Planning
The Planning Department provides professional services and information in four functional areas of day-today operations, current planning, long-range planning, and regional planning. The functions of the four service areas are as follows.
Day-to-day operations involve interaction with the general public, developers, consultants, and public officials on planning matters, which include:
- Responding to questions in the field, in the office, or over the telephone
- Promoting the managed growth of the community, meeting and working with other organizations and jurisdictions
- Attending public meetings and workshops to stay aware of programs and policy development, presenting staff recommendations at public meetings
- Administration of budgets and grants
- Other duties as assigned
Department location: 111 E. Commercial Street Willits, CA 95490
Current planning operations involve:
- Coordinating reviews with the Technical Advisory Committee
- Presenting staff recommendations and findings on planning matters to the Planning Commission/City Council
- Processing land use applications by conducting field checks
- Researching issues concerning:
- Annexations
- Conditional use permits
- Environmental reviews
- General plan amendments
- Lot line adjustments
- Minor land divisions
- Planned unit developments
- Subdivisions
- Variances
- Zone text amendments
- Zoning
- Reviewing site plans, landscape plans, and building plans for zoning compliance
- Writing and editing minutes of public meetings
- Writing, editing, and presenting draft ordinances to the Planning Commission/City Council
- Writing staff reports with legal findings
Long-range planning operations involve:
- Developing specific plans
- Information collection and analysis
- Promoting public participation
- Researching issues concerning population, housing, land use (including the Municipal Service Review and other issues before LAFCO and MCOG), economics, and transportation
- Working on special studies, including monitoring projects and consultants
Regional planning includes:
- Blueprint planning effort for Mendocino County and to the Willits Chamber of Commerce and EDFC in developing and implementing local economic development strategies
- Countywide Capital Improvement Plan
- Regional Housing Needs Plan
- Staff support to Caltrans Main Street Relinquishment Project Development Team
- Staff support to MCOG in developing the Regional Transportation Plan Update
- Transportation Overall Work Program