Just as I got curious about why Google Maps did not have a Zoning layer a couple of days ago I have been on a hunt for more zoning, land use and planning maps for the General Plan of the City in the Bay Area. I talked briefly here.

More about this extends in this post when I saw that the City of San Jose announced its participation in the Google Map Gallery

This post has more such maps, this time it is from the City of San Jose. Another simple but highly effective tool for users to understand the implications of a City’s General Plan, its Zoning regulations and a dot density map of permits that the City has been working on. 

Below is a sample of the map of downtown San jose with the urban village plan adopted for Alum Rock Avenue. 

(Source weblink : https://mapsengine.google.com/gallery/mapviewer?id=zLATztx267ok.kVtwQ6CBAW10&hl=en Accessed: 10th March 2014) 

 The pink shades indicate Commercial or Mixed use development. the color of mixed-use could have been a teal or orange, to highlight that City of San Jose is welcoming mixed-use plans. 🙂

in the map that shows the building permits and planning permits, it is worked out in a manner which connects information on the map to the City’s permits. Shown below are the sequence of screens for these maps. 

(Source weblink : https://maps.google.com/gallery/details?id=zLATztx267ok.kUckgWSNOlvw&hl=en Accessed: 10th March 2014) 

This is indeed a good indicator for making the General Plan document open source to all users. The accessibility of such maps makes it useful for all community members to understand a City and its planning processes at a click of a button!

The link to more San Jose Google Map Gallery here.

Cheers to inclusive planning methods and open data.