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Danville's Planning Commission will hold another public hearing to receive input on the draft 2030 General Plan and draft Sustainability Action Plan at its Jan. 8 meeting. The update, which was contested by dozens of speakers for over three hours in December, was under a public review period until Dec. 5.

On Tuesday, Commissioners will receive public testimony on the draft environmental impact report (EIR), which provides a programmatic review of the potential environmental impacts that could arise from implementation of the proposed General Plan Update. Some topics to be addressed at the hearings are as follows:

*Update of baseline conditions in Danville to the year 2010.
* Extension of the horizon year used for the Danville General Plan to year 2030.
* Addition of new goals and policies about sustainability, greenhouse gas reduction, a proposed priority development area (PDA) and emergency preparedness
* Recalibration of the multifamily land use designation density ranges contained in the 2010 plan and the addition of a new residential - multifamily - high (25-35 dwelling units per acre) land use designation.
* Adjustment of the Town's Sphere of Influence to include additional areas on Danville's eastern area and to exclude undeveloped hillside lands to the west of the town, reflective of the current adopted county urban limit line.
* Amendment of the land use designation on select sites, involving up to 35 aggregate acres, mostly located within the downtown. The changes proposed would enable the town to meet its regional housing needs allocation shortfall, as identified in the adopted Danville 2007-2014 housing element.

Residents expressed concern about changes to the plan that will increase high-density, low-income housing as required by state mandate. Officially, Danville only needs to identify 9.6 acres where low-income housing could be, and all construction would be done by private developers.

In a quick straw poll at the Dec. 11 meeting, only three people were in favor of passing the 2030 General Plan and nearly every speaker encouraged the town to strike all portions of the One Bay Area plan from the planning document or return all zoning ordinances for agricultural lands to 2010 plan standards. Members of Save Open Space Danville will be collecting signatures on its open space preservation initiative petition, which is designed to strengthen Measure S and voter rights regarding residential development on agricultural land.

Tuesday's meeting will held at the Danville Community Center (420 Front Street) at 7:30 p.m. The Commission will also hold a meeting on Jan. 22 to possibly consider a resolution to send to the Town Council, which would then hear the resolution on Feb. 5.

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