This section contains sample measures that could be integrated into a green general plan. Because each municipality is unique, with its own resources, priorities, and challenges, these measures are merely illustrative. Nevertheless, these measures demonstrate a process that incorporates the drivers and approaches outlined in the previous section, and can serve as a good starting point for a municipality considering greening its general plan.
In developing specific measures for a green general plan, the California Sustainability Alliance recommends a top-down, holistic approach that begins with consideration of overall goals – desired societal benefits such as improving public health and safety, environmental quality, the economy, or quality of life. Planners can then consider strategies for achieving these goals, such as efficient resource utilization or smart growth. Once overall goals and high-level strategies have been outlined, it then becomes possible to drill down to specific objectives and measures, such as ensuring long-term water security by increasing water efficiency and promoting use of recycled water. By utilizing this framework, a green general plan becomes a holistic reflection of community priorities, rather than a simple collection of resolutions.
While the sample measures found in this section are a good place to start, it is also helpful to explore the green general plans already developed by municipalities across California. To learn more about existing green general plans, select the links below:
- Ontario
More than just a general plan, The Ontario Plan consists of a Vision Plan, Governance Manual, Policy Plan, City Council Priorities, Implementation Plans and Tracking and Feedback. This plan is currently in the process of being finalized, and once adopted it will create a "living", dynamic framework that expresses the city's vision of its sustainable future yet has the flexibility to address unexpected change.
Sustainability is integrated throughout the general plan. In the City Council Priorities element, for example, Ontario establishes eight short term goals, one of which is to "ensure the development of a well planned, balanced, and self-sustaining community in The New Model Colony", one of the last pieces of underdeveloped land in the San Bernardino region. In the Policy Plan element, which corresponds to the traditional General Plan, Ontario addresses numerous sustainability policies including pedestrian, bicycle, and public transit-friendly development; water and wastewater issues; waste management and recycling; and carbon emissions reduction.
Explore The Ontario Plan.
- Irvine
The City of Irvine is making large strides in including sustainable practices into its development and operations. The overall goal of the city’s most recent Energy Element, adopted in 2006 as part of the General Plan, is to “promote energy conservation and the use of renewable energy sources throughout the City in a cost effective way.” In order to successfully achieve this goal, Irvine has developed three cross-cutting objectives:
- Energy conservation: Maximize energy efficiency through land use and transportation planning
- Retrofit programs: Promote energy savings in buildings constructed prior to 1978
- Municipal conservation: Maximize energy efficiency in the city’s facilities and operations through use of recycled materials, renewable sources, and conservation measures
Included in the Energy Element are multiple examples of policies for achieving the above objectives. These range from establishment of energy efficiency funds for municipal facilities, to development of commercial and industrial transportation management plans, to voluntary retrofit programs.
View Irvine’s Green General Plan.
- San Jose
In 1994, the San Jose City Council adopted the Sustainable City Major Strategy as part of its General Plan, stating San Jose's intent to become an environmentally and economically sustainable city. This Major Strategy identifies the policy sections of the General Plan that support the sustainable city concept, and has become central to the city’s planning efforts. It is intended to ensure that the urban form is designed and built in a manner consistent with the objectives of efficient resource use and environmental protection.
By promoting conservation and preservation of natural resources in the city, this strategy works with the other Major Strategies of the General Plan to ensure that San Jose will be able to provide urban services to its residents in the most efficient manner possible and that the city will be able to sustain adequate levels of services in the future.
Explore San Jose’s Green General Plan.
- Marin County
Marin County chose “sustainable communities” as the overarching theme for its latest Countywide Plan, making this plan one of the greenest in the state. The county defines this theme as “aligning the built environment and socioeconomic activities with the natural systems that support life” and portrays sustainability as the integration of the “Three E’s”: the Environment, Economy, and social Equity. The elements within the plan strive to address the following overarching sustainability principles:
- Link equity, economy, and the environment locally, regionally, and globally
- Minimize the use of finite resources and use all resources efficiently and effectively
- Reduce the use and minimize the release of hazardous materials
- Reduce greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming
- Preserve natural and agricultural assets
- Provide efficient and effective transportation
- Supply housing affordable to the full range of members of the workforce and the diverse community
- Foster businesses that align economic, environmental, and social benefits
- Cultivate ethnic, cultural, and socioeconomic diversity
- Support public health, safety, and social justice
View Marin County’s Green Countywide Plan.
- San Francisco
The San Francisco Green General Plan integrates sustainability across all of its elements, and also includes a separate Environmental Protection element. This section combines the mandated conservation and noise plan elements with sections on energy management and hazardous waste, and includes a summary of sustainability measures found elsewhere in the plan. This approach enables the city of San Francisco to both integrate sustainability into existing plan elements and address cross-cutting issues.
Within the energy management section, the city commits to four broad goals: more efficient use of energy, balance of energy supplies to meet local needs, economic development, and responsible community participation. These goals are associated with seven objectives addressing municipal, residential, commercial, transportation, and intergovernmental energy consumption, along with financing and alternate energy generation objectives. The Environmental Protection plan element also includes eight conservation objectives, three transportation noise objectives, and four hazardous waste objectives.
Explore the City and County of San Francisco’s Green General Plan.
Another excellent resource with many innovative strategies for incorporating energy reduction and increased sustainability into General Plans is the Energy Aware Planning Guide.
Whether your city is just beginning its sustainability planning process or is building upon an existing foundation, if you would like to work with the California Sustainability Alliance and the Department of Conservation, please contact us about the Emerald California program.
