San Jose Greenline Initiative - Planning, Office of (DEP)

In November 1996, the City of San Jose established an Urban Growth Boundary (UGB), referred to as the "Greenline Initiative." The intent of the UGB is to augment and solidify the city's longstanding policy of discouraging urban sprawl and preventing further encroachment of urban development into the hillsides surrounding the city. The UGB contains all lands within the City's Urban Service Area and its two Urban Reserves, one in Coyote Valley and the other in the South Almaden Valley.

The project was undertaken in collaboration with the County of Santa Clara. In part, the UGB and accompanying policies of the City and County also provide for an added measure of consistency regarding land use and development policy between the two jurisdictions, both for lands within the City's UGB and for areas outside the UGB but within the city's planning area, or Sphere Of Influence.

For more information, contact Laurel Prevetti of the City of San Jose Planning Department at 408-277-4576, or Bill Shoe of the Santa Clara County Planning Office at 408-299-5749. E-mail address: bill.shoe(at)pln.sccgov.org