Street Parks :: Frequently asked questions
Here are answers to some of your questions. Call us at 415.750.5110 if you can't find the answers you need.
How much is this going to cost?
What about sidewalk gardens?
Where is the available land?
What is a public right-of-way?
What is an unaccepted street?
What is the law?
Why Street Parks?
What are the Street Parks Guidelines?
What plants are recommended?
How much is this going to cost?
Each site is different. Your project costs will depend on where you are, what you want to do, and how quickly you want to do it. Attend an organizing seminar to build a budget with us and recieve up to $500 in matching funds.
Back to top.
What about sidewalk gardens?
See the sidewalk landscaping toolkit, developed with PlantSF for detailed information.
Back to top.
Where is the available land?
Available land is scattered throughout San Francisco. In general these sites are DPW owned stairways, sidewalks, median strips, traffic circles, and vacant lots.
See a map of potential sites. (1 MB)
Check the SFParcel map to see who owns the property. (Internet Explorer only)
Back to top.
What is a public right-of way?
Public rights-of-way are streets, unaccepted streets, sidewalks, medians, stairways, circles, and triangles that are public space. According to San Francisco’s Public Works Code, "Public right-of-way" shall mean the area across, along, beneath, in, on, over, under, upon, and within the dedicated public alleys, boulevards, courts, lanes, roads, sidewalks, spaces, streets, and ways within the City, as they now exist or hereafter will exist and which are or will be under the permitting jurisdiction of the Department of Public Works.
Sometimes public rights-of-way look like triangles in between two streets, as shown below. Or, a public right-of-way may be formed when one Street goes up the hill and another intersecting Street goes down the hill, creating a space on the hillside between the two streets. View a map of available sites.
Back to top.
What is an unaccepted street?
An unaccepted Street is any public right-of-way that has not been built to City standards, nor has the Board of Supervisors accepted it for maintenance. An example of an unaccepted street is Union Street. Unaccepted streets are also known as paper streets, because the street only exists on paper.
If you look at a map, it appears that Union Street begins at Lyon and continues, uninterrupted, to the Embarcadero. In reality, Union Street stops at Calhoun Terrace, at the top of Telegraph Hill. Just east of Calhoun Terrace, Telegraph Hill forms a sheer cliff, which begins at Sansome Street. Below the cliff, Union Street intersects Sansome and continues east.
Back to top.
What is the law?
Unaccepted streets look like vacant lots and are often for illegal dumping. By law, the maintenance of unaccepted streets is the responsibility of abutting or adjacent property owners.
See this from the SF Public Works Code:
sec. 400.1. Owners of frontage responsible for removal of rubbish or debris from unaccepted streets that are unpaved. It shall be the duty of the owners of lots or portions of lots immediately adjacent to any portion of the roadway of any unpaved street, avenue, lane, alley, court or place, or any portion of any sidewalk thereof, in the City and County of San Francisco, none of which has been accepted by the Supervisors as by law or as in the Charter of said City and County provided, to maintain said roadways or sidewalks adjacent to their property free and clear of rubbish or debris. (Added by Ord. 16-71, App. 1/26/71
Back to top.
Why Street Parks?
Urban gardens on public land in San Francisco once received services through the San Francisco League of Urban Gardeners (SLUG). Dissolved in 2000, SLUG left a void in the organization of the management of San Francisco’s community gardens, including the knowledge of site needs that once met the requirements for services to the gardeners. Currently, about 40 plot-style community gardens are overseen by the Recreation & Parks Department (RPD) and more than 50 gardens were under the jurisdiction of Department of Public Works’ (DPW) Adopt-A-Street program, and other gardens on public land are without programmatic support. Because these agencies have different functions combined with limited budget resources and personnel to properly manage and support the existing gardens, many gardens were left without a primary service provider.
In late 2004, San Francisco Park Trust was approached by the City of San Francisco Department of Public Works to partner in formalizing, funding, and administering their open space. San Francisco Parks Trust mission and proven track record of “helping build communities to become agents of renewal, able to change the city of San Francisco block by block, neighborhood by neighborhood” was needed to refine and expand DPW’s existing Adopt-A-Street program. Although Adopt-A-Street was successful in laying the foundation for the creation of gardens, the program lacked a networked alliance of funding, partnerships and services; streamlined procedures and added services for community gardeners; and youth programs and events.
Back to top.
What plants are recommended?
See the recommended plant list for drought-tolerant, low maintenance selections from the Department of Public Works' Bureau of Urban Forestry.
Back to top.
