The Envision San Jose 2040 General Plan is a blueprint for the future of the city, identifying a land use and transportation network plan and establishing land use and municipal service policies to guide the City’s achievement of its sustainability goals through the year 2040. The Plan is community-based, directly rooted in the values and goals consistently expressed by community members throughout the Envision General Plan Update process. Several thousand community members participated to varying degrees in the mix of traditional and innovative community engagement activities that were a part of this award winning 4-year planning process. Environmental leadership and environmental sustainable land use planning practices were consistently identified as one of the community’s top priorities. Accordingly, the Plan includes progressive policies to promote alternative modes of transportation, foster the development of green industry, protect natural resources, mitigate environmental hazards and achieve other environmental leadership goals. The Plan addresses the all areas of city life, including policies for the quality of new development and the provision of critical services, such as police and fire protection, parks, libraries, etc., to ensure a balanced and well-functioning city.

The Envision San Jose 2040 General Plan incorporates measurable standards for the established Green Vision goals (e.g., reduce per capita energy consumption 50% by 2022, replace 100% of the City’s traffic signals and streetlights with smart, zero emission lighting by 2022, etc.) and establishes additional measurable standards for other areas of environmental leadership (e.g., recycle or beneficially reuse 100% of the City’s wastewater supply, achieve 50 Million gallons per day of water conservation savings, support installation of 200,000 solar roofs by 2040, provide all residents with access to trails within 3 miles of their homes, achieve 70,000 Clean Technology jobs by 2040). The Envision General Plan Land Use / Transportation Diagram supports a mix of land uses that encourages greater transit use, increased bicycling and walking, and more efficient use of existing infrastructure as part of the City’s strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.