Redevelopment Economy Development CDBG Housing Public Finance

Pleasant Hill BART

Specific Plan

Defensible Space Guidelines

In encouraging defensible space design, care must be taken to balance with urban design principles. Concerns for personal safety and security of property are increasing, even in traditionally suburban areas like the Pleasant Hill BART Station Area. Even where crime is minimal, the perception of safety problems can make an area seem uninviting and undesirable. Sensitive building and site design can address these problems by creating "defensible" spaces that help people to feel safe and that deter criminal activity. Guidelines to encourage "defensible" space design in the Specific Plan area are outlined below.

Guideline 1. Proposed development should create subareas that impart a sense of identity, belonging, function, and security. Each subarea should allow for effective surveillance by proprietors, residents, and pedestrian and vehicle traffic, as appropriate, as well as by mechanical surveillance equipment if necessary.
Guideline 2. Site and building design should demonstrate attention to the need for effective surveillance. Designs should avoid creating obscure corners or potential hiding places, and should put multiple "eyes on the street" for effective human and mechanical surveillance.
Guideline 3. Pedestrian circulation plans should concentrate pedestrian activity in selected locations, and avoid creating isolated places that might be locations for aberrant behavior.
Guideline 4. In residential developments, major building entries and lobbies should be located so that they are visible and accessible from the street, not just from parking areas.
Guideline 5. In residential developments, units should include windows or balconies with views of streets, walkways, and/or parking areas, wherever possible, to create the security of "eyes on the street."
Guideline 6. Outdoor areas should be sufficiently illuminated to create a secure nighttime environment. Luminaries should be shielded as necessary to avoid light "spillover" into adjacent residential areas.
Guideline 7. Landscaping plans should demonstrate sensitivity to personal safety and property security concerns.
Guideline 8. Police agencies should participate in the application review process to ensure that "defensible space" principles are employed in proposed new development.