DIXON, CA (MPG) - They thought they might be opening a lunchbox at the last Planning Commission Meeting but instead, they had to unpack an overstuffed suitcase which took an arduous four hours.

The General Plan 2040 was presented by Raffi Boloyan, Community Development Director who is to be respected for taking it off the shelf from where its lingered for two decades going back to gathering dust each time there was not anywhere near a consensus in the community over the direction of Dixon considering Measure B passed years ago by citizens in an attempt to control the town's growth.

What the commission may have come to realize is that there is not going to be a consensus but they did accept a blueprint. Boloyan repeatedly pointed out that this is "just a blueprint" and that the plan gives goals and direction for future growth and is "the ultimate balancing act between growth and quality of life."

"We will never have 100 percent agreement on a plan but we can recognize a wide range of important features," he said. "We are trying to achieve a wide range of decisions for the next 20 years which provides a blueprint for the future of the city."

Boloyan replaced 3-year employee Dina Tasini this past October and came from the City of San Rafael, where he had an accumulation of 23 years of experience in planning and development with the last eight of those as Planning Manager. He holds a bachelor’s degree in city and regional planning from California Polytechnic University in San Luis Obispo and rolled up his sleeves as soon as he was hired here.

Consulting Planner George Osner and Boloyan prepared it.

Following steps to pass the General Plan through the rigorous requirements of getting the document ready for City Council to approve, both have proved brave bringing it forth for public scrutiny in the various facets of media and now, public meetings.

The presentation on Tuesday's Zoom meeting included consideration of seven letters running from the one-page by Gary Erwin who pressed the need for a "Community Center where music, theater, arts, performances, lectures, workshops can be held and presented" to the 38-page nearly line-by-line critique of the plan from resident Ginger Emerson, member of the General Plan Advisory Committee and of The Old Town Neighbors group.

Four of those letters were dated on the date of the meeting but the most disturbing was a faxed letter that date from James Laughlin, Deputy County Counsel in regards to the County's General Plan citing drainage concerns among others.

"Under the Supreme Court's four-part test, the General Plan 2040 EIR is legally inadequate and should not be certified," he wrote in his 6-page letter. Nearly all of the commissioners were concerned with the late arrival of the letter and agreed they did not have enough time to read and understand it, much less comment on it since they were just now seeing it.

There were numerous speakers including Duane Kromm former Solano County Supervisor and speaker for Solano County's Orderly Growth Committee who first commended the men for the "brutal amount of work" that went into the plan and encouraged Dixon to adopt urban growth boundaries to protect agriculture.

Rob White, who owns 13 acres and plans to build 100 homes and a retail center in Dixon, reported that "the density is higher than we can achieve" with the new proposed zoning and said the commercial mixed use zone needed to be lowered.

A speaker for Dixon113, LLC, a company that owns 83 acres in the NorthEast Quadrant said that 37 of their acres would have to be re-designated, potentially causing lost property value and possible lost ability to develop the way they hoped, and asked for the City to retain the current zoning.

After four hours of discussion, reviewing points from professionals, residents and landowners, Commission Chair Joe Quinn pointed out that there were two resolutions that would have to be voted on: one was the Environmental Impact Report and the other was the General Plan. First was the motion to approve the EIR with several and various changes and it passed 7-0.

The second resolution, also with many additional amendments enumerated by staff, Chair Quinn made the recommendation to the City Council to adopt the Plan 2040 and Commissioner Jack Caldwell seconded. It passed 7-0.

Chair Quinn welcomed and thanked the two new commissioners, Loraine Hernandez-Covello and Rubi Medrano. The next scheduled meeting is April 13 and Boloyan warned that many items have come in and there is a busy month and subsequently, that also will be a full meeting.