The Council has a huge role in defining and protecting the community character. The first step is, as you note, developing a strong General Plan. The Council's role in this is communicating the importance to the public and securing public participation in the process. Only with public participation is there public confidence in the General Plan and in the Council. The second step is protecting the character is assuring compliance with the Plan; compliance by development proposals; compliance by the city that transportation projects in the Plan and impact fees in the Plan complete the improvements in the Plan; The third step is to address by its discretionary authority any proposal that is permitted by the Plan but inconsistent with the character of the city. This arises because of the long window of the 20 will naturally not be able to foresee all possible future proposals.