What is the General Plan?

The Encinitas General Plan serves as the blueprint for the long-range, orderly, physical development of the City. The General Plan contains stated community goals and policies designed to shape the long term development of the City, as well as protect its environmental, social, cultural and economic resources. 

The General Plan consists of an integrated and internally-consistent set of goals, policies and standards that address a number of issue areas which include land use, circulation, housing, noise, safety, recreation, conservation and open space.  These issues are discussed in the seven chapters called “elements” which correspond with State requirements. These elements include Land Use, Housing, Circulation, Public Safety, Resource Management (Open Space and Conservation), Recreation and Noise. 

Portions of the General Plan text that are backshaded (highlighted in yellow) in the various elements comprise the City’s Local Coastal Program (LCP) Land Use Plan, which guides development in the city’s Coastal Zone pursuant to the Coastal Act.  As a result, the City’s General Plan and LCP are a combined single document.

Because of file-size constraints, we have divided the General Plan into the individual element for you to download in Adobe PDF format.  You will need to download and install Adobe Reader to review these documents.

Frequently Asked Questions about the General Plan