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Draft 2. LAND USE ELEMENT PURPOSE The purpose of the Land Use Element is to provide policies and aland-use map indicating the planned location, amount, and intensity of residential, commercial, and industrial lands, as well as to provide guidance for the use of public and open-space lands. Policies need to be considered together with the General Plan Map to understand the City's intentions for future development and conservation. The General Plan Map depicts the policies contained throughout the 2005 Pleasanton Plan 2025 (General Plan 2005-2025) in graphic form. The Map illustrates the City's plan for a desirable pattern of land use throughout the Planning Area. SUSTAINABILITY As stated in the General Plan Vision, the City of Pleasanton embraces the concept of sustainable development. A sustainable city strives to draw from the environment only those resources that are necessary and that can be used or recycled perpetually, or returned to the environment in a form that nature can use to generate more resources. Relating the concept of sustainability to land use includes encouraging infill development and planning the city such that its layout would increase walking and birycle riding, and minimise vehicle-miles traveled and energy usage. In addition, the City is committed to constructing new public facilities using "green-building" practices that would reduce energy usage, as well as requiring that new residential and commercial land uses do the same. The concept of sustainability also relates to the economic and fiscal sustainability of the City in the long term. This chapter seeks to ensure that land-use polices and the Land Use Map provide support for fiscal and economic sustainability. EXISTING CONDITIONS Pleasanton is well on its way to achieving its goal of awell-planned and complete community at General Plan buildout. The following summarizes existing community conditions. See General Plan Land Uses, below, for future plans for land uses within the Planning Area. Residential Neighborhoods Many people relocate to Pleasanton for its attractive and well-planned neighborhoods. Pleasanton currently contains many residential neighborhoods (see Table 2-1 and Figure 2-1) that offer a variety of environments and lifestyles. In general, residential development is less dense at the Urban Growth Boundary. The oldest neighborhood is in the Downtown and features buildings dating back to the 1860s. A major aspect of Pleasanton's neighborhood environment has been the separation between residential and non-residential uses. This land use pattern minunizes incompatibility among land uses and results in the safe and attractive environment which makes Pleasanton's neighborhoods so livable. LU element 082107 clean 2-1