Communications Hill was a 500-acre tract of barren terrain near downtown San Jose. It is an island of steep land, completely surrounded by strip commercial areas, auto-dominated low-density residential neighborhoods, and arterials. The purpose of the Specific Plan is to create a dense, urban hillside neighborhood congenial for walking, based upon the formal principles that have made San Francisco's dense and hilly neighborhoods so valued. Instead of the vague strictures of typical land use planning ,this plan established a clear physical structure consisting of the street grid, stairs and pathways, public spaces, block configurations, and building typologies. The City adopted the plan in 1992 and the first 2000 units have been constructed. We have recently been retained by the original land owners to provide an update of the plan for the remaining parcels and to incorporate eight blocks of residential high-rise construction.