Although the fabled arrival of an Urban Design Plan for Calistogan is getting to sound much like the boy who cried “wolf!” the actual document is set to arrive next week, according to City Planning Director Charlene Galina.

Starting Wednesday, a draft of the much ballyhooed Urban Design Pan (UDP) will be available for the public’s review.

The Urban Design Plan is an offshoot of the General Plan intended to help focus the city’s development needs in a number of areas specific to the larger plan.

The draft document will be available at City Hall in the Planning & Building Department and at the Calistoga Library. Copies may be loaned from City Hall. The document will also be posted on the City’s Web site at www.ci.calistoga.ca.us. Additionally, a copy the document will be available on CD for $5 at the Planning & Building Department, or a hard copy of the plan may be purchased for $48.

A series of public meetings where the plan’s concepts will be the focus will be held beginning in August, Galina said. The plan, following the public comment period, will be given a formal public hearing process with the Planning Commission and the City Council commencing in September.

Residents have expected the arrival of the document roughly beginning in 2006 after an elaborate introduction to the plan’s development was held during a public meeting. After that it seemed to virtually disappear.

Early concerns came from Councilmember Karen Slusser, who complained last spring that an initial document that had been released to the public was “just a little piece of paper,” too vague for people to grasp its import and impact.

Speaking at a City Council retreat, Slusser called for an “in-depth study session” into the details of the more comprehensive document that was expected in the future, and also for a report from the staff on what happened during a series of meetings that the Urban Design Oversight Committee has held with so-called “stakeholders” who would be directly affected by the plan.

Mayor Jack Gingles followed that with an angry outburst, saying to Councilmember Michael Dunsford: “Nobody seems to know what the hell is going on with the exception of you and I.”

Gingles and Dunsford have been serving as members of the Oversight Committee, along with City Manager James McCann and six other people, but Gingles has repeatedly stated he was “disappointed” that the other three members of the council didn’t have copies of a report that he held in his hand during a city council meeting a few months ago, a report that McCann called “a working draft.”In more recent months, Councilmember Gary Kraus has repeatedly pushed for a specific timetable showing when the work on the plan would be done.

On Monday, city officials will meet with local members of the press for a one-on-one introduction to the plan. The Weekly Calistogan will provide a synopsis of the plan in its July 24 issue.

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