San Martin planning area
San Martin is a rural unincorporated area and community located between the cities of Morgan Hill and Gilroy in the south Santa Clara Valley. It is generally defined for planning purposes as the San Martin Planning Area, which includes all valley lands between the hillside areas to the east and west, and between Maple Avenue to the north and Masten and Fitzgerald Avenues to the south.
A set of special area land use policies was developed as part of the County’s General Plan in 1980, which have been amended over time and are now contained in the Land Use Chapter of the General Plan. These policies augment the policies contained in the base land use designations for the San Martin Planning Area, such as the Rural Residential designation, and include governing policies for the San Martin Commercial Use Permit Area and the San Martin Industrial Use Permit Area.
The County has also adopted the San Martin Integrated Design Plan in 1995, which contains design guidelines for non-residential uses, drainage issues, circulation issues, and rural residential subdivision and cluster subdivision issues.
The San Martin Planning Advisory Committee, or SMPAC, is a nine-member committee appointed by the Board of Supervisors to advise the County Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors on land use matters of interest to the community of San Martin. The Committee meets monthly on the Wednesday evening prior to the County Planning Commission’s monthly meetings, which occur on the first Thursday of the month, unless a special meeting or meeting date is called. As part of its meeting agenda, the Committee may consider informational updates regarding planning issues in San Martin, and it also provides advisory recommendations to the Planning Commission regarding proposals for major subdivisions and conditional use permit applications.
For more information regarding the San Martin Planning Advisory Committee, contact Robert Cain, Senior Planner at [email protected].