User:Nmzanchetta/sandbox

Assignments

Week 1: The Community Development Wikipedia page is very general in terms of its content. It spends a lot of time discussing definitions from various regions and levels. The sources seem to be reliable, meaning they are peer reviewed sources. I found the discussion of faith-based community development on the talk page interesting, it is something I have not thought much about, but people were taking part in an active discussion as to whether it should be included or not. The overall article seems to be neutral in tone and properly cited. Since Community Development is such a broad topic and has a lot of elements that would be difficult to address in one Wikipedia page, I find the links to different Wikipedia pages about more specific topics within the discipline extremely helpful to a reader.

Week 2: I critiqued the General Plan Wikipedia page. It is very limited in information about the elements required in the California general plan and differentiating between a comprehensive plan and a general plan. Compared to the Community Development page it is limited in content and the resources are not extensive and reliable. Addition: "A general plan is a broad planning guideline to a city's or county's future development goals and provides policy statements to achieve those development goals. [1] "

Week 3: I think it would be interesting to expand the current General Plan page to provide more specific but still basic information about what the General Plan is and how it is used in California planning. This would include its legal basis, consequences, and limitations. I think it would be helpful to provide subcategories within the page of the 8 elements required in every General Plan. It may be difficult to provide neutral information about the importance/usefulness of the General Plan because that is fairly opinion-based and differs from city to city. But it is important for people to know what the General Plan is and where to find it in their city.

Contribution to General Plan Page

In California the General Plan (also known as a comprehensive plan in other states) is a document providing a long-range plan for a city’s physical development. Local jurisdictions have freedom as to what their general plans include, however there are certain requirements under California state law that each general plan must meet; failure to do so could result in suspension of future development. Each general plan must include the vision, goals, and objectives of the city or county in terms of planning and development within eight different “elements” defined by the state as: land use, housing, circulation, conservation, noise, safety, open space, and environmental justice (added as an official element in 2016).