Council refines General Plan text; keeps nondiscrimination language, trims some voluntary elements

Prescott City Council reviewed and directed multiple text changes to the draft 2025 General Plan at its June 12 workshop, keeping the plan’s nondiscrimination language intact, adding a short compliance sentence to the climate and energy chapter, and instructing staff to trim or reframe several voluntary or technical sections before the June 24 voting packet.

Chelsea Walton, the city’s community development director, said staff added a narrowly worded sentence to the climate and energy text to meet state statutory requirements. The recommended insertion reads in staff wording as an addition to page 33: “increasing the use of and access to renewables, such as solar, wind, and geothermal energy, and promoting energy efficiency.” Walton said staff believes the wording complies with the statute’s requirement to consider access to incident solar energy for land-use categories.

The council also debated references to federal programs and electric-vehicle (EV) charging. Members agreed to remove an explicit reference to the U.S. Department of Energy from a paragraph and to edit a sentence that had asked staff to include “federal” funding in recommendations; council replaced the term with a more general reference so the…