CONNECT with the CityHow We’re Planning for Public Spaces & Mobility
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Public spaces include all the public areas outside of your home that you can visit, including parks, plazas, libraries and streets where you can walk, bike and connect with others. This infrastructure can tie communities together, serve as gathering spaces and provide more spaces for healthy living.
The City Planning Department is planning for public spaces that are safe and enjoyable for community members and prioritizing the equitable distribution of these spaces, especially in traditionally underserved communities where the needs are the greatest. We’re planning for faster delivery of this infrastructure by moving toward a comprehensive citywide funding approach and incentivizing the creation of new public spaces whenever new development is built.
Learn more below about our planning initiatives that support public spaces where everyone can play, learn and connect.
Balboa Park Master Plan Update
The update to the Balboa Park Master Plan envisions the preservation, revitalization and enhancement of San Diego’s historic Balboa Park, a 1,200-acre cultural and recreational destination that is home to San Diego’s iconic National Historic Landmark District, museums, gardens, sports fields, parks, theaters and the renowned San Diego Zoo. The plan will include a long-term framework to improve the park’s aging infrastructure, increase visitor access, identify more play areas and protect its natural and historical assets.
Bicycle Master Plan Update
The Bicycle Master Plan Update will update the 2013 Bicycle Master Plan to refresh the City’s plans for an interconnected bicycle network, which provides options for people to safely and enjoyable move around the City, in addition to other modes of travel.
Child and Teen-Friendly City
Child and Teen-Friendly City will develop a design manual that will identify best practices and guidelines for both public and private development projects to ensure that our communities are welcoming, enjoyable and safe for children, teens, and their parents and caregivers. This design manual will focus on guidelines for creating public spaces and opportunities for walking/rolling and biking as ways for the city to become more sensitive to the needs of children, teens and their parents and caregivers.
CicloSDias
CicloSDias promotes safe and healthy ways of getting around the city by holding car-free street events. CicloSDias temporarily closes streets to cars and opens them to community members of all ages and abilities to safely ride, walk and roll.
Citywide Development Impact Fee Nexus Studies Updates
Nexus studies identify the fair share cost of the needed capital infrastructure that is attributed to new development based on a standard metric. The Development Impact Fee nexus studies for Parks, Mobility, Library and Fire-Rescue were completed in 2021-2022. Regular updates to the nexus studies are needed to ensure that new development funds the appropriate and proportional amount toward public facilities and infrastructure.
Equity Forward: Chollas Creek Watershed Regional Park Master Plan
Identified as an implementation action within the Parks Master Plan adopted by the City Council in 2021, the Chollas Creek Watershed Regional Park Master Plan will provide an opportunity to bring diverse neighborhoods together through a watershed-wide system of trails and parks where people can gather, play and enjoy nature.
Equity Forward: Park Needs Index
With the need for additional recreational opportunities and parkland increasing yearly, the Park Needs Index will identify areas of the city with the greatest park needs and where the development of additional recreational value and parkland will have the greatest impact for community members.
Street Design Manual
The updated Street Design Manual will clearly identify standards for public rightof-way (street) improvements for City departments, developers, regional agency partners and community organizations. The manual will serve as an implementation mechanism to achieve the policies outlined in the City’s General Plan, Mobility Master Plan and Climate Action Plan.
Streets for All
The California Vehicle Code allows cities to implement Streets for All programs which close streets to vehicular traffic or aim to limit vehicle speeds and volumes by using certain roadway design features. Streets for All includes a growing, connected network of streets that are safe and welcoming places to walk, bike and roll for people of all ages and abilities.
Equity Forward: Infrastructure Prioritization & Public Engagement
City staff and partner organizations engage with community members across the city on a regular basis through surveys, workshops and other engagements to identify infrastructure needs on a community and neighborhood level. Input received through the public engagement process helps to guide the annual Capital Improvements Program (CIP) budget and the Five-Year Capital Infrastructure Planning Outlook, which are the City’s road map for public infrastructure investment.
Funding Public Infrastructure
The Planning Department administers Development Impact Fees (DIF) and reimbursement agreements and monitors development agreements. These fees contribute toward public infrastructure such as mobility improvements, parks, recreation, libraries and fire stations. The Planning Department also facilitates the delivery of developer designed and constructed infrastructure needed to serve new development. This is facilitated through a variety of methods, including through developer reimbursement agreements and development agreements, as well as through the administration of other financing options, such as enhanced infrastructure financing districts.
Build Better SD
Build Better SD is a citywide initiative to support the City of San Diego’s equity, access, conservation and sustainability goals. This initiative sets clear policies intended to create more opportunities for innovative, culturally relevant and interactive public spaces. Investments are prioritized in areas where the needs are greatest, which will result in delivering infrastructure faster across the City.
De Anza Natural
De Anza Natural is the De Anza Cove Amendment to the Mission Bay Park Master Plan. De Anza Natural plans for a balance of local and regional recreational needs while restoring natural habitats and preparing for the impacts of climate change. De Anza Natural envisions enhanced recreational activities in the area with new facilities, such as a multi-use waterfront trail and a small non-motorized boat lease area for the cove.
Mobility Master Plan
The Mobility Master Plan is a comprehensive transportation plan to create a balanced, equitable and sustainable mobility system for the city. It prioritizes transportation projects in areas of the city with the greatest needs and identifies programs that will have the most benefits for San Diego’s communities and the environment.
Prioritizing Infrastructure Projects – Council Policy Updates
New council policy updates will guide equitable infrastructure project prioritization and improve engagement with communities to gather information about infrastructure needs in the City. Council Policy 000-32 is being updated to ensure the public has multiple opportunities to share their input regarding infrastructure needs. Council Policy 800-14 will be updated to better determine infrastructure project prioritization based on where the infrastructure is most needed and can serve the most people.
Complete Communities: Mobility Choices
Complete Communities: Mobility Choices ensures that new developments support investments that make it safer and easier for San Diegans to walk, bike and spend time outside. This ordinance requires builders of new homes, offices and shops to invest in infrastructure like better walkways, shade trees and transit stop upgrades to reduce the car trips, which will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and support cleaner air for all. At least 50% of new funds for this safe transportation infrastructure will be located in traditionally underserved communities where the needs are the greatest.
General Plan
The City of San Diego's General Plan is the comprehensive guide for development, providing policy guidance to address the needs of a growing city while enhancing quality of life for current and future San Diegans over the next 20 to 30 years. This comprehensive plan is the foundation upon which all land use decisions in the City are based. It addresses how to allow for more homes, provide convenient and sustainable transportation options, preserve the environment, ensure high-quality public facilities and services and support the local economy. The General Plan includes the City of Villages strategy which focuses growth into mixed-use villages activity centers that are pedestrian-friendly districts, of different scales, linked to the regional transit system.
Parks Master Plan
The Parks Master Plan identifies policies, actions and partnerships for planning parks, recreation facilities and programs that reflect the vision of a world-class Citywide network of recreational experiences to engage, inspire and connect all San Diegans. Equity is a central value of the City’s Parks Master Plan. Park planning and investments should address long-standing inequities in the City’s parks system experienced by people that live in traditionally underserved communities and areas with the greatest park deficiencies – areas of the City where we know that the greatest needs exist – by ensuring equal access to meaningful recreational opportunities.-
Spaces as Places
Spaces as Places is the City of San Diego's comprehensive program to allow permanent outdoor dining and other community gathering spaces within areas of the public right of way. Established regulations and a design manual offer a menu of options to create outdoor areas for dining, walking, biking, public art, education, entertainment and other activities.