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San Francisco Citywide Streetscape Master Plan/ Better Streets Plan

San Francisco, California

Community Design + Architecture was the lead consultant of a twelve-firm, multi-disciplinary team of designers, planners and engineers in developing the San Francisco Better Streets Plan. The Better Streets Plan is a unified design guideline for San Francisco’s streets that address all street types proposing with standards that are pedestrian- and transit-oriented, ecologically high-performance and balance the needs of all of the City’s users.

The Community Design + Architecture team began with extensive research into best practices in street and streetscape design management from peer cities, and the opportunities and constraints of existing San Francisco policy, plans, and codes. Following this, the team developed a street typology matrix to categorize San Francisco streets based on factors that affect the pedestrian realm, including adjacent land use character and scale, transportation context, and existing and recommended geometries, amenities, and ecological characteristics and opportunities. Community Design + Architecture completed conceptual designs for the 12 street types including a list of standard improvements and a recommended kit of parts appropriate to each street type.

The Better Streets Plan serves as a toolkit showcasing technical, contextual, and design considerations related to implementing best practices on San Francisco’s streets. The tools are designed for easy use by a variety of city departments, design professionals, and public advocates. The team also developed a maintenance and management study elaborating upon practices for keeping new streets and infrastructure in good condition to preserve the value of the city’s investments. Additionally, Community Design + Architecture compiled a list of targeted code revision recommendations to enable future implementation of the plan.

A final draft of the plan was released in June 2010, and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom introduced legislation in September 2010 to adopt the Better Streets Plan into the Municipal Code and General Plan. In 2011, the Better Streets Plan received a CNU Charter Award and an APA California Northern Chapter Best Practices Award.

Both the Staff Recommended alternative land use plan and CEQA document were certified and adopted in July 2009.