The draft of the  land use and circulation elements of the General Plan (LUCE) has been a long time coming.

Too long, as it turns out.

The Planning Commission is scheduled to review it at its meeting tonight.

City planners and a seemingly endless parade of  uber-consultants have been working on the LUCE revision for five   years  Reams of staff reports,  stacks of power point presentations, and three volumes have been issued, but the draft will be our first look  at the actual plan.

The state requires that cities revise their General Plans every 20 years. The draft is now  five years behind schedule.

The law requires that meeting agendas be made public 72 hours

In advance of the meetings. Any reports or other materials that will

Be presented at a meeting must also be available 72 hours in advance.

The agenda for tonight’s meeting went up on the City website last Thursday, along with a notation:  “there are  no staff reports or other documentation available for this meeting at this time.  Watch the website for updates! Thank you! PLEASE DO NOT REPLY to this message; it has been sent from an unattended mailbox.”

There were no updates.

We were also advised that the LUCE draft was “available at

http://www.smgov.net/planning/planningcomm/planningcomm.html

It wasn’t.

I called a Planning Commissioner yesterday afternoon. A hard copy of the LUCE draft had just been delivered to him. He was told that there were no more hard copies.

He had about 24 hours to review

A document that has been  five years in the making and will determine Santa Monica’s destiny f or the next 20 years.

The rest of us will have far less time. The Commissioner was told the LUCE draft  is now available online. The hard copy is two inches thick.

So it is that residents have not 72 hours or even  24 hours, but perhaps eight hours –assuming they can access it, and read  it online or download it – without wearing their eyes out, or causing   their printers to spontaneously combust.

Or they can read the Brown Act to the  Planners and demand hard copies  today.

Pertinent passages, Brown Act:

“54954.1.  Any person may request that a copy of the agenda, or a copy of all the documents constituting the agenda packet, of any meeting of a legislative body be mailed to that person. If requested, the agenda and documents in the agenda packet shall be made

available in appropriate alternative formats to persons with a

disability, as required by Section 202 of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. Sec. 12132), and the federal rules and regulations adopted in implementation thereof. Upon receipt of the written request, the legislative body or its designee shall

cause the requested materials to be mailed at the time the agenda is

posted pursuant to Section 54954.2 and 54956 or upon distribution to

all, or a majority of all, of the members of a legislative body,

whichever occurs first. Any request for mailed copies of agendas or

agenda packets shall be valid for the calendar year in which it is

filed, and must be renewed following January 1 of each year. The

legislative body may establish a fee for Omailing the agenda or agenda.”

It’s our town, our future, our right, our plan.

And when you are given your copy, thank them for their interest in  Santa Monica.