Santa Clara is a family oriented and business friendly city, led by a city government that has developed an award-winning ethics program and a commitment to fostering the public trust. Located in Santa Clara County at the southern tip of San Francisco Bay, about 45 miles south of San Francisco, Santa Clara is a strategic regional hub, convenient to freeways, airports, railroads, expressways, light rail and other public transportation.
"The Mission City" was founded in 1852 and has grown into an internationally diverse community of about 120,000 residents with employment base of about 106,750. With 19.3 square miles of tree-lined neighborhoods, thriving commercial and industrial centers, and 300 days of sunshine each year, it is an ideal location for individuals, families, and businesses.
Santa Clara is home to an extraordinary array of high-tech companies, including Applied Materials, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Nvidia, Oracle, and Ericsson. The City of Santa Clara is also home to Santa Clara University, California’s Great America Theme Park, and Levi’s® Stadium, home of the San Francisco 49ers and Super Bowl 50.
Voted one of ten All-America Cities in the New Millennium by the National Civic League, Santa Clara has a "High Tech, Human Touch, H2" approach to serving the community's needs. It offers the region's lowest combined utility costs in the nine Bay Area counties, with savings of 30 to 40% on electricity alone, and it is consistently rated one of the most affordable cities in the nation for business.
At the core of the City's government is a dedication to ethics, transparency and service to the community. Santa Clara is a Charter City with a Council / Manager form of government. The City's financial stability ensures the highest levels of citizen and business service, low business taxes and solid real estate value, and it is also one of the safest U.S. cities with a population of 75,000+.
This dedication community is most readily seen in the outstanding efforts and services provided by our world-class police and fire departments. Our outstanding public safety record includes the highest fire rating in Santa Clara County and some of the fastest emergency response times in the state.
Speed is critical in Santa Clara--from response times with emergency services to responsiveness at the speed of business. More than 9,400 businesses, including many of the world's top technology firms, have started, taken root and thrived in the City of Santa Clara. Our dedication to the business community reaches beyond business licenses and services, but focuses on individualized assistance and attention, especially for large or complex business applications that need the involvement of multiple City departments. In these cases, a dedicated liaison will help guide businesses through the process and ensure clear and complete communication.