This polygon shapefile depicts the Habitat Plan planning limits of urban growth for the County of Santa Clara, California. Circumscribing an entire urbanized area, these Limits mandate that the area inside the boundary be used for higher density urban development while the area outside be used for lower density development. This information also informs zoning and land use decisions by local governments. This layer is maintained by the Santa Clara County Planning Office TeamGIS on behalf of the Santa Clara Valley Habitat Agency. This layer is part of a collection of GIS data for Santa Clara County, California.The Santa Clara County Planning Office is part of the Department of Planning and Development. Their primary function is to plan and regulate land use and development within the unincorporated portions of Santa Clara County. Other responsibilities include policy analysis, GIS services, research and technical assistance relating to land use, housing, environmental protection, historic preservation and demographics. The Geographic Information Services Department has taken on all those activities related to GIS data and GIS process and procedures that cross organizational boundaries. Santa Clara County encompasses 15 cities and approximately 1.7 million people. This coverage can be used for basic applications such as viewing, querying, and map output production, or to provide a basemap to support graphical overlays and analyses of geospatial data.