Advisory team meeting
Photo: SF Planning
Citywide

Urban Design Advisory Team (UDAT)

Urban Design Advisory Team (UDAT) is a team led by staff architects and includes principal and senior planners with expertise in historic preservation, current planning, and transportation. It reviews projects during a Preliminary Project Assessment (PPA) and prior to site permit or entitlement approvals. 

A project is brought to UDAT by its project planner to be reviewed by this internal group to assess its compliance with applicable design guidelines and policy. These comments are summarized by an assigned design review staff person and forwarded to a project applicant via the project planner in a Plan Check Letter (PCL). This assigned staff person will track with the project for consistency throughout the design review process and is available (through coordination with the project planner) to meet with an applicant to further resolve any outstanding issues prior to approvals. 

The Urban Design Guidelines establish that new buildings have the responsibility to sensitively respond to their context and existing patterns of development while being of their moment.

Guidelines
Urban Design Guidelines

Publications

UDAT reviews projects where the Urban Design Guidelines apply, among others.

Find Your Guideline by Address

To find out what design guideline(s) apply to any specific site, please look up the site in the SF Property Information Map, and:

  • select the “Zoning Information” menu item
  • scroll down to find “Design Guidelines”
  • select “More Details” under “Area Specific Design Guidelines.”