Street Parks :: Frequently asked questions
Here are answers to some of your questions. Call us at 415.750.5110 if you can't find the answers you need.
How much is this going to cost?
What about sidewalk gardens?
Where is the available land?
What is a public right-of-way?
What is an unaccepted street?
What is the law?
Why Street Parks?
What are the Street Parks Guidelines?
What plants are recommended?
How much is this going to cost?
Each site is different. Your project costs will depend on where you are, what you want to do, and how quickly you want to do it. Attend an organizing seminar to build a budget with us and recieve up to $500 in matching funds.
Back to top.
What about sidewalk gardens?
See the sidewalk landscaping toolkit, developed with PlantSF for detailed information.
Back to top.
Where is the available land?
Available land is scattered throughout San Francisco. In general these sites are DPW owned stairways, sidewalks, median strips, traffic circles, and vacant lots.
See a map of potential sites. (1 MB)
Check the SFParcel map to see who owns the property. (Internet Explorer only)
Back to top.
What is a public right-of way?
Public rights-of-way are streets, unaccepted streets, sidewalks, medians, stairways, circles, and triangles that are public space. According to San Francisco’s Public Works Code, "Public right-of-way" shall mean the area across, along, beneath, in, on, over, under, upon, and within the dedicated public alleys, boulevards, courts, lanes, roads, sidewalks, spaces, streets, and ways within the City, as they now exist or hereafter will exist and which are or will be under the permitting jurisdiction of the Department of Public Works.
Sometimes public rights-of-way look like triangles in between two streets, as shown below. Or, a public right-of-way may be formed when one Street goes up the hill and another intersecting Street goes down the hill, creating a space on the hillside between the two streets. View a map of available sites.
Back to top.
What is an unaccepted street?
An unaccepted Street is any public right-of-way that has not been built to City standards, nor has the Board of Supervisors accepted it for maintenance. An example of an unaccepted street is Union Street. Unaccepted streets are also known as paper streets, because the street only exists on paper.
If you look at a map, it appears that Union Street begins at Lyon and continues, uninterrupted, to the Embarcadero. In reality, Union Street stops at Calhoun Terrace, at the top of Telegraph Hill. Just east of Calhoun Terrace, Telegraph Hill forms a sheer cliff, which begins at Sansome Street. Below the cliff, Union Street intersects Sansome and continues east.
Back to top.
What is the law?
Unaccepted streets look like vacant lots and are often for illegal dumping. By law, the maintenance of unaccepted streets is the responsibility of abutting or adjacent property owners.
See this from the SF Public Works Code:
sec. 400.1. Owners of frontage responsible for removal of rubbish or debris from unaccepted streets that are unpaved. It shall be the duty of the owners of lots or portions of lots immediately adjacent to any portion of the roadway of any unpaved street, avenue, lane, alley, court or place, or any portion of any sidewalk thereof, in the City and County of San Francisco, none of which has been accepted by the Supervisors as by law or as in the Charter of said City and County provided, to maintain said roadways or sidewalks adjacent to their property free and clear of rubbish or debris. (Added by Ord. 16-71, App. 1/26/71
Back to top.
Why Street Parks?
Urban gardens on public land in San Francisco once received services through the San Francisco League of Urban Gardeners (SLUG). Dissolved in 2000, SLUG left a void in the organization of the management of San Francisco’s community gardens, including the knowledge of site needs that once met the requirements for services to the gardeners. Currently, about 40 plot-style community gardens are overseen by the Recreation & Parks Department (RPD) and more than 50 gardens were under the jurisdiction of Department of Public Works’ (DPW) Adopt-A-Street program, and other gardens on public land are without programmatic support. Because these agencies have different functions combined with limited budget resources and personnel to properly manage and support the existing gardens, many gardens were left without a primary service provider.
In late 2004, San Francisco Park Trust was approached by the City of San Francisco Department of Public Works to partner in formalizing, funding, and administering their open space. San Francisco Parks Trust mission and proven track record of “helping build communities to become agents of renewal, able to change the city of San Francisco block by block, neighborhood by neighborhood” was needed to refine and expand DPW’s existing Adopt-A-Street program. Although Adopt-A-Street was successful in laying the foundation for the creation of gardens, the program lacked a networked alliance of funding, partnerships and services; streamlined procedures and added services for community gardeners; and youth programs and events.
Back to top.
What plants are recommended?
See the recommended plant list for drought-tolerant, low maintenance selections from the Department of Public Works' Bureau of Urban Forestry.
Back to top.