Santa Clara County residents who wondered why a general plan update matters, or how a future high-speed rail line will impact their town had their questions answered at Greenbelt Alliance’s Changemaker Training. On December 10, a group gathered at the Gilroy Police Department to learn how to speak up for what’s important to them, to understand how decisions are made in their local government and to help their local government wrestle with these questions and more.

Attendees came out of the training with communication techniques, tools for engagement in the planning framework, a better understanding of how various agencies work both together and independently, and empowerment to effectively participate in city and county projects.

A variety of speakers led the conversation at the Changemaker Training. If you missed the day, click on the links below:

On December 9, your favorite regional agencies and mine – the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and the Association of Bay Area Governments – released the long-anticipated answer to the question: how do the five different scenarios for Plan Bay Area* measure up to the 10 goals and targets we’ve set for ourselves as a region?

Simple math (five scenarios times 10 targets) gave us a clue that the answer would consist of a tidal wave of data (targets analysis, equity analysis, and powerpoint). You’re welcome to surf the wave yourself if you like, but just in case it’s a bit much, here’s a quick summary:

The good

• The scenarios that go furthest toward putting homes near job centers and the Bay Area’s main transit network (BART, Caltrain, etc.) generally do the best on most measures – reducing greenhouse gases, deaths from air pollution, injuries and fatalities from collisions, and overall driving, while STILL increasing walking, biking and transit use and protecting natural and agricultural lands.  No surprise there – smart growth does the job.
• All the scenarios meet our 2020 greenhouse gas reduction target.

The bad

• While all scenarios show over 90% of new development in the existing urban footprint, close to 10% of development on greenfields is still disappointing.  We can do better.  The fact that Scenario 1 has 280,000 more homes than scenario 5 yet shows only 2% of development on greenfields (as opposed to 10% in scenario 5) proves it’s possible.  What we need is political will to make it happen.
•  No scenario meets the 2035 greenhouse gas reduction targets, even with good land-use plans and a strong emphasis on transit.  It’s essential that the region start looking to other creative strategies, like Transportation Demand Management measures and equitable pricing policies, to get where we need to go for the climate.

The really bad

• In all scenarios, combined housing and transportation costs for low-income households take up over 75% of household income(!).  In four scenarios, it’s over 80%.  As a region, we need to get serious about addressing our housing affordability challenges. How would these results change if, for instance, the region passed a tax measure to fund affordable housing?What about if MTC quadrupled its investment in the Transit-Oriented Affordable Housing fund?  We need to first study what it will take to improve the situation, and then make sure we actually implement those solutions.

The really interesting

• For most of the targets, there’s actually not a huge difference in the results among the scenarios – just a few percentage points.  The one difference that really jumps out is with the “economic vitality” target.  Gross Regional Product increases by over 130% in scenarios 1 and 2.  But that result drops by almost 20 percentage points in scenarios 3, 4 and 5. Why the difference? Scenarios 1 and 2 actually plan to meet the region’s full projected housing need, while scenarios 3, 4 and 5 basically say, “oh, we’ll never be able to build that many homes; let’s just fall short of the goal.”  The results mirror what we hear from the business community – CEOs of Bay Area companies have listed “the high cost of housing for employees” as the number one barrier to doing business here for the last seven years running. While the foreclosure crisis has decreased home values in certain areas, the most desirable neighborhoods in the region are still incredibly costly to live in.  If we don’t meet our housing need, housing costs will continue to rise over the long term, and companies will start to look elsewhere to do business.  These results show that reducing housing costs by increasing supply is an essential economic development strategy. It’s just simple supply and demand.

Now what?

Over the next several months, the regional agencies will be gathering feedback on the five scenarios with the goal of creating one “preferred scenario” for Plan Bay Area.  The first step is a series of public workshops in January.  The agencies hope to have a draft plan by March, with final adoption in May.  Now is the time to make your voice heard on the future of growth and transportation for the region.

 ~ Stephanie Reyes, Policy Director
Greenbelt Alliance

* Plan Bay Area is the region’s plan for the next generation of growth and transportation. It’s a 25-year plan that will direct $200 billion of Federal, State, and Local funds to cities, transit, and roads around the Bay Area.

