Council approves consultant contract to update city general plan

The Stony Brook City Council approved a professional services agreement, including a buffer for contingencies, to carry out the city general plan technical update often described in staff materials as the 'Lompoc 2050' update.

Staff explained the contract covers required plan elements plus four optional elements that have been adopted over the past 15 years; staff said the optional elements can be consolidated into mandated elements where appropriate. Laurie (staff planner) said removing or merging optional elements will still require the same environmental review and hearing processes, and the budget includes a roughly 10% buffer to avoid repeated contract amendments.

Council discussed cost, scope and whether specific optional elements should be retained or consolidated. Councilmember Bridge and others said the effort had been discussed in prior ad hoc work and supported moving forward now to avoid repeated delays. The council approved the staff recommendation to consolidate the economic development and urban design elements into the land use element, remove two optional elements (public facilities and parks and recreation) for now, and use the general fund payment schedule (staff labeled this 'option 2'). The motion passed on a 5‑0 vote.

Staff said quarterly progress reports would be provided to the council and that the environmental impact report and other deliverables would be aligned with county timelines for related projects.

What’s next: Staff will proceed under the approved contract, bring draft consolidated plan elements back for public review and environmental analysis, and provide quarterly updates to the council.