About the Great Communities Collaborative
In the next 25 years, California's San Francisco Bay Area will become home to 1.7 million additional people. Unless the region's current growth patterns change, new development will pave our farmland and hillsides, families will continue to be pushed to the region's outskirts in search of affordable homes, and traffic and air quality will be worsened by long commutes.

But growth doesn't have to happen that way.

Today, we have an opportunity to fundamentally shift the way the region is growing. We can direct new development away from natural areas and working farms, and instead reinvest in existing cities, many of which have been ignored for too long. We can build great communities, with a variety of homes that all residents can afford, close to parks, transportation, shopping and other necessities.

Regional Strategy

To shift growth patterns across the Bay Area, we need a regional strategy. That is why TALC has teamed up with other leading organizations as part of the Great Communities Collaborative.

The Great Communities Collaborative's goal is to have half of the Bay Area’s new homes in walkable neighborhoods near transit by 2030. These new neighborhoods will be centered around train stations, ferry stations, and bus stops. They will have a mix of jobs, shops, community services, and homes affordable to families of all income levels. To meet this goal, the Collaborative is engaging local residents in the planning process to ensure these new neighborhoods meet the community's needs and has community support.

The Collaborative members work together on:

• Sites: Shape plans for specific neighborhoods in Bay Area communities and encourage residents' participation in planning for those developments.
• Tools: Create tools that will help community leaders make better decisions about development across the Bay Area and help citizens better understand, participate in, and influence plans for development.
• Regional Collaboration: Develop relationships with local, regional, and national organizations in order to create a model Collaborative effort and secure necessary funding for equitable transit-oriented development.

The Great Communities Collaborative is a unique cooperative relationship between four Bay Area nonprofit organizations— the Transportation and Land Use Coalition, Greenbelt Alliance, the Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California, and Urban Habitat—and the national nonprofit Reconnecting America. The East Bay Community Foundation and the San Francisco Foundation are also part of this Collaborative.

Great Communities Website

The Great Communities website is full of information about transit-oriented development, where TALC and other Collaborative partners are advocating for TOD in the Bay Area, and how you can be a voice for great, walkable communities in your city. Please visit www.greatcommunities.org for more information and to find out how you can get involved in building great communities in your area.

TALC’s Work with the Great Communities Collaborative

1. In Pittsburg, TALC is working with local community organizations to ensure the City adopts a plan for the proposed eBART station that includes a mix of homes, jobs, and services accessible to people of all incomes. Read more about TALC’s work in Pittsburg.
2. In Antioch, TALC is working with local groups and residents to ensure the community is well informed about this process and how to make a difference. Read more about TALC's work in Antioch.
3. In South Hayward, TALC is assisting local community members at the new BART station. For more information, check out the City’s website.
4. TALC created a Great Communities Toolkit, hosted on the Great Communities website, complete with information on how local community activists can create walkable communities in their own area.
5. TALC is tracking where land use plans are getting started in neighborhoods near transit. If you are familiar with upcoming plans that meet the Collaborative’s site selection guidelines contact us!
6. TALC was a key player in getting the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC)—our region's transportation agency—to pass a cutting edge policy that will ensure a good investment of over $12 billion in regional transit projects.