Undertaking a comprehensive General Plan update process and having a “modern” General Plan can produce many benefits for Santa Maria. The benefits are summarized below.

• Create a consensus community vision for the future.

• Ensure proactive growth and development decisions that manage the location, design and intensity of future growth.

• Provide transparency in decision-making processes.

• Provide certainty for those investing in the City.

• Engage the community in a positive way about the future.

• Build the next generation of community leaders through a robust community engagement program.

• Create a document that is readable and usable by the public.

• Implement recent State laws and guidance.

• Ensure continued provision of high-quality public services from the perspective of fiscal sustainability.

• Create policies for sustainability, green building, public health, arts and culture and other topics not currently included in the General Plan.

• Provide access to State funding for planning and implementation.

• Calculate the environmental impacts of buildout through a program EIR.

• Create policies and programs to support the vision of the Santa Maria Transit Center, High Speed Rail and the proposed High Desert Corridor.

• Avoid legal challenges that result from an out-of-date General Plan and EIR.

• Create clear and objective standards to maintain control of housing decisions.