Pacifica council adopts updated 2023–2030 strategic plan; staff to refine timelines and workplan

The Pacifica City Council on April 14 unanimously adopted updates to the city’s 2023–2030 strategic plan, formalizing small wording and structure changes and asking staff to return with more detailed implementation timelines and a public schedule for monitoring progress.

The update affirms the plan’s mission, vision and five goals — organizational and fiscal stability; infrastructure and facilities; affordable housing; climate adaptation and mitigation; and community engagement — and revises several strategies and the staff workplan to reflect progress and new near‑term priorities. Facilitator Greg Larson presented the council’s March workshop outcomes and staff’s updated ACHIEVEit workplan; council approved the recommended changes and directed staff to refine project timelines and public reporting.

“Enhancing organizational and fiscal stability remains the top priority,” City Manager Kevin Woodhouse told the council, and the adopted plan reiterates that objective as the foundation for achieving the other four goals. Larson said staff updated strategy language to reflect accomplishments to date (for example, moving from “develop” to “adopt and begin implementation” on climate and coastal planning milestones) and to broaden or clarify several tasks the council had prioritized at the March 1 workshop.

Council members asked staff to make the ACHIEVEit project tracking more transparent and to address an ACHIEVEit technical issue: updating due dates without losing year‑one baseline dates used for accountability. Staff acknowledged the system limitation and said they will work with ACHIEVEit to preserve both original and current due dates in the public view.

Workplan items and “bike rack” follow‑ups: Staff also presented a long detailed workplan that lists projects and subtasks across goals. The council reviewed a set of six “bike rack” items (topics that emerged at the workshop but were left for later action): a council‑chambers art installation program, a council‑pay review, Arbor Day/event sponsorship and an adopt‑a‑tree pilot, e‑bike/bike‑pedestrian policy, mobile food‑truck regulation, and the creation of a sustainability/environmental commission to implement the Climate Action and Adaptation Plan (CAP). The council gave mixed direction: it asked staff and commissions to pursue the simpler items (e.g., develop a chamber art approach as an ad‑hoc task; continue Arbor Day with PB&R and Public Works), asked Parks, Beaches & Recreation (PB&R) and Economic Development committees to consider e‑bikes and food trucks as exploratory items, and asked staff to return with options on a sustainability commission and on how the CAP’s work could transition from an ad‑hoc task force to a standing commission or other structure.

Sanchez Art Center and public‑site fit studies: The strategic plan workplan also includes tasks driven by the city’s housing element that call for “test fits” and RFPs to evaluate whether certain city‑owned properties can accommodate housing or mixed uses. Council members asked for greater clarity on those timelines and emphasized that any study of city‑owned sites (Sanchez Art Center, Sanchez Library site and the Public Works yard) would be scoped and staged; staff clarified those tasks will be subject to separate study sessions and public engagement as they are launched.

Public reporting and cadence: Council and staff agreed the city should adopt a regular public reporting cadence for the plan. Staff proposed a practical cadence (biannual or triannual reviews) while working toward automated ACHIEVEit updates; the council asked staff to return with a specific public reporting schedule and implementation timeline when the workplan is refined.

Ending: Council approved the revised plan unanimously and instructed staff to update the ACHIEVEit workplan, provide clearer project deadlines, and return with an approach to ongoing public reporting. City staff also will examine the feasibility and resourcing implications of establishing a sustainability commission and will continue to coordinate with community volunteers and partner organizations on the other bike rack items.