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6. NEW BUSINESS 6.1 Request for proposal for General Plan Update Council had before them the Planning Director's report on the General Plan Update. In it he noted that $45,000 had been included in the 1997-98 Planning Department Budget to provide for a consultant to begin work on the General Plan update, with a similar amount to be budgeted in the 1998-99 fiscal year. The request for proposals would be sent to about six planning consultants with final selection to be made in January. It was hoped that the Circulation Element would be completed by the end of this fiscal year and completion of the entire General Plan Update by June of 1999. Staff was asking for Council comment on the timeframe for this project, the selection criteria and the level of committee review and public input. Hubbard suggested that it might be a good idea to do a Town mailing on this issue and furthermore it was possible a survey could be done in conjunction with the update of the General Plan. Dauber concurred with Hubbard's comments. She also commented that there had been a long learning curve when the design guidelines booklet was prepared. Council needed to know what questions they wanted to ask. Casey believed this should be two separate efforts. A survey could be done the first half of 1998 and the results of the survey could be given to the General Plan consultant. She believed a consultant could be hired to formulate the survey. Casey strongly supported doing a survey next year in order to provide the Planning Commission with direction. She also suggested reactivating the communications subcommittee to work on a list of survey questions. The City Manager questioned whether such survey questions would relate more to the land use element and he reminded Council that one of their goals was to give the circulation element the highest priority. Staff needed to be advised if this goal was being changed. On this subject Siegel suggested that an outline of the circulation element issues to be covered should get Council approval before the consultant went forward. On the Housing Element issue which was scheduled for the November 19" Council Meeting, it was noted that an article on this was included in the last newsletter. In addition Council agreed that a boxed ad should be put in the next issue of the Town Crier highlighting the issues of the Housing Element to be addressed on the 19" and furthermore the meeting on the 19' would be informational with final approval to be agendized for a subsequent Council Meeting. PASSED BY CONSENSUS: To authorize staff to release the request for proposals for the General Plan Update and to continue discussion of the process and public input required to the next Council meeting for discussion. 7. REPORTS FROM COMMITTEES, SUB -COMMITTEES, AND COUNCILMEMBERS ON OUTSIDE AGENCIES 7.1 Pathways Recreation and Parks Committee 7. 1.1 Request for authorization to send a letter to the County Interjurisdictional Trails Committee This item was continued. STAFF REPORTS 8.1 City Manager November 5, 1997 Regular City Council Meeting