Last week your Monrovia City Planners blogged about this year’s theme for National Community Planning Month “Planning is Essential to Recovery.” This week your planners would like to let you know what type of “planning” we are doing relative to this topic. But first -- we want to make sure you got the “take away” from last week’s post.
So, here is a pop quiz. We love pop quizzes!!
Last week’s message was: (Select all of the following that applies.)
B. Monrovia Planners have genetically modified DNA.
Now, if you guessed D, you got
it! Great job! We even wrote a beautiful
song about it inspired by Elton John! (If
you want to hear his version, you can access it here…. But we still like
our version better!)
We’re still Planning
We’re still planning, better than we ever
did
We’re looking like true survivors,
feeling like little kids
We’re still planning after all this time
Thinking
about the future of our residents
not gonna leave anyone behind
We’re still planning yeah yeah yeah
We’re still planning yeah yeah yeah
Phew, wasn’t that fun? So now that that’s done, let’s back to the
subject of this week’s post.
You may be wondering…What type of planning is "essential for recovery"?
Well, you have heard of the Periodic Table of the Elements – the building
blocks for, like, everything on earth …but
have you heard about the General Plan Table of Elements?
We know, we know... it just looks like a table of contents. BUT these elements are exciting to us because they are the building blocks for, like, everything in Monrovia!
"Elements" is just a planner’s fancy word for “chapters,” but these chapters are critical in a City’s General Plan because they guide land use decisions with an end goal of achieving sustainability and resiliency! Monrovia's General Plan is the blue print for the City’s long range planning goals.
You may also be asking yourself... So when a General Plan is planned, are only planners doing the planning?
That is great question. We Plan, You Plan, We all Plan! Guess what guys... Even Peter Piper Plans!
Remember that... because in the upcoming months, the Monrovia Planning team will be launching a comprehensive update to Monrovia’s Housing Element (HE) and Safety Element (SE). We will also be commencing the preparation of a brand new element called an Environmental Justice Element (EJE). And there will be opportunities for you to participate!
Now that you've got the lingo, you're probably asking... So why are the HE, SE and EJE elements important? Another good question!
The Monrovia Housing Element provides a blue print for an adequate supply of safe and affordable housing for all economic segments of the community. The Safety Element identifies and evaluates natural hazards within the City (like wild fires, earthquakes, etc.) and outlines goals and programs aimed at reducing all types of loss associated with those hazards. The new Environmental Justice Element will be designed to include goals and strategies that address environmental concerns, such as air quality impacts, and goals to ensure every resident has access to public facilities, healthy food, safe and sanitary homes, and opportunities for physical activity.
Dialog as a community will be an important initial step in this General
Plan update process for identifying the right goals and strategies to keep
Monrovia on a path for a stronger tomorrow. Remember - Planners don’t plan alone – we plan
with you! So, keep your eyes peeled. In
a few weeks will be reaching out to YOU for your important planning input.
