Privately Owned Public Spaces

"The Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections (SDCI) has wrapped up review of the city’s extensive network of privately-owned public spaces (POPS). The current tally of POPS stands at 40 stretching from the University District to West Seattle."

"Privately Owned Public Spaces (POPS) are open to the public, and include plazas, arcades, atriums, hillclimbs, and green streets. These spaces are allowed or required by rules in the Seattle Land Use Code that have been in place for several decades, and are generally located in Seattle's Center City. Other POPS may be open to the public as a result of a street vacation (permanent closure of a street). These spaces can be located in neighborhoods throughout Seattle, wherever a public space is created as a public benefit ."

from: http://www.seattle.gov/dpd/toolsresources/pops/default.htm

"POPS come in many shapes and sizes from plaza, hillside terraces, and pocket parks to hill climb assists, atriums, and mid-block connections. The City has had incentives and requirements on the books for more than a few decades now to develop POPS in exchange for additional development capacity and street vacations, the latter of which is typically the result of a public benefits package. In either case, development proponents voluntarily choose to offer POPS as part of development proposal."

from: https://www.theurbanist.org/2016/11/04/seattles-update-on-privately-owned-public-spaces/

This process requires oversight and proper planning since its ultimate goal is to apease both developer and everyday user. "In New York, planning officials in the late 1950s began offering private developers additional height and density in exchange for light and public open space. This “incentive zoning” generated hundreds of plazas, arcades, walkways and pocket parks owned and maintained by property managers. New York journalist Adee Braun has described the Big Apple’s POPS as “urban nesting dolls [that] were built to provide the public with shortcuts, shelter and gathering spaces.”

from: http://spacing.ca/toronto/2015/04/21/parks-crisis-part-6-privately-owned-public-spaces-answer-parks-deficit/

More info here from a past blog post:
http://civilizedurbanplanning.blogspot.ca/2016/05/privatization-of-urban-planning.html