San Jose has undergone many changes over the last 60 years. The city began as a small community of farms and orchards supporting an urban downtown with walkable neighborhoods, and rapidly grew during the 60's and 70's as one of the fastest growing cities in the nation. This growth has transformed San Jose into the urban center of Silicon Valley and the 10th largest city in the country.

San Jose will continue to grow into the future and the vehicle for planning for that future growth is the General Plan. The General Plan makes choices between conservation and development, and defines the desirable balance between social, environmental, and economic costs in San Jose. The General Plan represents the official policy regarding the future character and quality of development and assesses the amount, type, and phasing of development needed to achieve its social, economic, and environmental goals.

Envision San Jose 2040 General Plan

The Envision San Jose 2040 General Plan was adopted by the City Council in November 2011. This General Plan centers on twelve Major Strategies that reflect the community’s desire to see San Jose grow into a more prominent great City, taking on a growing environmental and economic leadership role in the region, nation and world. In terms of physical form, San Jose will offer a wide variety of living and working environments, continuing to develop the Downtown, preserving and enhancing existing residential neighborhoods, and creating new, vibrant Urban Villages. This physical form is attractive to San Jose’s diverse population and particularly suited to meet the needs of two growing segments of the population, young professionals and those more senior in age.

The Envision San Jose 2040 General Plan is an award winning General Plan. It has received the Award of Excellence, Comprehensive Plan Award for a Large Jurisdiction from both the Northern California American Planning Association and the California American Planning Association. These awards recognized the teamwork across multiple City departments, an extensive community engagement process, and its contributions to long range planning.

Learn more about the 2040 General Plan

• General Plan Text (updated 7-5-2022): View the General Plan document.
• Text Amendment History (updated 3-24-2022): See what General Plan Text Amendments have been approved since its adoption in 2011.
• Annual Review Process: Information about the City's annual review process to consider amendments to the General Plan.
• General Plan 4-Year Review: The City’s first 4-Year Review of the General Plan was completed in December 2016. View information regarding the City’s progress in achieving the General Plan’s 2040 goals and policies.