Objectives
There are three
main objectives in developing a desired urban form:
- Ensure that the cumulative
effect of new development emphasizes a compact city-centered pattern
to:
- support existing
communities, large and small;
- improve mobility of
people, goods and information;
- optimize efficient
public infrastructure which minimizes environmental costs;
- protect agriculture,
open space and other natural resources; and
- support economic
activity.
- Maintain adequate
performance standards and levels of service for infrastructure,
amenities, transportation and public services provided by
municipalities or special districts within the county.
- Optimize maintenance and
use of existing infrastructure while pursuing more efficient and
less costly technologies.
Policies
The
following policies are intended to achieve and efficient and desirable
urban development form.
Urban Growth Boundaries
- Encourage firm urban growth
boundaries that permits the achievement of planned housing, jobs and
other development and conserves agriculture, environmentally
sensitive and other open space lands.
- Encourage urban development
inside urban growth boundaries.
- Encourage appropriate land
uses outside urban growth boundaries, possibly including public
parks and recreation areas, open space, privately-operated
recreation areas and agricultural uses.
- Pursue urban uses near
urban growth boundaries that are compatible with activities outside
urban growth boundaries.
Annexation
and Urban Expansion
- Annexations should conform
to an orderly expansion of city boundaries within planned urban
growth areas and provide for a contiguous development pattern.
- Apply LAFCO adopted
standards for evaluating proposed annexations of land to cities and
special districts.
Infrastructure
- Encourage growth to be
directed to where infrastructure capacity is available or committed
including, but not limited to, road, transit, water, solid waste
disposal and sewage treatment.
- Encourage
inter-jurisdictional cooperation to eliminate costly duplication of
capital infrastructure, public facilities and services.
- Encourage cost-effective
maintenance of existing public facilities and services as well as
new investment to keep up with demand.
- Program the extension of
water and sewer lines to discourage leap-frog development.
- Ensure that special purpose
districts and other service providers have capacity and will
provide, in a timely manner, necessary services where development is
planned or expected.
- Establish and maintain
level of service standards for various components of the
sub-regional infrastructure.
- Phase and limit extension
of urban services to occur only within urban growth boundaries.
- Adopt development
mitigation programs to ensure that new development pays its fair
share of the cost of providing police, fire, parks, water, sewer and
flood control facilities and services.
Land Use
and Development Intensity
- Encourage employment,
commercial, residential and social activities to be located close
together to help contain growth and reduce the need for travel.
- Encourage higher density
residential development to be located within convenient walking
distance of downtowns and near major office developments, retail
centers and transit stops.
- Establish minimum densities
in areas designated as high density, for reuse, and in areas with
existing infrastructure capacity able to handle growth.
- Develop incentive programs
to encourage infill and reuse of vacant and underused parcels within
existing urban areas.
Objectives
There are six
main objectives in protecting natural resources and environmental
quality:
- Preserve environmental
resources in order to maintain and enhance ecological health and
diversity of plant and animal communities.
- Preserve economically
productive lands and waterways, including crop and grazing land.
- Ensure availability of open
lands for public purposes, including recreation and watershed
protection.
- Create and enhance
community identity through protection of community separators,
hillsides, ridge lines and viewsheds, riparian corridors and key
landscape features.
- Use conservation of open
land to guide needed and anticipated new development into areas
where it is best provided for, avoiding areas with high risk of
landslide, flood, fire or other natural hazard.
- Preserve and enhance air
and water quality.
Policies
The following
policies are intended to improve natural resource protection and
management.
Conservation of Ecological Resources
- Encourage preservation of
significant plant communities, aquatic resources and wildlife
habitats and movement corridors as well as significant historic,
visual and cultural resources, including views, landmarks and
archaeological sites.
- Encourage efficient use of
existing water supplies, including conservation by urban,
agricultural and industrial users, and use of reclaimed water.
- Pursue programs which
identify and protect the availability of significant rock, sand,
gravel and other mineral resource areas and which balance their use
with ecological conservation objectives.
- Pursue the preservation of
open space that cannot otherwise be protected, through the use of
conservation easements, density transfer or purchase using in-lieu
fees and dedications.
- Support non-profit land
trusts to acquire and preserve open space.
- Pursue cooperative methods
of acquiring land for parks, permanent easements, and open space
preserves that contribute to the sub-regional open space network
from state and federal governments, individuals, and foundations.
- Promote cooperative
watershed management strategies to protect, and enhance wetlands and
riparian areas, and reduce pollutants and runoff within the estuary.
