Help guide policies to improve health, prepare for disasters

Use a survey to help define ways to improve the health and well-being of all people in Berkeley, and in the process, you’ll lay the groundwork for long-term City plans to achieve those goals.

The survey will ask you to prioritize the importance of issues related to several categories – including disaster preparedness, pollution reduction, affordable housing, and civic engagement as well as access to public facilities, healthy food, and physical activity. It will also ask you to identify barriers to progress in those areas.

We’ll use this feedback as part of a year-long process to develop sections of the City’s key long-term planning document, the General Plan. The goal is to build a safer, healthier place for everyone to live and work. 

Please take the survey by the end of the day on June 30. Please share it with others so we can get as broad a set of responses as possible.

building a policy vision for city development

The General Plan is a comprehensive, long-range statement of policies, community priorities, and values that guides public decision-making about the physical development of the City.

In that plan, the City is updating a section called the Disaster Preparedness and Safety Element and creating a new, state-mandated section called the Environmental Justice Element.

The disaster preparedness section looks at hazards or disasters that could impact Berkeley and opportunities to improve emergency preparedness and response. The environmental justice section looks to reduce barriers that impact health for all people related to pollution exposure and air quality, access to safe and sanitary homes, access to opportunities for physical activity, and access to effective public services and facilities.

survey is one part of community process

This survey is one of the first steps in a year-long effort to develop two sections of the general plan. We’ll use this input as well as public meetings to develop a policy framework for those general plan sections.

In February, community members gathered with City staff at a public workshop to share experiences and discuss assets and barriers to achieving a more safe, livable, and healthy Berkeley for all.

City staff will be using the information from this survey and additional technical analysis of existing conditions in Berkeley related to environmental, natural, and climate-change related hazards to develop a draft policy framework for the General Plan. 

Planning Department staff, working alongside a series of other City departments, will present this framework at another public workshop, Planning Commission and the City Council later this year.

Once those bodies have given input, City staff will develop a draft plan, which will require environmental review.  The final version is expected to be presented to the City Council in the Fall of 2026.

Learn more by viewing our project web page, subscribing to this project’s mailing list, or emailing PreparedSafeHealthy@berkeleyca.gov. 

Take the survey by June 30 and help build a foundation to improve the health and well-being of all people in Berkeley.

links

• Survey
• Prepared, Safe, and Healthy Berkeley for All project webpage
• Project emailing list
• Berkeley General Plan 

June 12, 2025 update: The survey deadline has been extended from June 22 to June 30.