A city (or county) is not an accident but the result of coherent visions and aims

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Required Contents 
Government Code section 65302(a)
 describes the required content of a land use element. Specifically, the land use element must 
designate the proposed general distribution, general location, and extent of land uses for
• Housing, business, and industry
• Open space, including agricultural land, watersheds, natural resources, and recreation
• Recreation facilities and opportunities
• Educational facilities
• Public buildings and grounds
• Future solid and liquid waste facilities
• Greenways
• Timberland Preserve Zone lands
• Areas subject to flooding, identified by either flood plain mapping prepared by the 
Federal Emergency Management Agency 
(FEMA)
 or the 
Department of Water Resources
 or mapped flood areas adopted by the local community on Flood Insurance 
Rate Maps
• Military land use compatibility and impacts to military readiness
• Other categories of public and private uses of land, such as marine protected areas
The land use element should contain a sufficient number of land use categories to conveniently classify the various uses 
identified by the plan. Land use categories should be descriptive enough to distinguish between allowable levels of intensity 
and allowable uses. The element should include categories reflecting existing land uses as well as projected development. 
Additionally, the land use element must include “a statement of the standards of population density and building intensity 
recommended for the various districts and other territory covered by the plan” (
Camp v. County of Mendocino Board 
of Supervisors 
(1981) 123 Cal.App.3d 334
). There need not be an equal number of land use designations and zoning 
classifications. In many cases, there may be more than one zone that would be consistent with each land use designation.
The land use element must accommodate specific land uses identified in the conservation element pursuant to 
Government 
Code section 65302(g)(d)(3)
. The land use plan must identify waterways used in flood management and could also identify 
groundwater recharge areas. 
The land use element must also consider the impact of new development on military readiness activities carried out on military 
bases, installations, and in operating and training areas. Planners must take such impacts into account when proposing 
zoning ordinances or designating land uses covered by the general plan for land that is either adjacent to military facilities or 
underlying designated military aviation routes and airspace (
Gov. Code § 65302(a)(2)
). For a GIS map of military aviation 
routes and airspace by local government boundary, see the 
California Military Land Use Compatibility Analyst
. For more 

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information on community and military compatibility planning, see the 
supplement to the general plan guidelines
. 
The land use element must also be consistent with airport land use compatibility plans where applicable (
Gov. Code § 
65302.3
). For more information on airport land use compatibility and requirements, see the 
California Airport Land Use 
Planning Handbook
.
The land use element must reflect the specific contents from other elements. For example, the land use element must account for 
“rivers, creeks, streams, flood corridors, riparian habitats, and land that may accommodate floodwater for purposes of groundwater 
recharge and stormwater management,” as identified in the 
conservation element
 (
Gov. Code § 65302(d)(3)
). The law also requires 
the land use element to correlate with the 
circulation element
 (
Gov. Code § 65302(b)
); and to use the 
noise element
 (
Gov. Code § 
65302(f)
) as a guide for establishing a pattern of land use that minimizes the exposure of community residents to excessive noise. For 
more detailed discussions of those requirements, see the 
circulation
,
 conservation
, and 
noise elements
. 
As explained later in this chapter, in some circumstances the land use element must also identify disadvantaged communities 
and plan for infrastructure in those communities. 
Density and Intensity
California’s population continues to grow, and the general plan presents a platform to prepare for future needs. Jurisdictions 
must plan to accommodate the share of the regional housing need that is allocated to them by their Council of Governments 
(
Gov. Code § 65584 (b)
). In doing so, planners should consider several factors in their forecasts and build-out scenarios, 
including population growth and trends, community and regional demographics, the local mix of jobs and housing, 
economic trends, and infrastructure needs. 
The Demographic Research Unit within the California Department of Finance 
(DOF)
 prepares annual population estimates for the state and for individual counties and cities. This unit also produces 
information on housing units, vacancies, average household size, components of population change, and special populations. 
More broadly, the 
Department of Finance
 forecasts both population and public school enrollment for the state and for each 
county for 50 years into the future. DOF data are used to comply with various state codes, including the 
Regional Housing 
Needs Assessment (RHNA)
 process, and for research and planning purposes by federal, state, and local agencies, the academic 
community, and the private sector.
“Population density” refers to the “numbers of people in a given area and not to dwelling units per acre, unless the basis for 
correlation between the measure of dwelling units per acre and numbers of people is set forth explicitly in the plan” (
Twain 
Harte Homeowners Association v. County of Tuolumne
 (1982) 138 Cal.App.3d 664
). Quantifiable standards of population 
density must be provided for each of the land use categories contained in the plan. Population density standards need not be 
restricted solely to land use designations with residential development potential. As the court stated in Twain Harte, “it would 
not be unreasonable to interpret the term ‘population density’ as relating not only to residential density, but also to uses of 
nonresidential land categories and as requiring an analysis of use patterns for all categories . . . it appears sensible to allow 
local governments to determine whether the statement of population standards is to be tied to residency or, more ambitiously, 
to the daily usage [sic] estimates for each land classification.” Although applied differently from one jurisdiction to another, 
residential population density can best be expressed as the relationship between two factors: the number of dwellings per acre 
and the number of residents per dwelling. 

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