Department Overview
Other Important Planning Activities
All zoning and land use permit approvals in the City require an environmental clearance under the City's Environmental Review Ordinance and under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Also all public projects undertaken by the City must have environmental clearance prior to construction. The majority of land use approvals are granted Negative Declarations, which indicate there is no significant, adverse environmental impact from a particular project (see Environmental Review link to the left).
Another service provided by the Planning Division is Preliminary Review. Preliminary review is a response by planning staff to a project concept or proposal prior to a formal application. It is intended to be a time saving process to benefit both the applicant and the City. While the review of a project on a preliminary basis is not required, the department strongly recommends this review for all major zoning and permit applications.
The Development Review section on the Planning Division website has more information about Preliminary Review
The Planning Commission acts on Conditional Use permits and Environmental Impact reports, is the appeal body for Variances and Site Development permits, and recommends to the City Council on zonings and General Plan amendments.
The Commission also has other responsibilities mandated by State law and City Charter. These include review of Redevelopment plans and the Capital Improvement Program. The Department staff ensures that the Commissioners receive the necessary information and analysis for carrying out their responsibilities. The Department also administers the Commission's schedule, communicates Commission actions to the Council, prepares study sessions on items of special interest, and generally acts as support staff to the Commission.
The Plan Implementation Division provides staff support to the Historic Landmarks Commission and other related support for the City's historic preservation. This responsibility includes the evaluation of the City's historic resources through the review and update of the Historic Resources Inventory which catalogs over 3,000 historic structures; the designation of local landmarks including the review of related Historic Preservation permits; and the annual review of the Plan for the Past, a comprehensive plan of historic preservation programs for the City.
Annexation is the process by which unincorporated land is made part of the City. Land may be annexed to the City if it is inside the Urban Service Area and within 300 feet of City boundaries as measured along a public right-of-way. The Urban Service Area, as designated in the General Plan, is an area where services and facilities, provided by the City and other public agencies, are generally available and urban development requiring such services should located. Approval for the annexation of unincorporated property, outside the Urban Service Area must first receive approval from the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO). San Jose saw its greatest amount of annexations in the 1960's and 1970's. Today, most annexations involve infill properties, where new development or redevelopment is occurring.
Under recent State law, the City is currently annexing County pockets smaller than 150 acres. For more information on this program, see the County Island Annexation link to the left.
A California Land Conservation Act (or Williamson Act) contract is a 10-year contract between a local agency and a landowner that provides lower property tax assessments to the landowners in exchange for keeping their land in agricultural or open space use. It automatically renews every year unless it is terminated by either:
- Non-Renewal - initiated by either the landowner or the local agency or
- Cancellation - initiated only by the landowner. As development pressures come to bear on the few remaining agricultural or open lands in the Urban Service Area, more and more of these contracts will be canceled.
