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Envision San José 2040
The City of San José's first comprehensive
and fully integrated general plan - GP '75 -
was adopted in March 1976. This General
Plan contained all the individual elements
required by State law yet integrated them
into a single document which ensured the
internal consistency of the Plan and created a
comprehensive statement of City policy to
guide San José's physical development.
After a comprehensive re-evaluation of City
development policies by a 25-member Task
Force, the City replaced GP '75 with the
Horizon 2000 General Plan. Horizon 2000
built on, and refined, the policies and
fundamental direction of GP '75. Horizon
2000 was designed to guide development in
San José to the end of the twentieth century
and was implemented with considerable success. In the early 1990's it became
apparent that there was a need to update and
re-evaluate the General Plan since the City
was approaching the horizon year of the
Plan. The inclusion of new projections and
other information was necessary to respond
to the changing circumstances and concerns
of the community.
The San José 2020 General Plan process was
initiated by the City Council in early 1992
and was intended to be a focused update of
the Horizon 2000 General Plan. Building on
the established principles and policies of
Horizon 2000, San José 2020 will guide the
City into the twenty-first century. To update
the Plan, the City Council appointed a 33-
member task force comprised of
representatives from each Council District,
business organizations, environmental
groups, housing advocates, development
interests, neighborhood and community
groups, three members of the City Council
and one Planning Commissioner.
The Task Force began meeting in February
1992 and concluded its work in October
1993. The work program of the Task Force
was divided into three phases: background,
evaluation, and decision-making. During the
background phase, the Task Force reviewed
and discussed a variety of issue papers
including subjects such as economic
development, environmental issues, housing
demographics, fiscal issues, urban service
needs, and growth projections. Using this
background information, the Task Force
evaluated five potential land use or growth
alternatives that could form the basis of the
San José 2020 General Plan. These growth
alternatives are described in Chapter II,
Background for Planning. The Task Force
also considered potential changes to the text
of the General Plan, particularly the Major
Strategies and the Goals and Policies. chapters. The growth alternatives were used
to compare the potential effects of different
levels of growth on the City's economic,
fiscal and environmental health. The Task
Force selected a preferred growth alternative
and recommended changes to the text of the
General Plan during the final decision making
phase. The text changes included
the addition of two new Major Strategies -
Housing and Sustainable City - and policy
changes covering the subjects of housing,
urban services and Level of service,
economic development, parks and
recreation, and natural resources.
A series of community meetings was held at
various locations throughout the City during
each of the three phases described above.
The intent of these meetings was to inform
the public about the San José 2020 General
Plan process and to receive public input on
this process.
The Task Force selected Growth Alternative
V to form the basis of the San José 2020
General Plan and recommended a series of
text changes intended to strengthen and
reinforce the fundamental policies which
have guided development in San José since
GP '75. San José 2020 represents the
continuing evolution of San José into the
twenty-first century! |
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