.pdf

American Planning Association
http://www.planning.org

California Chapter of the American Planning Association
http://www.calapa.org/

Inland Empire Scetion of the American Planning Association
http://www.ies-apa.org/

California Planning Roundtable
http://www.cproundtable.org