SPUR Planning Policy Area

Planning

Our goal: Add new jobs and housing where they will support equity and sustainability, and make neighborhoods safe and welcoming to everyone.

SPUR’s Five-Year Priorities:

• Ensure that communities are safe, inclusive and equipped to meet all residents’ daily needs with a diverse mix of businesses and services.

• Prioritize investment in and access to parks, nature and public spaces as a driver for social cohesion and economic opportunity.

• Ensure that regionally significant neighborhood plans in San Francisco, San Jose and Oakland advance equity, sustainability and prosperity.

 

Read our policy agenda

SPUR Report

Model Places

Over the next 50 years, the San Francisco Bay Area is expected to gain as many as 4 million people and 2 million jobs. In a region where a crushing housing shortage is already threatening quality of life, how can we welcome new residents and jobs without paving over green spaces or pushing out long-time community members?

SPUR Report

A Downtown for Everyone

Downtown Oakland is poised to take on a more important role in the region. But the future is not guaranteed. An economic boom could stall — or take off in a way that harms the city’s character, culture and diversity. How can downtown grow while providing benefits to all?

SPUR Report

The Future of Downtown San José

Downtown San José is the most walkable, transit-oriented place in the South Bay. But it needs more people. SPUR identifies six big ideas for achieving a more successful and active downtown.

SPUR Report

The Future of Downtown San Francisco

The movement of jobs to suburban office parks is as much of a threat to the environment as residential sprawl — if not a greater one. Our best strategy is to channel more job growth to existing centers, like transit-rich downtown San Francisco.

SPUR Report

Getting to Great Places

Silicon Valley, the most dynamic and innovative economic engine in the world, is not creating great urban places. Having grown around the automobile, the valley consists largely of lowslung office parks, surface parking and suburban tract homes. SPUR’s report Getting to Great Places diagnoses the impediments San José faces in creating excellent, walkable urban places and recommends changes in policy and practice that will help meet these goals.

SPUR Report

Secrets of San Francisco

Dozens of office buildings in San Francisco include privately owned public open spaces or “POPOS.” SPUR evaluates these spaces and lays out recommendations to improve existing POPOS and guide the development of new ones.

Updates and Events


Bay Area Place Types

Urbanist Article
As part of its ongoing regional strategy work, SPUR has developed 14 place types to provide a tangible portrait of the region.

SPUR Recommends Changes to Airport Flight Paths to Increase Building Heights in San Jose

Advocacy Letter
The City of San Jose is currently considering several scenarios for altering flight paths at Mineta San Jose International Airport in order to allow for taller buildings downtown. SPUR recommends accepting Scenario 4, which would use the Federal Aviation Administration's own safety standards to determine maximum building height limits downtown and in the Diridon Station area.

Urban Field Notes: Manifest Density

Urbanist Article
If San Francisco is going to house families, teachers, firefighters, service workers and more, we’re gonna need some taller buildings.

Did the Bay Area Reach a “Grand Bargain” to Solve Housing?

News /
The Bay Area’s housing shortage and affordability crisis is arguably the greatest threat to its future. In January, the region took an important step forward with the endorsement of the CASA Compact, a grand bargain among dozens of governments and organizations to arrive at real solutions.

SPUR Comments on the Downtown Oakland Specific Plan

Advocacy Letter
Now is the time to prepare a bold vision for the future that enables Oakland to grow into its role as a major regional center with significantly more employment, residents and visitors than today. This plan should be about how to shape that future in a way that achieves a downtown with significant benefits for everyone.