C & Z Sheets

In a continuing effort to share information in our records, the City Clerk's office and the City Planning & Community Investment Department have worked together to provide another set of maps and exhibits about the City's planning past. This set of exhibits contains "Z-sheets" and "C-sheets". Each of these series contains numbered maps or charts or diagrams intended for the consideration of City decision makers: the Park and Recreation Board, the Planning Commission, or the City Council.

For the past 50 years or so, C-sheets have been used as maps to show the change of zoning applied to multiple parcels of land. The C-sheets are referenced in a zoning ordinance that is considered by the Planning Commission and 'introduced' and 'approved' by the City Council. However, from the 1930s into the 1950s, C-sheets were also used to identify architectural control districts; to show changes to public streets; to display park development plans; and to display data and drawings.

"Z-sheets" preceded C-sheets. They were maps showing boundaries of zones applied to properties based on the City's first adopted zoning ordinance [1930]. It appears they were used in the 1930s and into the 1940s.

Staff has created a reference matrix for those of you who would like to explore the posted documents. We have included as much information in the matrix as we have for each of the Z- or C-sheets: the sheet number; the adopted date; the title; the ordinance number indicating City Council adoption; and a category to help you more easily review the sheets.

Please note that we have not been able to locate all the numbered sheets in the sequence. Some of these documents are about 80 years old and had been scattered in various City locations. We have posted what we could find. These are not complete records, nor are they intended to be used as a legal basis to determine property rights. [If legal research is your goal, you can use Z or C numbers to help locate information in the officially adopted and retained records held by the City Clerk.]

Here are some notes to think about as you get started in your exploration.

• The Z-sheet name zones that are contained in the 1930 [1st] zoning regulations of the City. We hope to also post a copy of those regulations in the near future.
• The C-sheets contained here are numbers C-1 through C-200; from the early 1930s through 1961 [approximately the end of the time of the original subdivision of Pueblo or Rancho lots]. In 2010, the number of C-sheets is around 1000.
• The C sheet matrix has a column labels "Category" to give you a way to sort the type of information contained in the sheet as follows:
  • A = an architectural control district which was overlaid in a neighborhood in the 1930s and 1940s
  • PL&R = areas where City zoning was first applied to Pueblo Lots or Rancho subdivisions which were the earliest divisions of land within the City of San Diego. Pueblo Lots were within the original City boundary [typically west of Interstate 805] and Rancho lands were Spanish land subdivisions generally in the eastern portion of central San Diego.
  • E = engineering actions such as changes to streets, traffic data, or public facilities
  • P = park development plans or other park facility data
  • Z = general applications of zoning
  • D = data on charts and maps, civic spaces, sketches and plans, miscellaneous
• There may be more than one C-sheet with the same number. If so, they may be serial drafts leading up to adoption.
• Currently, "B-sheets" are 8.5" x 11" and typically represent zoning on one piece of property and C-sheets are large and represent wider community or area-based zoning. In the early days of C-sheets, there was no particular size associated with them — they were whatever size it took to appropriately display the contents.
• If there is no Ordinance number [O-xxxx] found on the sheet, it is unknown whether that is the version of the sheet that actually went to a public hearing for adoption.
• If there is a C-sheet with a number, then the same sheet number but with a ".1" or ".2", it means either the higher number is a later version or there are additional areas included in the same overall C-sheet number. The decimal-point-number system was evolved in its use over time.
• If a sheet says "Filed" or "Failed by Resolution" it mean that the information on that sheet did not become effective based on an action of the decision maker.

C & Z Sheets Matrix (PDF)

C-Sheets