General Plans & Community Plans Work Together

The "Big Picture"

Most individuals become involved with land use planning when their attention is drawn by one particular issue. The issue may be cars parked in a front yard next door, it may be traffic congestion, or because a vacant site in the community is being developed. Currently, the issue may be because all the cities in the region are talking about how to house future residents. This whole range of issues, from the "big picture" to the detailed issue, is land use planning.

General Plan

The City of San Diego

While federal laws govern the City’s land use policies and regulations, the largest outside influence comes from the State Planning and Zoning Law. The California Government Code gives local governments the authority to create land use policies within their jurisdictional boundaries and the ability to create a citywide land use and policy document called the General Plan.

Community Plans

Larger cities often create policy documents for specific geographic areas within the city’s boundaries. The city of San Diego calls its community-based policy documents either community plans or precise plans or specific plans. Because of the size and diversity of the communities in the City of San Diego, there are more than 50 planning areas called community plans. All the community plans combined constitute the Land Use Element of the General Plan. The community plans work to implement General Plan and, as such, are written to be consistent with the policies and recommendations of the other parts of the General Plan.

The General Plan and the Community Plans working together

To provide guidance on the framework and content, a draft Land Use Element has been prepared to identify the community plans as key components of the General Plan. The policies that make up the General Plan and the more than forty community and land use plans constitute the Land Use Element of the General Plan.

The adopted community’s specific and precise plans address the development of land within the City of San Diego’s jurisdiction, providing more detailed land use, design, roadway and implementation information than what is found at the general plan level. The structure recognizes the diversity of each of San Diego’s community plan areas while allowing the General Plan to focus upon citywide development issues. All of the City’s adopted land use plans must be consistent with the overarching goals, objectives and policies of the General Plan.

Although community plans will be updated or amended to reflect the goals and policies in the General Plan, the opportunity exists for each community to be the "architect" of its own distinct identity.