APA California - Northern

The 2024 APA California - Northern Section Award of Merit for Comprehensive Plan - Small Jurisdiction goes to City of Napa and Dyett & Bhatia for the Napa 2040 General Plan (General Plan Update). The Napa General Plan Update is the city’s first in 24 years, shaped by active participation of thousands of community members. The Plan builds upon Napa’s defining attributes of small-town character, historic neighborhoods, and a picturesque setting along Napa River to establish a long-term, sustainable future. It contains all growth within the city’s existing Rural Urban Line, through strategic infill along walkable corridors and in downtown, preserving surrounding agricultural and open space resources. The Plan outlines a connected open space/flooding system integrated with the Napa River, with a network of pedestrian and bicycle trails capitalizing on open space proposals and corridor revitalization strategies. In addition to State-mandated topics, the Plan includes elements addressing urban design, historic and cultural resources, climate change and sustainability, public health and equity, and economic development. Get your tickets to attend the 2024 Awards Gala to celebrate our deserving winners and their outstanding work in our field as exemplified by this dynamic team - bit.ly/APACANorthernGala24

We've got you covered with this week's planning news highlights from around Northern California.

APA California - Northern Section is proud to award this year's Academic Merit Award to Ryan Caro for his project - Using Data Science for Equity at San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA). The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) cut back service at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and has been slowly rebuilding its service since. This research, conducted by UCLA Master of Urban and Regional Planning student Ryan Caro, advised by Dr. Adam Millard-Ball at UCLA and Steph Nelson at SFMTA, was the first step in automating equity analyses of these service changes, in order to build a tool to optimize SFMTA service for job access from equity neighborhoods. Caro used open-source tools to build a model of transit across and calculate the number of jobs available within the specified commute times from each equity neighborhood. He found that although the tool was planned to help SFMTA improve its service, proximity to BART is the greatest predictor of job access within 45 and 60 minutes. He also made recommendations for how SFMTA can continue to build this tool. Get your tickets to attend the 2024 Awards Gala to celebrate our deserving winners and their outstanding work in our field as exemplified by this dynamic individual - bit.ly/APACANorthernGala24

Congratulations to Lena Rogow for receiving APA California - Northern Section's Academic Excellence Award for her work Assessing Public Outreach about Slow Streets in San Francisco. In April 2020, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) announced its Slow Streets program. This emergency response closed select city streets to through traffic. Moving forward, the city now has to decide how to build a Slow Streets program long-term. SFMTA issued a public questionnaire on Slow Streets, and this capstone project set out to analyze citizen responses to it. Relying on spatial analysis of responses and qualitative analysis of e-mails about the program, Lena Rogow examined whether citizens liked and understood the program, and how far-reaching the city’s outreach had extended. The project found that many citizens believed the Slow Streets program was for commercial corridors, rather than residential, which is part of the program’s criteria. Responses were absent from low-income neighborhoods and communities of color. Based on these findings, Rogow recommended that SFMTA adjust its messaging and that the city prioritize future outreach in under-represented areas. Get your tickets to attend the 2024 Awards Gala to celebrate our deserving winners and their outstanding work in our field as exemplified by this dynamic team - bit.ly/APACANorthernGala24

A round of congratulations is due to Community Planning Collaborative for their APA California - Northern Best Practices Excellence Award. This award recognizes their work for the Motherlode ADU project. In 2022, four rural Central California counties partnered with the goal of developing shared resources to help residents build ADUs. Community Planning Collaborative was brought on to develop the project. After a year of research, outreach, and development, Mother Lode ADU was launched. It’s a one-stop shop, with friendly Guidebooks and guidance, online tools – ADU Calculators and Plans Galleries for each county – to help homeowners get started, and Spotlight videos featuring locals who have built. This project exemplifies the power of multi-jurisdictional collaboration. By pooling funds and working together, these counties were able to do so much more than would be possible on their own, providing a suite of comprehensive, user-friendly, and approachable public information and resources, while creating a regionwide understanding of ADU development. Get your tickets to attend the 2024 Awards Gala to celebrate our deserving winners and their outstanding work in our field as exemplified by this dynamic team - bit.ly/APACANorthernGala24

