More than 10 years after adoption of the 2004 General Plan, El Dorado County has adopted a Targeted General Plan Amendment and comprehensive Zoning Ordinance Update (the TGPA-ZOU). For the first time in nearly a generation, the County's zoning is consistent with the adopted General Plan as mandated by state law.

The TGPA-ZOU included a number of important changes that benefit our agriculture, businesses and local communities:

• Expands the designated Agricultural Districts by more than 17,000 acres.
• Converts the Camino/Pollock Pines Community Region to the Rural Centers of Camino, Pollock Pines and Cedar Grove.
• Designates Historical District Overlays to protect the historic townships of Diamond Springs and El Dorado.
• Establishes several commercial zones (i.e., Main Street Commercial, Regional Commercial) to direct appropriate commercial uses to appropriate areas. Plan rather than react.
• Sets development standards to include alternatives that the Board may consider to achieve General Plan objectives in Community Regions.
• Allows detached housing units within 893 acres of available Multi-Family land to meet moderate housing objectives as an alternative to below-moderate affordable housing and apartments by right. Allows limited commercial in multi-family to serve these areas.
• Establishes Mixed-Use Development standards for about 668 acres of available land within the Commercial land use designation to meet the commercial/mixed use demand.
• Allows a range of agricultural support services and other economic uses of rural lands as an alternative to rural subdivisions.
• Sets standards for home occupations, which employ as much as 16% of the work force in El Dorado County.
• Promotes and enhances agricultural operations through the zoning ordinance to permit direct marketing of agricultural products, and simplified permit processing for uses complying with established standards.
• Implements the Zoning Ordinance Update (ZOU) which was nearly 10 years overdue. This update ensures consistency between land use and zoning for about 5% of parcels, and clarifies the allowed uses of property for landowners and their neighbors. The ZOU also added, deleted or renamed zones, and adopted a more user-friendly format including a matrix of allowed uses within the zones.

See our recent report about Land Use and Zoning – Myths, Misunderstandings and Misrepresentations for more information about the TGPA and ZOU.