Diamond Bar : City Acts to Kill General Plan

Avoiding a referendum, the City Council has taken the first step toward annulling its General Plan and starting work on a new one.

Council members voted unanimously last week to direct city staff to prepare a resolution that would rescind legislation the council passed last July to put its General Plan into effect. The council will vote on the matter at the March 16 regular meeting.

The council’s alternative was to call a special election in June to put the General Plan to a vote. Such an election would be the first of its kind in the state and could cost as much as $50,000, city officials said.

In January, a Superior Court judge ruled in favor of a citizens group, Diamond Bar Citizens to Protect Country Living, and ordered the city to revise its General Plan or put it to a vote.

Controversy over the General Plan arose last year, when the citizens group submitted petitions asking to put the plan to a vote. Referendum proponents say the plan is insensitive to the environment and does not protect areas such as Tonner Canyon, one of Los Angeles County’s last large undeveloped areas.

The plan calls for open space, recreational and agricultural uses in the canyon, but opponents want more protection.

The plan is a state-mandated development guideline for the city, which incorporated in 1989.

City Manager Terrence L. Belanger said the council will not start from scratch and develop a entirely new General Plan but will hold a series of public hearings and listen to citizens’ concerns while redrafting parts of the current plan.

Belanger said the General Plan was adopted last summer after substantial public input and a $500,000, three-year effort to come up with a fair document.