The Draft 2045 General Plan is now available for community review
Oct 2, 2025 at 2:00pm
The Project Team is excited to announce the release of the Draft 2045 General Plan! The Plan articulates the shared community vision for preservation, growth, and change in our community, and is the culmination of three years of community workshops, property and business owner discussions, online surveys, student policy projects, and robust technical analysis.
Overview of the Draft 2045 General Plan
The 2045 General Plan is a long-range policy document that guides decision-making and establishes the intent for the design and development of new projects, conservation of natural resources, promotion of economic development, improvements to mobility and infrastructure systems, expansion of public services, and enhancement of community amenities. The Plan directs how Atascadero will look and how residents, property owners, business owners, and visitors will experience our City today and well into the future. While the Plan identifies 2045 as a horizon year, not all initiatives and goals in the Plan may be achieved by then. However, the Plan defines the interconnected actions we will pursue to create the conditions for the City we envision.
The Plan also recognizes what has been achieved: new housing types, public and private reinvestments in Downtown, development focused within the Urban Services Line, and the continued consideration of hillsides and habitats. Planning for the next two to three decades will build upon these successes while accounting for the rapid technological and societal changes affecting how people work, shop, enjoy leisure time, and move in, around, and through the City.
Initiated in 2023, this update effort focused on revisiting, refining, and updating goals, policies, and actions to reflect evolving trends, demographics, and collective ideas. Residents, business owners, and other community members participated in a robust public engagement program to ensure that all perspectives were shared and represented in the shaping of this Plan.
The "Big Moves"
The 2045 General Plan process involved extensive community and decision-maker discussions regarding future growth and evolving community character. This engagement process helped inform the goals, policies, actions, and programs included in this General Plan. While each chapter discusses specific topics, the community and City Council identified a series “Big Moves” that establish the overarching focus of the 2045 General Plan. The Big Moves represent key land use objectives and strategies that will help advance the Vision and Guiding Principles (see Chapter 2) and define how the community grows and evolves into the future.
Click here to view the Draft 2045 General Plan