El Camino Real Specific Plan Revision

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Adopted El Camino Real Specific Plan

On May 19, 2026, Santa Clara City Council adopted the El Camino Real (ECR) Specific Plan, marking a significant milestone in the future of one of the City’s most important and historical regional corridors.

The adopted Plan creates a long-term vision for approximately 250 acres along El Camino Real from Pratt Place to the Santa Clara/Sunnyvale city limits, supporting a more walkable, tree-lined, transit-oriented corridor with a mix of housing, retail, public improvements and up to 4,390 new residential units. The ECR Specific Plan allows for streamlined development review, objective design standards and certainty of entitlement process to benefit economic development.

City staff refined the ECR Specific Plan through additional community engagement, coordination, and environmental review.

View the Adopted Plan

Draft Revisions and Process

A draft of the Plan was previously considered for adoption in 2021. The City Council did not take action on this Plan and directed City staff to modify the draft to reduce residential density and maximum building heights. Working with the Specific Plan consultant and the community, City staff completed the requested revisions and presented the updated Plan to the Planning Commission, which recommended its adoption to the City Council.

View the El Camino Real Market Profile including the Market Demand Analysis and Commercial Retention Strategy.

Revision Process (2022-2026)

In September 2022, the City Council directed staff to prepare a significantly modified Specific Plan that:

Achieves a capacity of 4,400 residential units
Retains a range of densities that support mixed-use
Preserves activity centers with building heights of up to six stories, as proposed in the 2021 draft.

In March 2023, the City Council approved an agreement with the consultants Raimi & Associates, Inc. based on those directives. Staff worked with the consultant to develop an updated land use plan that addresses objectives expressed by the City Council, including:

Minimizing potential impacts on adjacent single-family residences, especially with shading of properties immediately to the north of the Specific Plan area.
Aligning with a reduced residential of 4,400 units.
Retaining proposed activity centers

Following the draft update to the land use plan, the City did additional community outreach, including meeting with the El Camino Real Community Advisory Committee (ECR CAC), updating policies and development standards consistent with the new land use plan, and updating the environmental analysis and circulating it for public review. The final steps in the process are to bring the Plan to the Planning Commission for a recommendation and then to the City Council for adoption.

Previous Planning Process (2017-2021)

The Specific Plan planning process kicked off with the formation of the El Camino Real Community Advisory Committee (ECR CAC) in January 2018.

Following a multi-year community engagement process, the City completed a Specific Plan to implement the City’s General Plan goals and policies for the El Camino Real corridor, which was presented to the City Council for adoption at their June 15, 2021 meeting.

The Council reviewed the adoption draft El Camino Real Specific Plan and directed staff to significantly modify the three proposed Specific Plan General Plan Land Use Designations so that the maximum heights for the three designations would be two, three, and four stories, respectively, and to modify the allowed densities to correspond to these heights.

Subsequently, on October 19, 2021, the City Council took two actions on the El Camino Real Specific Plan: one action passed regarding direction on the revision of land use options, and the second action for a budget amendment request for the directed revisions did not pass.

Then, as part of the FY 2022/2023 budget process, the City Council approved funding for $1,000,000 to be included in the FY2022/2023 budget for the work directed by the City Council on the El Camino Real Specific Plan.

You can view the Original Land Use Plan Diagram on the June 15, 2021 City Council meeting (Agenda Item #2 - 21-595) in the attachments for the item.

Past Meetings and Public Hearings

Community Meetings

April 2, 2025: A community meeting was held to provide a second opportunity for the community to hear about the revisions to the El Camino Real Specific Plan.

February 24, 2025: An open house was held to provide the community an opportunity to review and hear about the revisions to the Draft Specific Plan.

January 30, 2025: A Scoping Meeting was held for the El Camino Real Specific Plan Environmental Impact Report (EIR) to receive comments on the project EIR scope and content.

December 16, 2024: An El Camino Real Community Advisory Committee (ECR CAC) meeting was held where members reviewed the redlined plan and the added land use designation that allows for townhome units on specific sites. They also provided their input to staff and the City's consultant.

Committee Meeting (Recording)

Public Hearings

August 29, 2023: The City Council provided direction on the updated draft Land Use Plan.

Environmental Review / California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA)

The City has prepared and certified an Environmental Impact Report (EIR), which can be reviewed by visiting the El Camino Real Specific Plan Revision (CEQA) website.

Last Updated:

08-04-2026