General Plans and Vision Plans

Raimi + Associates has extensive experience preparing a variety of long-term strategic plans for local governments. These include General Plans, Vision Plans and Open Space Plans across the State of California in a diversity of communities, from completely urbanized cities to fast-growing towns. Raimi + Associates takes a unique approach to long-term strategic planning. With every plan, we incorporate sustainability and public health while advancing the principles of Smart Growth and New Urbanism: encouraging compact design, allowing a mix of uses, increasing walkability and transportation options, creating a sense of place, supporting existing communities, preserving natural areas, and relying on community knowledge.

Raimi + Associates is a national leader in the development of new urbanist and “form-based” comprehensive plans, and developed one of the first form-based General Plans ever written in California. Form-based or new urbanist comprehensive plans differ from conventional comprehensive plans by regulating design, form, and structure in addition to use, and by orienting around intended outcomes and community character.

We believe that the most effective general plans are completed in a short timeframe, and so we specialize in providing an expedited planning process for all our clients. We are able to do this because we take on a limited number of projects and provide focused attention to each.

A representation of our work is described below. Projects marked with an asterisk (*) were completed by a R+A team member before joining the firm.

Lennox Vision (Unincorporated Los Angeles County)

Los Angeles County

Lennox, an unincorporated community in Los Angeles County, is embarking upon a comprehensive visioning process to direct the community’s long-term vision and direction. Raimi + Associates is leading this effort, which will result in a finalized planning document that will direct the community’s land use/urban design, open space, health and sustainability, circulation, and economic choices. As part of this effort, R + A will be leading the community outreach process, preparing a healthy community plan, a regulating plan, and a framework for a future form-based code. R + A has developed health and sustainability indicators for Lennox to guide this process.

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West Hollywood General Plan

City of West Hollywood, CA

Raimi + Associates is in the process of updating and streamlining the City of West Hollywood’s General Plan. West Hollywood is a diverse, vibrant and progressive community located in the heart of the Los Angeles region. At approximately 1.9 square miles with a population of approximately about 37,500, West Hollywood is one of the densest communities west of the Mississippi. It is also home to many world-renowned places including the Sunset Strip, the Avenue of Arts and Design and the Pacific Design Center. As part of the update process, R+A is coordinating with a 43 member General Plan Advisory Committee that is guiding the policy direction of the General Plan. The new General Plan will include policies related to sustainability and climate change, health and wellness, and design standards focused on the various unique districts within West Hollywood. It will also be a leaner and more user-friendly long-term policy document for the City in years to come.

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Encinitas General Plan

City of Encinitas, CA

Raimi + Associates is working with MIG on the City of Encinitas General Plan. Along with its thriving horticultural industry, Encinitas is known for its beaches, historic downtown, and recreational facilities. Encinitas is a fairly young city comprised of five distinct communities—New Encinitas, Old Encinitas, Cardiff-by-the-Sea, Olivenhain, and Leucadia. Together with MIG, Raimi + Associates is bringing together a variety of community concerns and values from each community into a single, comprehensive General Plan.

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South Gate General Plan

City of South Gate, CA

South Gate GP Neighbohoods

Raimi + Associates completed an update of the South Gate General Plan. Located 10 miles south of downtown Los Angeles, the City of South Gate is home to over 100,000 people and has a strong industrial tax base. However, the city suffered in past years from an overburdened public infrastructure, political mismanagement and the departure of numerous large employers including Firestone Tire and General Motors. As a result, the City and its citizens were looking to remake their image, expand the tax base and improve the quality of life in the community. Raimi + Associates managed the technical update process and developed the Community Design Element, the Green City Element, and the Public Facilities and Services Element. It also developed a Healthy Community Element through a grant from the Kaiser Foundation - one of the first health elements in the State of California. The General Plan process involved extensive public participation and outreach – in coordination with the Transportation and Land Use Collaborative – and was the winner of the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Planning Association 2007 Public Outreach Award. The South Gate General Plan is also one of the first “form-based” comprehensive plans in the United States. It incorporates the principles of New Urbanism and – like a “form-based” building code – focuses on urban design solutions that guide the form and character of community, as opposed to conventional land use designations. The South Gate General Plan adopted the updated General Plan on December 8, 2009.

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Santa Monica Land Use and Circulation Element

City of Santa Monica, CA

Raimi + Associates, in coordination with MIG consulting and City of Santa Monica staff, is assisting the City of Santa Monica with update and adoption of the land use and circulation elements of its General Plan, known collectively as the "Land Use and Circulation Element." As an extension of staff and manager of the consultant team, Raimi + Associates oversaw an expedited project schedule, and the majority of the General Plan Update has been completed in 5 months. Raimi and Associates is taking a New Urbanist approach to the General Plan, developing existing conditions, a vision, and land use designations for the city’s neighborhoods, districts and corridors. The city counts sustainability as a high priority and has one of the most developed green building programs in California, which makes it a natural fit for Raimi + Associates’ smart growth approach to land use, transportation, and other municipal policy. Planning efforts are concentrating on the major change areas of the city, applying urban design solutions and principles of sustainability and public health to achieve the greatest public benefit for the city.

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Mountain View General Plan

Mountain View, CA

R+A is working with MIG to complete the City of Mountain View’s General Plan update, developing land use and urban design policy and big-picture strategies and policy directions. The City’s desire to develop an innovative General Plan reflecting the unique character of Mountain View, on an expedited schedule, is a natural fit for R+A’s experience and expertise. In addition to land use and plan strategy and policy development, one of R+A’s project roles is to provide policy guidance on climate change, sustainability, and health. R+A will write portions of the General Plan pertaining to these topics, and has completed a sustainability existing conditions report. The City of Mountain View has committed significant resources to implementing sustainability and health in the community, including funding staff time, convening an Environmental Sustainability Task Force and a City Council sub-committee on sustainability, committing funding for environmentally preferable purchases, and securing a grant to address health more fully in its planning work. Because of this level of effort, one of R+A’s key tasks will be to coordinate with existing city work and explore innovative but feasible new policy directions for the City.

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Tehachapi General Plan*

City of Tehachapi, CA

While with Moule & Polyzoides, R+A's Tony Perez was the project manager and principal author of the General Plan Update and produced a 3-chapter, 8-element document that results in a fully integrated Form-Based General Plan for Tehachapi. Tehachapi is a small mountain town of 8,000 persons within a 23 square mile sphere of influence in southeastern Kern County. Mr. Perez co-managed the process with David Sargent who in 2007, helped the community generate a vision statement and Interim Community Design Program, the preparatory work for the General Plan Update.

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Tracy General Plan + EIR*

City of Tracy, CA

Matt Raimi served as the project manager and key staff person for a comprehensive update to the City of Tracy General Plan. Located just east of the greater Bay Area in the Central Valley of California, the city is experiencing heavy development pressure and more than doubled its population from 1980 until 2000. Mr. Raimi led a multi-disciplinary consultant team during the three-plus year project to develop the General Plan and EIR. Project issues included growth management and phasing, the location and design of infill development, revitalization of the downtown,the creation of mixed-use “village centers” across the city, improvement of residential design and character, and open space preservation.

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Eden Area General Plan + EIR*

Alameda County, CA

Matt Raimi served as the project manger for a multi-year effort to update the General Plan for the Eden Area of Alameda County, an unincorporated area of the county between San Leandro, Hayward and the San Francisco Bay. The project used the Charter of the New Urbanism as a foundation and developed goals, policies and actions for neighborhoods, corridors and districts within the study area. The project also included extensive public outreach to the community and almost a dozen public workshops.

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