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Nancy Couperus, Open Space Committee member, reported that the Earth Day • celebration at Westwind Barn had been very successful. Numerous agencies and Town Committees had participated in the event. She thanked Council and the volunteers for their support. PUBLIC HEARING 14. Los Altos Hills General Plan Update: Proposed amendments to the General Plan include an updated Introduction, Conservation Element, and Open Space and Recreation Element. The updated sections have been developed by the General Plan Ad Hoc Update Committee as part of the Town's 2007 General Plan Update project. (Staff-Leslie Hopper) Mayor Warshawsky introduced the Public Hearing. He made a brief statement clarifying the subject matter under consideration. Warshawsky spoke to the misinterpretation of the General Plan update and mis-statements that had been circulating in recent weeks. He advised the audience that Council had no intentions of making sweeping changes to the document. The General Plan represented the guiding principles of the Town but not the ordinances and the updates would not impose any new requirements nor relax any current ordinance requirements. Warshawsky offered an overview of the process that had been followed to update the General Plan. Councilmember Mike O'Malley had been unanimously appointed by the Council to Chair the State mandated update. Council had given clear direction to the Ad Hoc committee to comply with State law and update the document's language and formatting; and, make any needed corrections to the outdated and incorrect references. Council did not charter the Ad Hoc Committee to make any fundamental changes to the General Plan. Mayor Warshawsky thanked Councilmember O'Malley for his leadership on the project and deferred to Councilmember O'Malley for comments. Councilmember O'Malley reiterated that the charter of the Committee, as mandated by the Council, was to: 1) correct errors and revise outdated references in the document; and, 2) revise the language and formatting of the Elements to provide consistency throughout the document. Much of the text had not been revised since 1975 and the Committee's goal was to bring uniformity to the language and formatting of the document. It appeared that several of the Elements had been prepared on a typewriter. O'Malley offered the inclusion of language about the quarry and the three public schools in Town as examples of outdated references and errors that the Ad Hoc Committee had addressed. O'Malley restated Warshawsky's statement that no changes to the basic principles of the General Plan were being suggested by the Ad Hoc General Plan Committee. The Ad Hoc Committee had followed a two-step process in revising the elements. First, the documents were modified to produce a more accurate, legible and reproducible • document. Second, the goals, policies and programs were reviewed to ensure that they were relevant and appropriate. Affected Standing Committees were asked to review and 5 Regular City Meeting Minutes April 26,2007