El Centro council accepts 2024 general plan annual progress report

The El Centro City Council voted 4-0 to accept the city's 2024 general plan annual progress report and directed staff to submit the document to the governor's office of land use and climate innovations and the California Department of Housing and Community Development following a presentation by Community Development Director Angel Hernandez.

Hernandez told the council the general plan is the city's guiding document for development decisions and covers required elements such as land use, housing, mobility, open space and safety. "I'm here before you to provide you an overview of the 2024 annual progress report regarding the city's general plan," Hernandez said during his presentation.

The report, required to be provided to state offices, summarizes implementation work over the prior 12 months and identifies items staff believes should be tracked or considered for future updates. Hernandez noted the city completed a zoning code update in September 2024 that revised development center standards to encourage medium-density infill housing (duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes), modernized business categories, and updated parking and temporary use permit standards. The presentation also highlighted public-art and downtown gateway-signage work associated with the MBSA central project and active-transportation projects funded with roughly $2,000,000 in grants that are in design or construction.

On housing, staff reported the city issued 165 housing-unit permits in the last year: 10 single-family units, 45 accessory dwelling units and 110 multifamily units. Hernandez described steps to increase housing readiness, including making a map of sites available for housing and offering permit-ready ADU plans. He also said the city updated its housing condition survey and continued work on a fair-housing action plan; he said the housing element must be updated again by 2029.

Hernandez described other work in the report: an Imperial Avenue complete-streets plan, roughly $5,800,000 in grant funding for urban green projects, coordination with the county on airport noise and land-use compatibility, and safety-element work tied to extreme-heat and localized flooding concerns. He told the council the safety, noise and certain other elements were last comprehensively updated in 2004 and should be considered for revision.

Council members asked clarifying questions about program outreach and available grant programs. One council member noted the California residential mitigation program that can provide small grants to retrofit older homes; Hernandez said city staff already shares information about housing programs when they encounter distressed properties.

The council approved the staff recommendation to accept the annual progress report and submit it to the named state offices. No ordinance changes or immediate policy amendments were adopted as part of the vote.