San Mateo General Plan Survey

The purpose of this survey is to solicit your feedback on which circulation and land use scenario should be included in the City's updated General Plan.

The background section of this survey is intended to help you understand each alternative and why the City is planning for growth and change.

The second part of the survey includes the questions we would like your feedback on. The survey should take approximately 8 to 12 minutes.

If you are already familiar with the circulation and land use alternatives and would like to go right to the survey,  click here .

A General Plan is often described as the “constitution” that guides the development of a city, typically for a 20-year horizon. It is the foundation on which all land use and regulatory decisions are made.

San Mateo is updating its General Plan, which will express the community’s  vision  for how the City will look, feel, and change over the next 20 years. The General Plan will include policies that determine what can and cannot be built in the City, including new homes, new businesses, and improvements to our streets and sidewalks, and how this development will be served.

As part of the General Plan Update, the City is proactively planning for how to meet the requirements of State housing law, identify solutions to traffic and housing affordability issues, and prepare for projected population and job growth in the region and locally. Topics that are not discussed in this survey will be covered very soon – before the final draft of the General Plan is prepared in 2023.

Although San Mateo is largely "built out," California law requires cities to plan for new housing that will accommodate a range of households and income levels.

Through the General Plan Update, the City is proactively planning how to meet State housing law requirements while ensuring that future growth is logical, orderly, and achieves the community’s vision of San Mateo as a place that is “vibrant, livable, diverse, and healthy.”

Each land use alternative shows a vision for the different types of development that should occur  over the next 20 years to accommodate State-mandated housing allocations. The circulation alternatives explore  different ways people can travel around the city and how to prioritize investment over the next 20 years.

In order to help inform the selection process, the impacts and benefits of the three land use and circulation alternatives on the following topics were evaluated and compared:

• Urban Form
• Traffic and Multimodal Circulation
• Community Services
• Utilities
• Environmental Sustainability
• Equity and Public Health
• Fiscal Sustainability
• Market Feasibility
• Community Benefits

Click the link below to view the full Report that was published in January 2022.

The City developed three alternatives to enhance circulation for bicycles, cars, transit riders, and pedestrians over the next 20 years. Each circulation alternative proposes a different way to meet the anticipated future transportation needs of San Mateo; and each could be tailored to integrate with and support the preferred land use scenario. 

Click the links below to view the three circulation alternatives maps and the circulation image.

This alternative aims to create walkable communities throughout San Mateo by prioritizing improvements along pedestrian corridors and at challenging intersections, and implementing traffic calming and safety improvements near highway on-ramps.

This alternative aims to increase and improve transit access to and from major connections in San Mateo by adding transit connections from Study Areas 3, 6, and 10 to the Hillsdale Caltrain station, prioritizing dedicated carpool (HOV) and bus lanes, and adding Bus Rapid Transit improvements to El Camino Real.

This alternative combines the local and regional transportation improvements of Alternatives A and B. It adds innovative urban design downtown, inspired by Barcelona’s “superblocks,” that allows vehicle access at the periphery and limits cut-through vehicles to create a pedestrian focused downtown. In addition, this alternative would explore concepts such as an automated micro-transit circulator (such as an Autonomous Vehicle shuttle) or a locally focused rideshare program (similar to the Via-Cupertino Shuttle) within City limits. 

Click the links below to view the three circulation alternatives maps and the circulation image.

Each land use alternative shows a vision for the different types of development that could occur over the next 20 years. The alternatives explore three different approaches to plan for future housing, jobs, and commercial areas within specific areas of the city (Study Areas).

Click the links below to help get oriented on where the study areas are located, view the land use alternatives maps, view the land use image, and view a description of each land use type.

Alternative A generally plans for the least change in land use designations and the lowest growth. 

Alternative B plans for moderate population growth and spreads growth and midrange heights more evenly across all Study Areas in the city.

Alternative C plans for the highest residential growth and concentrates growth, change, tallest heights, and density near transit in Downtown and the Bel Mateo / Mollie Stone Study Area.

Click the links below to help get oriented on where the study areas are located, view the land use alternatives maps, view the land use image, and view a description of each land use type.

The circulation and land use alternatives were developed through an extensive public review process. Some consistent themes have emerged in the community feedback.

Many people in San Mateo are very concerned about traffic congestion and safety on roadways, the lack of affordable housing, the need for transit and pedestrian improvements, and being able to find convenient parking. Many people have also noted the importance of community events, activities, and parks to help create a vibrant community life in San Mateo. The three circulation and land use alternatives reflect a range of different possible ideas to respond to these issues.