General Plan

About the General Plan

The Town's General Plan is the overarching document that guides the growth and development of Tiburon over the next 20 years, addressing issues like land use, housing, open space, conservation, parks and recreation, transportation, and environmental hazards. The General Plan lays out policies that will shape how the Town will look and feel in the future, and is created with plenty of public input. Tiburon's most recent general plan was adopted on September 7, 2005, entitled Tiburon 2020, which is available below. 

Tiburon 2020 was developed with the purpose and intent to plan for the future while preserving key characteristics of Tiburon. When Tiburon 2020 was being developed, the community expressed a broad consensus that Tiburon is a special and unique place because:

  • The Town possesses some of the best views available anywhere in the world.
  • The Town is, at heart, a small town with a village character, a residential refuge from the City of San Francisco and the more urbanized parts of Marin County.
  • The Town has a vast network of open space, including most of the peninsula’s backbone, the Tiburon Ridge, which provides a unique community resource that can be enjoyed by residents and visitors alike.

General Plan Update - Tiburon 2040

In 2020, the Town embarked on a two-year process to develop Tiburon's next general plan: Tiburon 2040. The Tiburon 2040 General Plan draft is now available. 

Read more about the public review period here.

Housing Element Update

One of the most critical elements of the General Plan is the Housing Element update. The Housing Element is one of the required elements of the General Plan and provides a roadmap to address and plan for housing in the community. All jurisdictions in the Bay Area must update their housing Element for the 2023-2031 planning cycle. 

The first draft of the Housing Element was released on July 5, 2022 for a 30-day public review period. After the public review period, the Town Council considered the feedback received over the course of two public meetings on August 3 and August 30, 2022. Several changes were made to the draft Housing Element prior to submission to the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD), including the reduction of the proposed residential densities on some downtown sites, the addition of a new program on home match services, clarifying text and program language, and more detail on environmental constraints for housing opportunity sites. 

Environmental Impact Report

The Tiburon 2040 General Plan Update will require preparation of an Environmental Impact Report (EIR). Read the notice with further details. 

On October 27, the Town hosted a public scoping meeting to obtain information from the public regarding the content and scope of the EIR for this project. Watch the meeting here (YouTube).

The draft EIR is now available. 

Tiburon 2020 General Plan

  1. Title Page and Table of Contents (PDF)
  2. 1- Introduction (PDF)
  3. 2- Land Use Element (PDF)
  4. 3- Open Space and Conservation Element (PDF)
  5. 4- Downtown Element (PDF)
  6. 5- Circulation Element (PDF)
  7. 6- Safety Element (PDF)
  8. 7- Noise Element (PDF)
  9. 8- Parks and Recreation Element (PDF)
  10. General Plan Housing Element (PDF)