UsinG Land Use Planning To curb sprawl
Building a more sustainable city and region requires a strong connection between transportation infrastructure and land use planning. If we concentrate more housing and jobs near transit infrastructure, we can enable more people to get to commute without using a personal car.
Creating Great Public Spaces
Great neighborhoods need great public spaces. These can take the form of parks, privately owned public open spaces (POPOS), or sidewalks and street designs that invite neighbors to take a leisurely stroll.
Saving the Waterfront
Can San Francisco create a world-class waterfront, or must we continue to watch it slowly rot into the Bay? The waterfront is one of the city's greatest physical assets. To save it, we must use new thinking, new tools and new cooperation among federal, state and local agencies.
preserving history While Allowing for Growth and Change
Part of what makes San Francisco so beautiful is its rich architectural fabric. This fabric includes our greatest historical buildings—as well as the historic urban forms of our city, including a rapidly disappearing network of alleyways and finger piers. SPUR believes that the best of our past must be preserved while allowing for the growth and change necessary to fight urban sprawl and global climate change.
Encouraging good design in new buildings
Every new building in the city should exemplify the best of contemporary architecture. San Francisco should set a model for encouraging new buildings that incorporate sustainable design features, a sound relationship with the public realm and a unique approach to expressing the cultural and social values of our time. What we build today should be worth preserving by future generations.
Addressing environment, economy and equity
Sustainable cities need to address global climate change, create decent and well-paying jobs and enable low-income communities to share in the success as neighborhoods grow and change. In shaping neighborhood plans, SPUR engages in careful thinking about how to support each of the three "E"s of sustainability.
community planning projects
Good Neighborhood Planning
An integral part of SPUR's mission is to promote good planning in San Francisco and the region. This means improving the connection between transportation and land use planning, creating streets and public spaces that are—in the words of Danish urbanist Jan Gehl, "sweet for people"—and increasing housing affordability. SPUR continues to fight for great urban plans that help make our city a better place.
Privately Owned Public Open Spaces (POPOS)
POPOS are publicly accessible spaces owned and maintained by the owner of a private building. They come in many forms: plazas, roof gardens, greenhouses, atriums and "snippets". Some POPOS are easily accessible, while others are tucked away and hard to find. SPUR works to support existing privately-owned public open spaces while working on policy changes to make the next generation of POPOS even better.
The Waterfront
The waterfront must be restored to its rightful place as one of the city's move important assets for its residents, workers and visitors. In order to revitalize San Francisco's waterfront, SPUR promotes a variety of strategies, including joint city-state planning, re-investment of Port generated taxes into Port uses and the development of high-quality waterfront parks.
Planning and DBI Reform
San Francisco's planning and building review processes continue to need additional reform. AIA San Francisco and SPUR have published two reports on "Planning the City's Future," which make recommendations for improving these important City departments. We continue to work in coordination with the AIA to help implement these reforms.
Historic Preservation
SPUR works to ensure the preservation of our most important historic architectural resources while balancing the need to allow growth and change to fight climate change and sprawl.
Project Review Committee
This committee reviews proposals for individual
buildings, and evaluates them based on their potential to enhance the vitality of city
life and adopt principles
of good urban design supported by SPUR. The committee's goal is to create a greater constituency for good urbanism through practical example.
Piero N. Patri Fellowship in Urban Design
Download EmBIKEadero: 2009 Patri Fellowship Project
Download Imagining Islais Creek: 2008 Patri Fellowship Project
Download Envisioning Warmwater Cove: 2007 Patri Fellowship Project
The Piero N. Patri Fellowship was established by Piero's brother, Remo, his wife Johanna Patri, his brother Tito and his wife, Bobby Reich Patri, in 2006, in honor of Piero N. Patri's commitment to good planning and urban design. Each year a project will be selected, with an emphasis on having a positive impact on the city of San Francisco and the Bay Area, and with a focus on a project that will encourage positive social change in the city, the region, and the urban design and planning community.
To get regular updates on community planning activities contact Sarah Karlinsky, SPUR Deputy Director, at skarlinsky@spur.org.
