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Downtown Precise Plan

Downtown Community Task Force Meeting

The DCTF was reconvened for their first meeting to provide input on a Community Benefits program for Downtown. The meeting was held in a hybrid manner, in-person at 1500 Warburton Avenue in the City Council Chambers and via Zoom on Thursday, October 16, 2025, at 6 p.m.

Meeting Materials:

Future meeting dates are yet to be determined and will be posted on this page once scheduled.

Sign up for Downtown Community Task Force email updates to receive meeting notifications and agendas.

Community Benefits Program

On December 5, 2023, the City Council adopted the Downtown Precise Plan and as a part of the motion, by consensus, the Council directed staff to look into doing a Community Benefits Program with a fee-based bonus structure. On May 27, 2025, the City Council took action to allocate funds for the work. Through a Request for Proposals (RFP) process, RSG, Inc. (“RSG”) was selected as the City’s consultant to develop the program.

Local Community Benefits policies or requirements are increasingly common practices designed to capture a portion of the value created by increased project entitlements. The City intends to integrate a Community Benefits Program into the Implementation Chapter of the adopted Downtown Precise Plan. The program will be calibrated to align the level and type of community benefits with the allowance for increased building height and Floor Area Ratio (FAR).

The Scope of Work and Tentative Schedule for the development of the Community Benefits Program is as follows: 

Activity Meeting Format Tentative Timeline
Project Kick Off w/ Staff
In-Person August 4, 2025
Public Outreach
DCTF Meeting 1 Hybrid - RSG in person October 16, 2025
DCTF Meeting 2 Hybrid - RSG in person Jan-2026
DCTF Meeting 3 Hybrid - RSG virtual Mar-2026
DCTF Meeting 4 Hybrid - RSG virtual May-2026
Community Workshop 1 In-Person Jun-2026
Community Workshop 2 In-Person Aug-2026
Economic and Financial Analysis
Asssessment of Market Conditions Dec-2025
Community Benefits Framework
Develop Approach Mar-2026
Review with Staff Apr-2026
Draft Community Benefits Program
First Draft Apr-2026
Community Benefits Program Refinement
Revisions from Staff - Draft 1 May-2026
Revisions from DCTF - Draft 2 Jun-2026
Revisions from Public - Draft 3 Jun-2026
Public Hearings
Planning Commission In-Person Jul-2026
City Council Meeting In-Person Aug-2026
Final Draft Plan
City Council Adoption Hearing In-Person Sep-2026

Adopted Documents

On December 5, 2023, the City of Santa Clara City Council a Adopted the Downtown Precise Plan and Form Based Zoning Code to implement the community’s vision and objectives for a vibrant, pedestrian-oriented destination Downtown with a mix of residential, office, and civic uses. The Form Based Code will provide objective design standards to regulate new development within the historic 25-acre downtown area. The project includes a related General Plan Amendment for the modification of the Downtown Core land use designation, creation of the Downtown Form Based Zoning District, and an Environmental Impact Report and Mitigation Monitoring Program.

Adoption Documents

Planning Commission Hearing: October 25, 2023

The Downtown Precise Plan and Form Based Zoning Code were presented to the Planning Commission at a public hearing on October 25, 2023, for a recommendation to the City Council. The Planning Commission adopted resolutions to unanimously recommend to the City Council approval of the project.

Adoption Drafts - Downtown Precise Plan & Form Based Code

The DCTF reviewed and provided comments on the Draft Downtown Precise Plan Document on May 19, 2022, and Draft Form Based Code (FBC) in June 2022, and then furthered reviewed these documents at the October and November 2022 DCTF meetings. The draft Plan and FBC were revised to include these comments, as well as comments from other City Departments and was posted for public review in November 2022. The DCTF provided additional comments on the Form Based Code that necessitated changes to the Precise Plan. All of the changes have now been made, and the final adoption drafts for both documents are now available at the links below. These adoption drafts of the Precise Plan and Form Based Code will be presented at public hearings to the Planning Commission for a recommendation to the City Council for action. For any questions on these documents, you can contact City staff, Lesley Xavier at lxavier@santaclaraca.gov and/or Steve Le at sle@santaclaraca,gov.

