West Area Neighborhood Specific Plan advances to commission workshop; community members press for clarity on outreach, housing and contamination concerns

City planning staff presented a workshop on the West Area Neighborhood Specific Plan, an update intended to refine land-use policy, infrastructure priorities and community-led investments for the area west of Highway 99 roughly bounded by Clinton Avenue and Garfield Avenue.

Casey Lauderdale, planner with the long-range planning team, described the plan as a product of a multi-year process that began in 2018 and said the current draft incorporates extensive community engagement. "This project has been in process since 2018 and I've been its liaison since 2020," Lauderdale said, and outlined the plan’s goals to preserve agricultural heritage, improve connectivity, and identify catalytic corridors and a potential regional park.

Lauderdale described an updated land-use map prepared to comply with a 2020 state requirement that prevents reductions in housing capacity without an offsetting gain; the revised map yields a slight net gain in housing capacity compared with the plan’s…