HomeMy WebLinkAbout06 - Amending the Membership of the Housing Element Update Advisory Committee; and Confirming Appointments - CorrespondenceReceived After Agenda Printed
February 25, 2020
Item No. 6
Subject: FW: Thank you for the opportunity
From: O'Hara Mail <5oharas@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, February 25, 2020 2:17 PM
To: Dept - City Council<CityCouncilC@newportbeachca.gov>
Subject: Thank you for the opportunity
Dear Mayor and Council Members,
It was a pleasure serving on the recently sunset General Plan Update Steering Committee for the Listen and Learn
process of the City's General Plan update. Thank you for the honor and opportunity, and best of luck moving forward
with the nuts and bolts of the Housing Element and overall General Plan Update. While the GPU Steering Committee's
tenure was shortened due to the pressing need to get going on the Housing Element Update (I agree with this
approach), staff and consultant did have time to hold a few public workshops for anyone in the community to attend,
learn and provide input to create a guiding Vision Statement for the General Plan update. In the end, the consultant
drafted a summary and a Values statement, which I assume has or will shortly be shared with the City Council. Staff also
solicited comments from members of the GPU Steering Committee. For your information, below are the comments I
shared with staff. The bold is emphasis added by me for this transmittal.
Again, thank you for the honor to serve my community and thank you for your generous service as well.
Sincerely,
Catherine O'Hara
Dear Ben,
Thank you for the opportunity to review and comment on the draft Listen and Learn Summary and Values documents.
While 1 don't have any specific suggested edits to the narratives, 1 do have some commentary to offer.
The Summary document seems to provide an adequate description of the process — kind of a no brainer. The Values
document doesn't say anything that 1 disagree with in terms of the takeaway from what little public input we received.
However, it also doesn't provide any new or insightful information that will materially add to the General Plan Update. 1
am sorry to say that it appears that the Listen and Learn process was an expensive exercise that bore little fruit. 1 don't
fault staff or the consultant, this is just the reality of the difficulty of getting public participation and input on these types
of projects, especially in Newport Beach.
Knowing our city's culture and demographics 1 had low expectations for participation in the workshops but the turnout
was even less than 1 anticipated. Six hundred "contacts" (in person and online according to the Summary) is less than 1%
of the City's population. Accordingly, I have some concern that the Values document is not a valid representation of
Newport Beach resident's sentiment since it is so statistically insignificant. On the other hand, 1 do believe that it was
imperative for the City to have provided the opportunity for public participation.
Moving forward I think that the City's money would be better spent conducting a statistically significant survey for
more reliable feedback and input into the General Plan Update. I don't think we should continue to spend time, money
or effort on underutilized workshops that provide little input or benefit to the process.
Sincerely,
Catherine O'Hara