MEETING DATE:
MARCH 24, 2026
SUBJECT:
Title
RESOLUTION NO. 2026-9555 - APPROVING THE 2025 GENERAL PLAN ANNUAL PROGRESS REPORT
Body
Recommendation
Recommendation
ADOPT a resolution approving the 2025 General Plan Annual Progress Report.
Body
Board or Commission Action
Not applicable
Executive Summary
The City of San Marcos has prepared the 2025 Annual Progress Report (APR) in accordance with California Government Code Sections 65400 and 65700. The statutory provisions require all cities within California to submit an annual report to the Governor's Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation (LCI) each year (formerly the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research, or OPR) summarizing the city’s progress towards implementing its General Plan. Charter cities were exempt from this requirement prior to January 1, 2019; however, as Section 501 of the San Marcos Charter requires the City to comply with land use, planning, and zoning requirements applicable to general law cities, the City has previously submitted information for calendar years 2012 through 2024 and continues that practice with the submittal of the 2025 APR.
Discussion
The Annual Progress Report (APR) is a public document providing local legislative bodies, as well as the public, with updates and information regarding the implementation status of a city’s General Plan. The report is designed to include sufficient information for decision makers to adequately assess how effectively the General Plan programs were implemented during the 2025 reporting period. In addition to serving as a reporting tool, the APR can be used to identify necessary "course adjustments" or modifications to the General Plan to improve implementation.
APRs provide an opportunity for LCI to identify statewide trends in land use decision-making and how local planning and development activities relate to statewide land use trends and policies. The City’s 2012 General Plan includes an Implementation Plan to ensure the overall direction provided in the General Plan is translated from general terms to specific actions. Each implementation program identifies a measure, procedure, or task that requires additional City action and may implement one or more policies across multiple General Plan elements.
It is primarily the responsibility of City staff to carry out the programs identified in the Implementation Plan. Departments within the City may enact, implement, or maintain these programs individually, in collaboration with other departments, outside agencies, and/or private developers, as appropriate. Implementation tools include, but are not limited to the City’s Municipal Code, Zoning Ordinance, Subdivision Ordinance, development agreements, and specific plans.
The Implementation Plan is reviewed and may be updated with the budgeting process and in conjunction with the City’s General Plan amendments to ensure continued consistency and usefulness. The City’s General Fund is the primary source of funding for the implementation of the General Plan. Several other fees and funding sources are used to implement the General Plan. These funding sources are listed as applicable in each implementation program. Implementation of the specific programs is subject to funding constraints.
The Implementation Plan serves as the foundation for the preparation of the 2025 APR for the City of San Marcos. The approximate overall implementation status of all programs in the Implementation Plan are as follows:
• Ongoing (80%): programs that are intended to be ongoing efforts
• Completed (5.5%): programs that are considered complete
• Partially Completed (4.5%): programs that have been started and are partially complete
• Scheduled (1%): programs that have not yet been started but are scheduled
• Not Implemented (9%): programs that have neither been started nor scheduled
In addition to program status updates, the APR highlights major milestones or projects the City has made progress on over the past year in the APR. This discussion section is provided to support the City Council review of the 2025 Annual Progress Report prior to its submittal to the State.
Environmental Review
Section 15378(a) of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines (California Code of Regulations, Title 14, Chapter 3) defines an activity as a “project” if it has the potential to result in either a direct, or reasonably foreseeable indirect, physical change to the environment. The proposed adoption of a Resolution approving the Annual Progress Report is not a project within the meaning of CEQA because there is no potential for it to result in a physical change in the environment, either directly or indirectly.
Fiscal Impact
There is no fiscal impact associated with the APR approval process.
Attachment(s)
Resolution 2026-9555
Annual Progress Report
Prepared by: Chris Garcia, Senior Planner
Submitted by: Joseph Farace, Planning Division Director
Reviewed by: Isaac Etchamendy, Development Services Director/City Engineer
Approved by: Michelle Bender, City Manager