Recent Streetsblog SF posts about Planning Department

Planning Commission Upholds Market/Octavia Parking Limits in Key Test

By Michael Rhodes | May 17, 2010 | 53 Comments

A rendering of the proposed mixed-use development at 555 Fulton Street. Image: San Francisco Planning Department. In a major test of the Market and Octavia Area Plan and of the city’s parking policy, the Planning Commission unanimously rejected a developer’s request last week for far more parking than is allowed, even with a conditional use […]

MTA Could Boost Revenue by Enforcing Downtown Commuter Parking Law

By Michael Rhodes | Mar 31, 2010 | 41 Comments

Unlike numerous downtown garages, this one adheres to planning code and charges a non-discounted monthly parking rate. Photo: Michael Rhodes. You’d hardly know that it’s illegal to charge discounted daily and monthly parking rates at numerous downtown San Francisco garages because enforcement of the law is almost non-existent. Planning Code Section 155(g) prohibits discount rates […]

San Francisco First City in the Nation to Count Its Parking Spaces

By Matthew Roth | Mar 29, 2010 | 66 Comments

Meters along the Embarcadero are part of the Port of San Francisco’s SFPark trial. Photo: Matthew Roth No sizable city in the country, or likely the world, has been able to say with any certainty how many parking spaces it has, public or private, until now. Over the last 18 months, the San Francisco Municipal […]

Planning and Public Life

By Chris Carlsson | Mar 25, 2010 | 6 Comments

On Linden Alley the "Union Project" held a public fair last year, just one of dozens of ways San Franciscans are taking public roads for uses beyond merely housing private cars. San Franciscans, like residents of most big cities, are in a continuous process of reshaping public spaces. There are pilot programs for new ways […]

Cesar Chavez Street Redesign a Test Case For Better Agency Coordination

By Matthew Roth | Jan 20, 2010 | 9 Comments

Concept for Mission and Cesar Chavez intersection redesign. Image: Planning Department It appears 2010 is the year the stewards of San Francisco’s streets have marked to figure out how to cooperate with each other to design and build a better realm. While the much touted Better Streets Plan synthesizes best practice principles and standards for […]

SF Transbay District Plan Offers Lofty Vision for Growth and Livable Streets

By Matthew Roth | Nov 20, 2009 | 4 Comments

Elevated Transbay Park. Images: Planning Department The recently released Transbay Transit District Draft Plan is the culmination of two years of detailed work by the many city agencies and consultants that had a hand in it, and its objectives for creating a vibrant, walkable public realm and its goals to promote transit and reduce automobile […]

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