MTC’s Transit Oriented Development policy

In July 2005, with support from TALC, Greenbelt Alliance, NPH, and other partners, MTC adopted a policy requiring cities to plan for significant housing near future transit stations before MTC funds such projects.

For details, including an explanation of why this policy is necessary to help use land wisely and save taxpayer’s money, our It Takes A Transit Village report, and how the policy will be implemented, follow this link.

Regional Smart Growth Strategy

From its inception, TALC led a campaign to reform the Bay Area’s planning framework, to bring together community members, stakeholders, and regional agencies to plan for where and how the region should grow.

• In 1999, we convinced the Bay Area’s five regional agencies to start working together. These agencies include the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG), Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), Bay Area Air Quality Management District, Bay Conservation and Development Commission, and the Regional Water Quality Control Board. The website for this effort includes a home page, history, and timeline through 2003.
• In 2001 and 2002, the agencies held two rounds of public workshops, in which participants identified the most appropriate locations in their county for future growth and the character and design of new development.
• Participants in these workshops ultimately chose a “Network of Neighborhood” scenario for the future that, if implemented, will focus growth in existing urban areas, especially along transit centers and corridors that connect neighborhoods, communities, cities and the region. The final vision is described in the project’s final report.
• In 2002-2003, ABAG used the resulting vision to develop projections for how and where the region will grow. Until now, all our projections were simply based on a prediction that business-as-usual would continue. The “policy-based” Projections 2003 mark the first time the region is planning for the future.
• Since the adoption of Projections 2003, the Smart Growth vision has contributed to several changes in policy throughout the region:
• MTC has now used these projections as the basis for planning in Transportation 2030, the Regional Transportation Plan guiding how $118 billion in transportation funds are spent over the next 25 years.
• MTC and ABAG worked together to develop the Transit-Oriented Development Policy requiring cities to plan for significant housing near future transit stations before MTC funds such projects.
• ABAG is following up with a Corridor Program to implement the Network of Neighborhoods vision.
• For more about future results of this process, contact us!

BART Policies on System Expansion, Station Area Planning, and Transit-Oriented Development

To insure the best use of the large public investment in BART, TALC and partners throughout the region have consistently encouraged BART to promote high-quality compact development near its stations and to require that any expansions of the system are matched by supportive land uses. Over the past couple of years, BART has adopted new policies and programs to address these issues, including:

• System Expansion Policy: BART will only expand its system in areas where local land use will provide enough riders to justify the public investment. You can download BART's System Expansion Policy, which also describes the process BART goes through to consider expansions, from BART's website.
• Station Area Planning: Click here for a description of BART's policies and programs, descriptions of the status of planning at every BART station, and who to contact in BART's active Station Area Planning division. This page also has links to BART's TOD policy, which states that BART will adjust the amount of replacement parking required on a case-by-case basis, rather than requiring 1:1 replacement of all parking.

Contra Costa County’s Growth Management Program/Urban Limit Line

In November 2004, Contra Costa County voters approved Measure J, a renewal of the county’s transportation sales tax that also ties nearly one-quarter of the sales tax proceeds to a Growth Management Program. TALC coordinated a broad effort to influence the renewal of the measure and ultimately endorsed the final package, in part because the GMP required cities and the county to abide by a voter-approved urban limit line in order to qualify for transportation funds.

For more details, see the following links:

• Our analysis of the final growth management program
• Our endorsement, including a brief description of the GMP and reservations about how it may be implemented.
• Greenbelt Alliance’s ongoing campaign to influence the final location and associated policies for the Urban Limit Line.