BY SAMANTHA HEARN
The 2016 update to Brentwood’s 2020 Plan was approved Monday by the City Commission with one minor amendment and a new designation as the Brentwood 2030 Plan.
The plan, a community-wide endeavor to plan for the city’s future, has been in an update process since 2013. In 2013, the plan began with a series of workshops and listening sessions that brought together several hundred Brentwood residents interested in the future planning of Brentwood.
The workshops were followed in 2014 by a series of resident and business surveys that were mailed to over 13,000 homes and commercial establishments. The input received led to quick action by the City Commission to address the most pressing issues of C-4 zoning, which is residential in mixed-use commercial, as well as senior housing.
There is a section of the plan related to senior housing that said the city should “assure adequate provisions for retirement-age persons, including alternate housing for all life stages, services and activities.”
Mayor Regina Smithson requested an amendment to change the word “assure” to “consider” after the commission discussed the Planning Commission’s recommendation to completely eliminate the section on retirement living.
Staff concerns were that while development of smaller, owner-occupied, detached senior housing units is no longer under consideration, there may still be some opportunities to facilitate other types of retirement living, such as assisted living and memory care.
Smithson’s amendment was passed unanimously, and then the plan as amended was passed unanimously by the Commission. All Commissioners except for Rhea Little were present at Monday’s meeting.
Other topics in the plan include parks, infrastructure, the environment, historic resources and transportation. These issues are covered in the proposed amendments to the 2020 Plan and Major Thoroughfare Plan documents, but none of the changes were significant departures from the 2008 version of the plan.
Some of the major objectives for environmental conservation, scenic, historic and recreation services include assuring adequate areas for these, as well as conserving and protecting stream corridors as drainage and floor management areas, as plant and animal habitats and as natural filters to improve water quality systems.
Other objectives include maintaining and enhancing stream corridors as scenic and passive recreation areas, and pathways for linking activity areas and the community overall. The plan also calls for limiting development on areas with unstable soil conditions and steep terrain, greater than 15 percent.
The plan calls for enhanced protection of historical areas through combined public and private management control, as well as conserving and protecting historically and culturally significant areas by maintaining their scenic values.
With parks, the plan calls for providing additional passive parks, as well as additional active community-scale parks in under-served areas.
With commercial development, the plan has a goal to provide commercial activities that will increase the tax base, serve areas with unmet needs, reduce trips associated with convenience activities and maintain Brentwood’s regional competitive attraction for strong households and businesses. It also calls for enhancing safe connectivity within and between existing commercial centers for cars, pedestrians and future transit systems.
With traffic, the goal is to assure a mobile community that conveniently and safely links people with their homes, employment, essential services and recreation. The goal is also for it to be sensitive to the environment and neighborhood character of Brentwood, and to integrate land use and promote economic activity.
With it being redesignated as the Brentwood 2030 Plan, City Manager Kirk Bednar explained that the city is doubtful to see major changes in the next few years.
“Essentially it’s a 10-year extension, with the idea that there would need to be another comprehensive update in the 2020-2025 range, which would be appropriate,” Bednar said. “This is also knowing that at any given time the Commission can do an update if there is a significant change in the community.”
The plan as amended was passed unanimously. For more information visit www.brentwood2020.com.
Samantha Hearn reports for Home Page Media Group. She can be reached via email at [email protected] or on Twitter @samanthahearn.
