If a 65 foot height limit is good enough for cities like Paris and Amsterdam it is good enough for Bankers Hill and Hillcrest.

While it is logical and desirable for downtown the be filled with high-rise buildings and for a neighborhood such as Mission Hills to feature lower scale construction, it is equally logical for the Bankers Hill and Hillcrest neighborhoods to serve as the transition between the two.  For anyone yearning for the sort of active, mixed-use neighborhood described by Jane Jacobs, the height limit is a no-brainer. Indeed, we need to encourage the city to go further by requiring retail storefronts along the major avenues, reduce the parking requirements to make construction affordable and ban full-block consolidation to insure quality design.

Still, the height limit is a reasoned and reasonable start and a building-block to a more rational policy that encourages a medium density, mixed use, diverse and active neighborhood.

Mi Arbolito was awarded an Onion last year and was re-nominated this year; do we really want Uptown to be filled wall-to-wall with this sort of building?