To Grow or Control, That is the Question

Abstract

San Francisco’s urban planning was dominated by a powerful progrowth alliance of the business sector and the city government in the decades after World War II (WWII). This urban hegemonism did not change until the mid-1980s when the Downtown Plan and Proposition M were passed to restrict unfettered urban growth, which were preceded and followed by a series of debates and attempts to advocate for or against growth throughout the 1980s and 1990s. This article addresses two questions of the significant transformation in San Francisco’s planning history: (1) how did the transformation occur? and (2) what were the transformative themes? Through finding answers to these questions, this article concludes the conflicts between laissez-faire and interventionist planning philosophies as well as the transformative process toward a more balanced planning approach in San Francisco.