This year's APA California - Northern Section Public Outreach Excellence Award goes to Town of Corte Madera and PLAN to PLACE for their remarkable work on the Town of Corte Madera Housing Element Update (2023 - 2031). Join us in congratulating this team for their achievement. A paradigm shift for housing in small-town Marin. Town staff and consultant team Plan to Place implemented a thoughtful, comprehensive, and inclusive community engagement plan, with broad participation. Not only was the community in support of the project, but the synergy and excitement for housing has continued. The outreach plan included traditional strategies, such as community workshops and public meetings, and more interactive pop-up events to meet people where they were. At the conclusion of the project, community members participated in video recorded interviews to tell their stories which served to inspire and motivate others. The interviews highlighted the affordability crisis, the importance of providing affordable housing in the community, and how past practices precluded who could buy a home in Corte Madera. The community engagement strategy strived to educate and transform how individuals connect and make positive contributions to the housing crisis. Get your tickets to attend the 2024 Awards Gala to celebrate our deserving winners and their outstanding work in our field as exemplified by this dynamic team - bit.ly/APACANorthernGala24

Come join APA California - Northern Section next month on Saturday, September 21 for coffee in Menlo Park from 9:30 - 11:30 am! This is a great opportunity to meet and chat with fellow industry professionals in a casual setting. We'll be meeting at Coffeebar, located at 1149 Chestnut St, Menlo Park 94025. Please feel free to contact southbayrac@norcalapa.org for more information.

Congratulations City of Sunnyvale and Raimi + Associates for their excellent work preparing the Moffett Park Specific Plan. Their efforts have been recognized by APA California - Northern Section with a Comprehensive Plan - Large Jurisdiction Excellence Award. Moffett Park has served as a critical piece of Sunnyvale’s cultural and economic landscape for decades. Through collaborative input from City Council, local stakeholders, and the wider Sunnyvale community, the Moffett Park Specific Plan established a new vision for an ecological innovation district with a diverse set of uses that serves as a model of resilience, climate protection, equity, and economic community. The Moffett Park Specific Plan combines the tenets of ecological development with innovation districts. It leverages emerging development opportunities to steward habitat and complement existing businesses with the creation of mixed-use neighborhoods that include neighborhood-serving retail, housing, open spaces, and emerging mobility services. If fully implemented, the Specific Plan will create 20,000 housing units, 10 million net new square feet of office space, 500,000 square feet of neighborhood-serving commercial space, and 200+ acres of parks and open spaces forming the backbone of an urban ecology plan. Get your tickets to attend the 2024 Awards Gala to celebrate our deserving winners and their outstanding work in our field as exemplified by this dynamic team - bit.ly/APACANorthernGala24

Read all about our fascinating finds about planning news in Northern California.

APA California - Northern Section is proud to spotlight City of Oakland, Dyett & Bhatia, and Deeply Rooted Collaborative for their work on the Oakland 2045 General Plan Update Phase 1. Their extraordinary work has been recognized with the 2024 APA California - Northern Opportunity & Empowerment Excellence Award. Oakland's 2045 General Plan Update (GPU) is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for all Oaklanders to create a visionary blueprint for the future of the City and includes the 2023-2031 Housing Element, updated Safety Element, the City’s FIRST Environmental Justice Element, and implementing Planning Code Amendments. An inclusive community engagement process to reach out to communities historically excluded from traditional planning processes and a Racial Equity Impact Analysis of each Element ensured the development of equitable policies that are concrete, data-driven, outcome-oriented, and problem-solving. This comprehensive update includes strategies to meet Oakland’s housing needs and demands for more affordable homes by streamlining housing development, promoting “missing middle housing types”, reducing pollution, advancing environmental justice in our most impacted communities, and preparing Oaklanders for the impacts of climate change and natural disasters. The recently updated SB1000 Guidance from the Attorney General’s office cites 12 example policies and actions from Oakland as best practices. Get your tickets to attend the 2024 Awards Gala to celebrate our deserving winners and their outstanding work in our field as exemplified by this dynamic team - bit.ly/APACANorthernGala24