Adoption Drafts

Previous Drafts

PRECISE PLAN

FORM BASED CODE

Environmental Clearance

The City is preparing an Environmental Impact Report for the proposed Downtown Precise Plan that will be prepared and processed in accordance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) of 1970, as amended.

Notice of Availability 

As authorized by the City of Santa Clara as a Lead Agency, the City hereby provides a 45-day public review period for an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) prepared pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).

Comments may be filed with the City in response to the preparation of the EIR, within the 45-day review period between Wednesday, May 31, 2023, and Wednesday, July 14, 2023, pursuant to Section 15073 of the CEQA Guidelines. Responses received in writing on or before the date of review or verbally at the time of the review of this project will be considered along with the proposed EIR. If you wish to respond, please send your comments no later than 5:00 p.m. on July 14, 2023 to:

Lesley Xavier, Planning Manager

LXavier@santaclaraca.gov

1500 Warburton Avenue, Santa Clara, CA 95050

Notice of Preparation

The project description, location, and potential environmental effects are contained in the materials provided in the form of a Notice of Preparation (NOP), see link below. A public Scoping Meeting was held on Tuesday, February 1, 2022, from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. via zoom. The meeting materials can be found at the links below. 

City Hall Relocation Study

The City's consultant, WRT, was engaged to study how a relocated City Hall and associated office space could fit downtown, and how it could be financed. The below document is the final report for this study.

Existing Conditions

The Existing Conditions, Opportunities and Challenges Report provides the planning team and the community with important background about the place and its history, the people who live and work here, land use and circulation patterns, other plans and development projects in the vicinity, and market conditions. Each of these topics is a critical piece of the puzzle in helping to Realize the Vision while Balancing Community Needs with Development Realities.

City Hall Deed Information:

Background

The City of Santa Clara is excited to be planning for the revitalization of our Downtown by developing a Precise Plan that will provide guidance for new development within a portion of the Downtown Precise Plan Focus Area (as identified in the General Plan) through policies, guidelines, and illustrations that implement the community vision and objectives for a vibrant, pedestrian-oriented destination Downtown.

The Precise Plan process will occur in close collaboration with Reclaiming Our Downtown (ROD), the Old Quad Residents Association (OQRA), Santa Clara University (SCU) and all interested community members. The foundation for the Downtown Precise Plan has been laid through the completion of a series of community planning workshops between October 2015 and November 2017, where community input on a vision for the Downtown’s future was gathered.

The Downtown will serve as an important gathering place within the local community as well as a symbolic center for all of Santa Clara, continuing the City’s focus on “Placemaking” as a key strategy to support quality of life for all Santa Clarans. 

Planning Process

A consultant team headed by WRT has been engaged to support the City in the preparation of the Downtown Precise Plan. An overview of the typical planning process timeline is depicted below. The planning process will start with an existing conditions analysis, followed by various forms of community outreach, including workshops, to receive community input on visioning, land use, circulation, and design standards. Layered within this process will be review and input from the Downtown Community Task Force (DCTF), as well as the greater community.

DT Planning Process Timeline_REV

Downtown Precise Plan Area Boundary

The Downtown Precise Plan planning area encompasses approximately 25-acres of land bounded by Benton Street, Lafayette Street, Homestead Road, and Madison Street, as shown below. 

 Boundary Map_Web

Community Engagement  

The City, the consultant, WRT, developed a community engagement strategy to ensure that citizens and stakeholders participate throughout the Precise Plan process. Outlined below are the engagement activities that have occurred since the start of the planning process. New and upcoming engagement activities will be posted at the top of this page as they are scheduled.

Once the engagement item is completed, details, including meeting materials and meeting summaries can be found under Community Engagement.

Contact Information

To be added to the Downtown Precise Plan e-mail notification list, please subscribe to eNotifications for Downtown Precise Plan on the City’s website.  By signing up for eNotifications you will be notified of upcoming meetings and planning process updates for the Downtown Precise Plan – signing up is easy and efficient and should take less than 1-minute to do so.  You will also have the option to subscribe to other notification lists that interest you.

 

Alternatively, you may be added to the Downtown Precise Plan e-mail notification list, by contacting the Planning Department at Planning@santaclaraca.gov or by phone at 408-615-2450.

Please submit any questions or comments about the Downtown Precise Plan to Lesley Xavier at lxavier@santaclaraca.gov or Steve Le at sle@santaclaraca.gov.