The city's current plan for managing development, which is based on a public backlash against commercial development, will expire in 2003. The city is planning to write a new 10-year plan, which will combine residential and commercial development.

The area bounded by North Main Street, Parkside Drive, Pringle Avenue and Interstate 680 is known as the Golden Triangle, and is the main area for development in Walnut Creek.

Under the current plan, the city's Golden Triangle housing project plowed several homes to make way for new development, but few homes were replaced. Commercial development in the Golden Triangle area changed the city's skyline and added more than a million square feet of office space.