Cottonwood’s General Plan wants to hear from you

COTTONWOOD – The Community Development Department is seeking input from citizens on how the city’s General Plan should be changed.

“Even if you don’t live inside the Cottonwood city limits, if you shop, work, play, or own property in Cottonwood, you are welcome to participate,” the Public Participation Plan draft explains.

This is the strategy to get public participation in the General Plan update process, Senior Planner Gary Davis told the City Council Tuesday, March 7, at its meeting in the Parks and Recreation Center. This is part of the city’s 10-year process to overhaul the city’s general plan.

Cottonwood adopted a Public Participation Plan in May 2012 in advance of the General Plan update that was completed in 2014.

The new plan creates a general schedule for the General Plan Update process from its beginnings in late 2022 to voter ratification at the November 2024 General Election.

It names the methods of gathering the input and general schedule for adopting a general plan, Davis said. He said there is information posted on the Community Development webpage.

“There’s a number of meetings coming up for the initial public input,” Davis said. “We hope we get a lot of public participation on that. They also have an online survey.”

He said the first Planning & Zoning Commission meeting on the general plan had one person attend, but they had a lot of commission comments. And on Saturday they had six from the public. But they hope to get the numbers increased as they get into specific topics.

The city will hold a series of public meetings where residents can share comments and learn about the topics that will be included in the updated General Plan.

Natural Resources and City Services will be the topic Thursday, March 16, at 6 p.m.; and Saturday, March 18, at 10 a.m. Then it is Circulation and Public Safety, Thursday, March 30, at 6 p.m.; and Saturday, April 1, at 10 a.m.

The Cottonwood Council voted to adopt the Public Participation Plan presented by the staff for the city’s General Plan update Tuesday night.

Call Cottonwood Community Development at 928‐634‐5505, or email planning@cottonwoodaz.gov with your comments or to participate in the plan.

Vyto Starinskas at vstarinskas@verdenews.com