General Plan 2020 Land Use by Area

The General Plan Land Use by Area dataset represents the broader countywide distribution, location and extent of land development by land use categories (designation) and density as specified in the Sonoma County General Plan 2020 as adopted on September 23, 2008 by Resolution No. 08-0808.

The intent of the plan is that policies, guidelines, and standards be clear and direct so that property owners and citizens may easily understand its provisions and how they apply to parcels of land as well as their cumulative impact on future environmental conditions and quality of life.

The broad purpose of the Sonoma County General Plan is to express policies which will guide decisions on future growth, development, and conservation of resources through 2020 in a manner consistent with the goals and quality of life desired by the county's residents. Under State law many actions on private land development, such as specific plans, area plans, zoning, subdivisions, public agency projects and other decisions must be consistent with the general plan. The goals, objectives, and policies set forth in the plan will be applied in a manner to insure their constitutionality.

Per Title 7, Division 1 of the Government Code of the State of California. Article 5, Section 65300 et seq, the County of Sonoma is required to adopt a comprehensive general plan to guide its future physical development.  Therefore, as required by law, the 2020 Sonoma County General Plan was officially adopted on September 23, 2008.

Related Resources:
Sonoma County General Plan 2020 Index [includes amendments since adoption]
http://www.sonoma-county.org/prmd/gp2020/index.htm

Sonoma County Zoning Regulations
http://www.sonoma-county.org/prmd/docs/zoning/index.htm

Chapter 26 specifies the applicability of base zoning districts to general plan land use categories (designations).  Therefore, base zoning districts and the general plan land uses are interdependent.  While the general plan land use specifies broader land use development policies, guidelines, and standards, each base zoning district is specific in stating purpose, permitted uses, uses permitted with a use permit and permitted residential density and development criteria.

Since the GIS data was developed for planning purposes and use in publication of maps and/or database creation, the data is for illustrative purpose only and is not suitable for parcel specific decision making. 

Therefore, the GIS data presented herein are approximations and further land development determination is at the discretion of the PRMD planning staff which may require a parcel specific site review (to draw parcel specific conclusions).

Creation methodology & resources:
1) refer to Data Quality - Attribute Accuracy tab for historical dataset modifications by ActiveMap version release number
2) when incorporated (e.g. City) annexations are recorded with the County's Recorder, boundary data is modified to reflect current city boundary data - this dataset takes into account ALL RECORDED ANNEXATIONS as of 04/30/2010
3) dataset includes General Plan Amendment Resolutions through 11/02/2010
4) for ActiveMap Data Capture December 2010 [ver. 2.1], rectified dataset to AM_PARCEL 10/22/2010 (modified to the borders of changed parcels & validated topology)

Note:
The land use dataset is continually being reviewed (for consistency and quality control) and if needed, technical corrections per Board of Supervisor approval on a parcel-by-parcel basis.