General Plans Getting Increasingly Specific

Nate Berg talks to planners and architects about the plusses and minuses of more restrictive general plans. Sacramento is one of the California cities Berg considers where plans are coming loaded with increasing guidelines for design.

"Kris Barkley, a principal at Sacramento-based Dreyfuss and Blackford Architects who has watched Sacramento planners take more control over the design process, said, 'It's like an idealized, theme park attitude rather than coming up with interesting pieces that come together into a whole that's interesting in itself. It can be very difficult from a design perspective.'"