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 Samuel Assefa, LEED AP
Deputy Commissioner
Urban Design and Planning
Chicago Department of Planning & Development
Mr. Assefa recently joined Chicago’s Department of Planning and Development as a Deputy Commissioner, heading the Department’s Urban Design & Planning Division. His Division oversees the implementation of green planning and urban design policies, coordinate neighborhood planning initiatives, and set appropriate site and building design direction for major developments in the city. Prior to joining the City of Chicago, he worked both in the private and public sectors in architecture, urban design and community planning. As a Senior Urban Designer for the City of San Francisco’s Planning Department, he directed land-use and design policy for specific plans aimed at establishing sustainable citywide policies including transit oriented developments, industrial area design guidelines and guidelines for mixed-use, high-rise developments for San Francisco’s Downtown.
Mr. Assefa thought Architecture at the California College of Arts (CCA), and served in various civic organizations including the Green Buildings Committee of the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research, Board of Directors of the Architecture Foundation of San Francisco, and as a founding member of the Center for Art and Public Life at CCA, among others. He received his BA in Architecture from the University of Illinois and his Master in City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Short description of presentation:
"Density & Transit Oriented Urban Policy: The San Francisco Experience"
Mr. Assefa’s talk will focus on San Francisco’s sustainable land-use and design policy initiatives launched in the late 90’s to combat the city’s housing crisis and to address environmental degradation brought about by increased use of the private automobile.
In the 90’s, San Francisco experienced tremendous housing crisis due to increased demand, high housing cost, and very low supply. The Dot com boom of the 90’s drove the city’s housing demand and price through the roof, creating less than 1% vacancy rate (3% is considered desirable) making San Francisco the most expensive in the nation. Increased demand coupled with citizen’s opposition to density and height created a lengthy and expensive entitlement process, often forcing housing developers to either build at reduced density or to build in outlying suburbs instead. The city became unaffordable to low and middle-income families, artists and blue-collar workers, many of whom were forced to move out of the city attracted by lower housing costs. This threatened the city’s cultural and economic diversity and increased auto dependency where reverse commute begun to choke the limited freeways to and from the city, as well as create unhealthy congestion on city streets.
To address these issues, the San Francisco Planning Department launched various planning initiatives, including the Better Neighborhoods 2002 program and the Citywide Action Program aimed at establishing sensible and sustainable land-use policy. Mr. Assefa’s talk will present the land-use and design policies proposed by the city and discuss their implications. |
