2017 General Plan Annual Review Report

On Wednesday, October 11, the Planning Division presented the 2017 General Plan Annual Review Report to the Planning Commission. This report details how well the City is achieving the Major Strategies of the General Plan. Sound boring? It’s not! This report contains a ton of interesting data including building permits, jobs and population numbers, and described multi-departmental initiatives intended to better San José. Some highlights from the report include:

• The jobs-to-employed-resident (J/ER) ratio is 0.80, meaning that San José has 0.80 jobs per employed resident. In contrast, Palo Alto has 3.29 and Mountain View has 1.92 jobs per employed resident. San José’s low J/ER ratio plays a large role in contributing to the City’s poor fiscal health and heavy traffic.
• San José has approved 10 Urban Village Plans, including three recently approved this year. Six plans are currently under development by the Urban Village Team in the Planning Division.
• There are 342 miles of bikeways within San José: 285 miles of on-street bikeways and 57 miles of off-street trails.
• Office vacancies in downtown San José are down to 11%, from 23.6% in 2011.
• San José has 200 park sites totaling over 3,500 acres of parkland.
• Currently 77% of San José residents commute by standalone vehicle, with only 4% taking public transit. San José seeks to reduce residents driving alone to work to 40% by 2040

-Kimberly Vacca