- Promote land use, design
and development practices that minimize pollution and manage the
flow of storm water and urban runoff into the Bay and its
tributaries.
- Permanently preserve a
system of open space adjacent to urban growth boundaries, through
cooperative planning and acquisition strategies.
- Encourage preservation of
lands needed for maintaining and improving animal movement corridors
and establish approaches which ensure the long term viability of
large scale plant and animal habitats.
- Promote conservation and,
where appropriate, preservation and restoration of riparian and
wetland habitats to support wildlife and plants.
Preservation
of Agricultural Resources
- Retain land in large,
contiguous blocks of sufficient size and quality to enable
economically viable grazing or agriculture.
- Protect and enhance the
economic viability of agricultural land by: facilitating
preservation agreements, conservation easements and transfer of
development rights; establishing right to farm ordinances; and
undertaking public education about agriculture.
- Identify and protect
watershed lands that serve prime agricultural production areas
outside urban growth boundaries.
- Promote the establishment
of buffer zones between developed and agricultural production zones,
in order to reduce urban-farm conflicts.
- Maintain a viable agricultural economy through the protection of
the county's agricultural land resources from incompatible land
uses.
- Prevent over-drafting of
groundwater.
Protection
of Community Character
- Encourage actions which
maintain the integrity of hillside areas as major scenic and natural
resources.
- Define and establish large
scale urban separators between communities (which have not already
grown together).
- Preserve hillside areas
with steep slopes by discouraging higher density development,
encouraging clustering, requiring open space preservation and
ensuring the protection of natural features such as trees, creeks,
knolls, ridge lines and rock outcroppings.
- Establish a dedication and
acquisition program or other means to create and maintain community
separator lands.
Air Quality
- Encourage modes of
transportation that minimize impacts on air quality.
- Adopt selected air quality
policies and programs and integrate them into local general plans
and implementation mechanisms.
- Promote ancillary employee
services, such as child care, restaurants, banks or convenience
markets at major employment centers to reduce vehicle trips.
- Promote pedestrian-,
bicycle-, and transit-oriented features in new development and reuse
projects.
- Encourage city-centered
development featuring a mix of uses that locates homes near jobs and
services to reduce vehicle trips and vehicle miles traveled.
Water Quality
- Encourage the preservation
of adequate vegetative cover and ensure that development minimizes
erosion and sedimentation potential along streams or in unstable
soil areas.
- Protect and conserve
significant groundwater resources.
- Promote and enhance
selected wetlands and stream environments.
Objectives
There
are three main objectives in providing adequate mobility:
- Create an efficient
cost-effective transportation system by focusing investment and
development in designated transportation corridors.
- ntegrate land use and
transportation planning in order to ensure land use and supporting
transportation patterns that facilitate safe, convenience and
reasonably priced mobility of people and goods, and increased use of
transit.
- Discourage long-distance,
single-occupant automobile commuting while increasing resident
access to employment, shopping, and recreation by transit or other
alternatives to single-occupant vehicle use in order to reduce
congestion, time lost to travel, and air pollution.
Policies
The
following policies are intended to improve mobility.
Transit-Centered Development
- Encourage
transit-compatible infill development near transit stops.
- Promote pedestrian-oriented
mixed-use centers, including residential, commercial and employment
activities, easily accessible by foot, bicycle or transit.
- Promote pedestrian
activities in the immediate vicinity of transit stops by providing
safe, direct, attractive pedestrian access between transit stops and
neighboring development.
Auto-Oriented
Development
- Apply mitigation to
projects that generate more than a set threshold of automobile
traffic or exceed certain levels of service on local streets and
arterials in areas not served by existing or future transit.
Mixed
Land Use
- Encourage
neighborhood-serving commercial uses within walking distance (1/4
mile) of defined residential areas.
- Encourage local policies
which promote home-based work opportunities.
- Promote mixed-use
development that provides opportunities for residents to live and
work in the same neighborhood or community.
- Consider the conversion of
obsolete industrial sites for residential, mixed use or live/work
activities.
Non-Auto Use Through
Site Design
- Encourage transit
connections between residential areas, commercial areas, and centers
of employment.
- Encourage bicycle and
pedestrian connections between employment centers and nearby
personal services such as restaurants, stores, post offices and
banks.
- Encourage direct, safe and
convenient pedestrian and bicycle routes on residential streets in
new subdivisions which provide convenient access to transit.
- Promote pedestrian and
bicycle connections within residential neighborhoods and between
residential areas and nearby transit stations or stops, commercial
areas, centers of employment and schools.
