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


What Will Diridon Station’s Legacy Be?

News /
Last month, SPUR convened national and international experts in San Jose to share best practices for planning and building world-class transit stations and active neighborhoods around stations. City officials, transit agencies and civic groups came together to develop the vision for the future Diridon Station and to consider the legacy that today's decisions will create for the project.

SPUR Comments on Morgan Hill Urban Service Area Expansion Proposal, 2018

Advocacy Letter
Morgan Hill’s proposal runs counter to SPUR and LAFCO’s shared goals of curbing sprawl and preserving agricultural land. The proposal runs contrary to the regional goal of directing growth into higher density in-fill development within existing city boundaries as outlined in Plan Bay Area.

SPUR Comments on Proposed Oakland Public Lands Strategy

Advocacy Letter
We are pleased that such a robust discussion regarding the role and use of public lands is underway. Like many other groups, we believe that public land should contribute to the public good – by supporting long term housing affordability, mixed income communities, economic development opportunities for all Oaklanders and the fiscal health of the city as a whole.

Why San Francisco Should Stop Requiring Parking in New Housing

News /
Housing developers in San Francisco are currently required to provide a minimum amount of parking in new buildings. What if we eliminated those requirements? Then we’d see both lowered housing prices and more efficient use of urban land. Requiring parking brings too many new cars into the city, congesting streets, taking up space needed for more housing and harming the environment.

SPUR Comments on San Francisco's Central SoMa Plan

Advocacy Letter
San Francisco's proposed Central SoMa Plan is a thoughtful and ambitious plan to improve the neighborhood for residents, workers and visitors. It will increase housing opportunities, provide significant affordability, expand green space, maintain a vital mix of uses, allow a diverse mix of businesses to remain in San Francisco and more. SPUR urges the Board of Supervisors to approve the plan.