Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Re: General Plan

I don't know what "circulation element" means. If there is a road showing on the general plan it means that the government body that adopted the general plan anticipates that a road will be located where indicated on the plan.

Re: General Plan

The "circulation element" of a general plan is the part where the planners supposedly deal with the local movement of traffic into, out of, within and around the area being planned. They are supposed to think about the traffic consequences of the zoning and other land-use policies they adopt.

If a general plan shows a road that doesn't currently exist, that probably means the planners have decided that it should be built in order to prevent huge traffic jams from resulting from the development that the general plan would allow.

Proposed new roads don't always get built, either because the proposed general plan gets rejected, or due to public opposition, or just lack of funds.

I have seen instances where an arterial connector road was in the general plan for 15+ years before being built; meanwhile, development that was supposed to be served by it went ahead and traffic became horrible.