Dreamers on the Move in Brea

Brea planners have a simple request of their residents: Dream big.

As part of the General Plan update--a bureaucratic, potentially boring process--city officials are asking residents to take a look around, let their imagination run wild and give their opinions on what the city should become. They’re even offering free transportation for a Jan. 19 “workshop on wheels.”

At each of six designated spots, residents will be interviewed by city staff and given the opportunity to shape Brea’s future.

“We’re really trying to get folks to seriously dream about the future,” City Planner David Crabtree said. “What is it that they want to see happen? What shape do they want the future of the city to take?”

It is no surprise that Brea is going the extra mile, literally, to get people involved. The city embarked on a nationally recognized Art in Public Places campaign in 1975, requiring every development costing more than $1.5 million to contribute 1% of its value to outdoor sculpture for public display. As a result, Brea now has 130 sculptures and art displays scattered across the city.

“Brea tends to be on the forefront of a lot of things,” said Michael Gold, deputy director of the Orange County League of California Cities. “I think this is probably a way to better involve folks. I know that increased public involvement has been the trend over the past few years because people are just more aware of their community and want to be more in touch with what the community is doing.”

Such strategies as workshops on wheels have become a tenet of wise development, senior planner Karen Haluza said. “We’ll put our Brea twist on it, so it will be unique,” she added.

The Jan. 19 event is actually a self-guided driving tour with six stops, but public transportation will be available for those who request it.

Among the stops will be the Brea Marketplace, South Brea Boulevard, the hillside areas bordering the northern edge of the city, and Unocal’s Hartley Research Center.

The other stops are to be determined.

City staff will have photos to help start the discussion, with before and after pictures of other developed areas and examples of what some cities have done.

“It just makes sense to get people out into the community,” Haluza said. “It’s so much better than having people sit in a room and say, ‘Now, tell me what you think of the west side of town.’ ”

After the public input is compiled, it will be synthesized into a draft general plan and presented first to the Planning Commission, then to the City Council for adoption.

Minor amendments to the General Plan are made periodically, and Brea hasn’t done a comprehensive overhaul since 1986.

By the time the process is completed this spring, the city will have an updated plan that includes an overview as well as details on such matters as traffic patterns, noise levels and growth management.

Brea has been growing steadily over the years, with a population now just over 36,000. But how fast the city should grow--or whether it should--are some of the issues to be addressed in the General Plan.

Prime candidates for development, Crabtree said, are the hillside areas not within city limits.

But the city could seek to develop and annex them in the future if area residents and officials decide to do so.

Glenn Parker, formerly on the City Council and now a member of the General Plan Advisory Committee, said the field-trip approach has worked well for other Brea projects.

During planning for downtown, for example, the city held a Downtown Idea Fair.

More than 250 people visited downtown alongside city planners. They talked about architecture, public-spaces art and signage. Now, much of what they envisioned has been implemented in the form of movie theaters, restaurants and loft apartments.

“It helps people stimulate their imagination and their thoughts,” Parker said. “When you’re sitting in a room, it’s hard to remember things.”

Different approaches to planning--advisory committees, workshops at community centers and bus tours--ensure that a cross-section of residents comes forward, Parker said.

“It’s very important that we have as many people involved as possible to represent the whole community,” he said.