Transit Center District Plan

The Planning Department received funding from the San Francisco County Transportation Authority to draft a comprehensive plan for the area around the Transbay Terminal, including mechanisms to direct any increased development value to help fund the construction of the Transit Center Program in addition to other public improvements. Consistent with the Transbay Redevelopment Plan, which focuses mostly on public properties south of the Transit Center along Folsom Street, this effort focused on both private properties and properties owned or to be owned by the Transbay Joint Powers Authority around the Transit Center itself.

The City adopted the Urban Design Element of the General Plan in 1971 and the Downtown Plan in 1985, laying the groundwork for the downtown San Francisco we know today: a compact, walkable and dynamic urban center and a dramatic skyline set against the natural backdrop of the city’s hills. The Downtown Plan established the growth of the downtown south of Market Street, with its core of greatest density and greatest heights around the Transbay Terminal. At the time, the Embarcadero Freeway created a sharp southern edge to the downtown south of Howard Street. Since the elevated freeway’s removal, the City has undertaken several major planning efforts for new downtown neighborhoods (including Rincon Hill and Transbay) and infrastructure investments (Transbay Transit Center). These changes, as well as the fact that significant growth has happened in the 20 years since the Downtown Plan was adopted, demand a new look at the land uses, urban form and public realm of the downtown core. This planning effort is intended to shape the next generation of downtown growth; it will build on the core cherished principles of city building at the heart of the Urban Design Element and Downtown Plan.

In early 2006, a Mayor’s Interagency Working Group reviewed development assumptions in the existing Transit Center Program to determine the appropriate planning response to this facility in the heart of downtown San Francisco and to assess ways of securing additional funding for the Program. This brief assessment concludes that raising certain height limits and increasing development potential in the area would be consistent with the City’s vision for the Transit Center district. It identifies a potential for generating additional funds for the Program through increased tax increment, land sales, and assessments, which would result from such changes in controls of land use and urban form. The Working Group also identified the possibility for air-rights development at the 4th/King rail station and yards to provide additional funding for the Program.