This article presents a smart growth alternative to the proposed $88 billion Regional Transportation Plan – better fund transit, restrict parking and integrate land use and transportation planning.

The Urban Design Plan needs to accommodate more than what and where buildings are planted in San Francisco. We cannot separate our society from our city streets, our economy and the buildings we live and work in every day.

Veteran planners Dean Macris and George Williams explain the contents of the 1985 Downtown Plan, especially its preservation and housing concerns. The authors lay out the historical context of resistence to growth among the citizens of San Francisco, and how it affected the Plan.

This article discusses how one important planning tool -- the Specific Area Plan -- can formally bring all sides to the table to plan for how a neighborhood should evolve over time.

The vilification of the high-rise framed much of the debate on the growth and development of downtown San Francisco, pitting the neighborhood groups against city hall in a series of propositions that would set limits on building heights.

Michael McGill chronicles the changed thinking about growth in San Francisco from a focus on building configuration to a more dynamic approach, incorporating economic growth and general livability.