Objectives
There are three
major objectives in providing adequate housing:
- Promote fair and equal
access to housing for all persons regardless of race, color,
religion, gender, disability, sexual orientation, age, national
origin, or family status.
- Strengthen efforts to
ensure a fair, equitable and rational distribution of low-income,
moderate-income and special needs housing consistent with land use
policies, transportation services and employment locations.
- Facilitate the development
of affordable housing near areas with superior transit service.
Policies
The following
policies are intended to maintain and improve adequate housing supply
and affordability.
Increasing Housing Supply
- Promote the provision of a
range of unit sizes, types and lot designs in major new
developments.
- Discourage development at
densities lower than the minimum densities lower than the minimum
density prescribed for each residential land use category.
- Promote a variety of
techniques for increasing the supply of housing such as:
- incentives for
development of multi-family housing with units large enough to
accommodate families with children;
- mixed use developments
that combine residential uses with compatible commercial and
industrial uses;
- using air rights to
construct housing over parking lots, etc.;
- minimum density levels;
- designating land for
residential and workplace mixed use developments; and
- incentives and
guidelines from constructing residential uses above ground floor
commercial establishments.
- support public/private
partnerships to ensure mutual understanding of sub-regional housing
needs and practices of the development and financial market and to
develop ways to improve hosing production and lower housing costs.
Increasing Housing Affordability
- Promote the preservation of
existing affordable housing located near transit, and promote
institutional and financial mechanisms to provide for additional
affordable housing near transit centers.
Objectives
There are three
primary objectives aimed at strengthening economic vitality:
- Retain and allow for the
orderly expansion of existing businesses.
- Attract new businesses.
- Offset revenue-driven
development through fiscal reform and inter-jurisdictional
cooperation.
- Develop a coordinated
inter-jurisdictional approach to addressing issues related to
centers of economic activity, such as Travis Air Force Base.
Policies
The following
policies are intended to maintain and improve economic vitality.
- Develop a coordinated
county-wide approach to economic development.
- Recognize the regional
importance of centers of economic activity, such as a Vital Travis
air Force Base by considering an inter-jurisdictional mechanism and
a coordinated partnership approach to addressing issues and
developing a consistent message.
- Encourage economic
development which provides jobs at all income levels for residents
of the county.
- Develop strategies to
retain existing employers.
- Identify and mitigate,
where appropriate, obstacles to the formation and expansion of local
businesses.
- Work to remove impediments
to gainful employment, such as lack of transportation, child care,
job training, vocational education, and other factors.
- Improve cooperation between
public agencies and private sector representatives, such as chambers
of commerce, financial institutions, plant managers and business
associations, in formulating economic development plans and
programs.
- Cooperate to develop
sufficient housing in a range of sizes and prices to meet the needs
of workers employed in the county and to ensure that prospective
employers have a diverse local labor pool.
- Establish programs,
including financing, to expand and attract small and medium size
firms with good growth potential.
- Protect existing and future
businesses by discouraging encroachment by non-compatible uses in
areas designated for commercial and industrial use.
- Work with local
jurisdictions and the business community to maintain and provide
information about economic development for governmental agencies and
the private sector. Examples include: · An inventory of
commercially and industrially zoned land and an estimate of its
potential for employment. · A list of special businesses and
industries likely to provide jobs for sub-regional residents, and
strategies for attracting them to locate in the county. · An
analysis of the potential for reuse of marginally developed land or
derelict facilities, and an inventory of sites. · Information
on existing and pending development throughout the county for use by
government, business groups and potential developers. ·
Information about public sector financing to facilitate the location
of appropriate business with a focus on financing transportation,
housing and necessary public improvements.
- Monitor the absorption and
availability of industrial land within the county to ensure a supply
of available land for all sectors, including industrial suppliers
and services, and periodically assess the need to designate
additional industrial land to achieve this end.
- Facilitate expansion or, if
necessary, relocation of existing businesses within the county.
- Facilitate projects of
economic significance.
- Develop county-wide support
to expedite reuse of Mare Island and Rio Vista Army Supply Depot.
- Promote employment training
and vocational education programs to ensure skills meet the
employers current and projected needs. · Conduct a survey to
identify the labor force requirements and job training needs of
current and anticipated future employers. · Encourage
cooperative efforts among school districts, community colleges and
employers to offer appropriate classes and internships. ·
Maintain an employment information clearinghouse.
- Develop recommendations and
advocate for reform of state fiscal policies in order to offset
revenue-driven land use plans and development programs.
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