SPUR Planning Policy Area

Planning

We Believe: Growth can be good and should be directed to areas
that will support equitable development and sustainability.

Our Goals

• Leverage growth to create great neighborhoods and public spaces.

• Protect and expand open space.

• Concentrate new jobs and housing in downtowns and near major transit hubs.

• Grow up, not out.

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


ABAG and MTC: Closer to Coordination?

Urbanist Article
This article reviews various efforts to merge ABAG and MTC and argues that the most likely outcome is informal linkages among the agencies and incentive funding to local governments. .

Projections 2003: A Review and Critique

Urbanist Article
This article reviews and critiques changes to ABAG's growth projections since 1999 when SPUR argued for using policy-based alternatives.

More CEQA Delays?

Urbanist Article
A new amendment to the California Environmental Quality Act adds yet another layer of difficulty to the entitlement process, threatening San Francisco’s capacity to produce infill housing.

Supervisors as Planners

Urbanist Article
Jim Chappell outlines the changes in the roles of the Board of Supervisors in the planning process, which empowers both the Board and the neighbors of proposed projects in appealing building changes and restricting permits.

Democracy and Planning

Urbanist Article
Everyone thinks the planning process should be democratic. To act in the name of greater democracy trumps almost all other claims in the public discourse. But it’s not at all obvious what this idea really means.