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My name is McKenzie Covert, Public Information Officer for the City of Bullhead City.

I'm here with Johnny Luera, our planning manager for the City of Bullhead City, and we're discussing everything that you need to know about the general plan.

So Johnny, just to get us started here, right?

This is a big project for you.

It's all about planning and more.

Can you just give us an update or an overview?

What is the general plan?

What does that mean for the city?

Yeah, thanks, McKenzie.

So the general plan is basically the roadmap for the development of the city for growth.

It talks about our water usage, it talks about our roads, our land uses, so that informs our zoning as well.

So really what that does is every 10 years we update this plan and any decision that the city council makes, that the planning and zoning commission makes has to go back to that general plan.

So as an example, if somebody applies for a zoning map change to change their zoning on their property, let's say from commercial to residential, the first step we take is we go to that general plan to make sure that that request would be in conformance with that plan that was approved by the voters, you know, in this case 10 years ago now.

Uh and again, that's the reason why we're updating it every 10 years.

We want to make sure that the plan reflects current conditions, that it actually takes into account the the values, the priorities of of the residents of the city, and that it actually reflects what's going on with the city as far as growth, whether it be residential or commercial, reflects current conditions.

Alright, Johnny.

So this whole process, it sounds like is pretty much crowdsourced, right?

So we're getting feedback from the public, we're incorporating that into the document, then we're giving the document back to the public to review and basically approve in a voter-wide election.

Uh my question is in order for us to be able to tailor that document for their approval and it to also meet all of the requirements that a general plan needs to meet.

What are the things that we absolutely need to know from the public so that you know this is doing what it needs to do?

Right.

So the plan will outline you know the changes that have taken place within the last 10 years.

But to build on that, you know, we can say, hey, you know, the public wants us to focus on traffic, or they want us to focus on water quality or on additional improvements to the parks, things like that.

So the plan with SOP will have everything that's happened within the last 10 years, and at the end of each section, there's a goals, objectives, and policy section.

I think that's really what we need the public to participate uh with us the most on.

Uh each one of those, you know, deals with again the major sections, water, transportation, land use, parks.

So that's where we really want the public to look at those sections, read those goals, objectives, policies, give us their feedback on on what's already in the plan, and then potentially provide uh their ideas on what we should be focusing on so we can come up with policies to address those issues.

All right, Johnny, if I'm a member of the public and I want to you know voice my opinion and be heard and see that reflected in the document.

How do I go about doing that?

So we have multiple ways.

So first would be an online on our city website.

There's a page dedicated to the general plan.

It's got the original plan, it's got the draft copy, and then it has a forum that the public can fill out to give us their comments directly.

They come directly to our office.

We also have public meetings, so we've been to several public meetings already.

We have our planning and zoning commission meetings coming up uh May 7th, May 21st, and then June 4th, uh as well as the transit commission meeting on May 11th, and then the city council meeting will be on June 16th.

Um besides that, we've been attending uh different events, we'll continue to attend different locations without throughout the city to get feedback from the public at general, uh, just to get their feedback on the plan on the goals and objectives again.

Uh so we can gather all that information, put it in into that plan, and then present that to the city council.

Wow, so I mean there's a lot of different ways the public could be using to get all this feedback.

So once all this feedbacks happened, we've had these public meetings.

Uh, what is the the next step after all the meetings?

So next up is you know, we we compile all the information that we've gotten so far.

We update it, we update the plan.

We've already updated the plan based on current conditions, right?

There's been lots of changes in the last 10 years, whether it's roads, parks, the water system, uh, the city taking over the highway.

There's been a lot of changes.

That piece has been updated.

Um we will update the goals, objectives, policies based on the feedback that we receive.

We get the the planning and zoning commission to make the recommendation to council.

Uh, hopefully, if we can get council to approve that, then this will go to the voters in November.

I think uh November third is the general election, and the voters will have the chance between now and then look at the plan and then vote on it on uh on November third.

All right.

So with all that said, what is the main takeaway that the public needs to know right now?

I think main takeaway would be, you know, we need the public's help.

You know, this is it's important to have public feedback on these issues.

Uh, you know, we we're all residents here as well.