The Planning Commission completed its work on the General Plan Update October 14, 2003. The Commission forwarded the documents to the City Council with a recommendation to adopt.

A general plan is a comprehensive long-range planning tool that local governments create to guide the growth of the community. It serves as a kind of constitution for the community to use to evaluate new development and improvements for conformity with it. It usually has a ten to twenty year time frame.

The State of California requires all local governments to have general plans and sets specific guidelines for what must be included and how a plan must be adopted. The state guidelines also suggest that general plans should be reviewed and updated as required.

Carson’s last comprehensive general plan update was done in the early 1980’s. The City Council recognized the need for making the plan more current and a new general plan update process was begun in 1997. The Council also recognized the importance of citizen involvement in the process.

The first phase of work focused on citizen participation and the identification of issues and resulted in the adoption of the Carson Vision in September 1997. The General Plan Advisory Committee (GPAC) was established in February 2000 to provide representative community input to the development of policy direction. The existing conditions report and the market analysis were completed in April 2000 to provide the necessary background for the policy work to follow. The GPAC recommended alternative land uses and reviewed preliminary goals and policies.

Seven Commissions and the Planning Commission held work sessions between April and November, 2002, to review the various elements of the General Plan Update. The Planning Commission held several public hearings before completing its recommendations October 14, 2003. A Hearing Draft General Plan Update with Planning Commission revisions is available to the public at the City Hall Development Services Counter, the Main Carson Library, and here below, on the City's website.
 

• Table of Contents (PDF, 12 pages, 350 KB)
• Chapter 1: Introduction (PDF, 17 pages, 1.6 MB)
• Chapter 2: Land Use (PDF, 47 pages, 2.0 MB)
  Land Use Map (PDF, 1.1 MB)
• Chapter 3: Economic Development Element (PDF, 27 pages, 1.4 MB)
• Chapter 4: Transportation and Infrastructure Element (PDF, 72 pages, 3.7 MB)
• Chapter 5: Housing Element (PDF, 138 pages, 42 MB)
• Chapter 6: Safety Element (PDF, 39 pages, 2.2 MB)
• Chapter 7: Noise Element (PDF, 37 pages, 2.7 MB)
• Chapter 8: Open Space and Conservation Element (PDF, 20 pages, 1.4 MB)
• Chapter 9: Parks, Recreation and Human Services Element (PDF, 29 pages, 1.4 MB)
• Chapter 10: Air Quality (PDF, 17 pages, 1.5 MB)
• Chapter 11: General Plan Glossary of Terms (PDF, 17 pages, 1.2 MB)

• Draft  Environmental Impact Report
• Recirculated Environmental Impact Report
• Responses to Comments (PDF Format, 9.62 MB)
• Appendices (available at the Development Services counter in City Hall)