Our December volunteer of the month is outings leader Sarah Cramer.  Sarah is an education specialist at the Oakland Zoo.  For the past several years, Sarah has treated Greenbelt Alliance Members to a special tour of the Oakland Zoo, one of our most popular outings. Sarah is a great spokesman for the educational work of the Oakland Zoo as well for the work of Greenbelt Alliance.

Sarah has traveled widely throughout the world on various zoological projects and has gained an appreciation of the goals of Greenbelt Alliance to foster a vibrant urban area surrounded by open spaces in the Bay Area.

Watch for Sarah’s annual outing on the Greenbelt Alliance online calendar. In the meantime, you can catch Sarah on television in a monthly wildlife feature: http://www.youtube.com/user/oaklandzoo08

Thank you, Sarah!

More is less when it comes to the environment, and a report from Mountain View confirms it.

The draft Environmental Impact Report for the City’s General Plan, one of three important planning documents released on November 30, finds that planning for more homes in Mountain View is the “environmentally superior alternative.” LSA Associates, who completed the draft report for the City, explains that the decrease in environmental impacts is due to the reduction of per capita vehicle miles traveled (VMT). Simply put, this means people will drive less if there are more homes in Mountain View.

In a draft environmental impact report for a General Plan, cities typically look at multiple scenarios to compare relative impacts of land-use decisions. Usually, a city will examine a “Preferred Alternative” and an alternative with less development. In the case of Mountain View, in addition to the “Preferred Alternative,” which is the proposed draft General Plan, as well as a few alternatives with fewer homes, the City studied an “Increased Housing Alternative” which evaluated the impacts of nearly double the amount of additional homes called for in the “Preferred Alternative.”

Greenbelt Alliance is thrilled that Mountain View staff found that adding more homes would create real village centers that encourage people to drive less to jobs or stores. We hope that merely investigating an “Increased Housing Alternative,” to speak in planner-ese, will become standard operating procedure for Bay Area cities.

More jobs than homes

Mountain View has several big employers including Google and other technology giants. However, there are more jobs than homes, so many of the employees have to commute from outside of the city.

Read more »

Andrea Mackenzie, General Manager for the Santa Clara Open Space Authority, has a long history in the preservation of open space. For the past 25 years, she has been working on regional land-use planning, open space protection and conservation policy challenges in California. Mackenzie, who will be speaking at Greenbelt Alliance’s Changemaker Training in Gilroy on Saturday, Dec. 10, recently spoke with Greenbelt Alliance.

GA: Why did you choose this line of work?
AM: I grew up watching “Wild Kingdom” and National Geographic shows and always knew I wanted to work to preserve the environment in some way. I spent a lot of time in my youth backpacking and being a camp counselor in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.  I became an environmental studies major in college and have been in the land-use planning and conservation field ever since. I am fortunate that my passion became my profession.

GA: What is a typical day for you?
AM: Unfortunately, a typical day means being inside a lot. Most days I’m checking in with my staff who manages the lands and administrative offices, participating in meetings with other agencies and land conservation partners, preparing reports on land acquisition policies and funding, attending to matters for the Board of Directors, following up on properties that we may be interested in protecting, and sometimes talking to the press. If I’m lucky I get to be on the land to evaluate new opportunities to protect natural resources.

GA: What is the most rewarding part of your job?
AM: Launching new ideas and new directions.  I’m excited about growing our stewardship responsibilities for land and natural resources across the county. And I’m excited about new citizen science programs that use smart phone technology to engage the community in protecting nature.

GA: What outdoor activities do you enjoy?
AM: I love hiking and biking in both the Open Space Authority’s lands and Santa Clara County parks. Although Santa Clara has the third largest city in California, people often don’t realize the amazing amount of open space and farmland that still exist outside our cities. I love exploring those areas.

GA: What would you tell a resident about getting involved with open space issues?
AM: Residents often love where they live because the landscape provides a strong sense of place—it’s where they grew up or reminds them of their birthplace. And it that sense of community that needs to be part of the decision-making process about where we build and where we don’t.

GA: What do you love about the Bay Area?
AM: There are so many things I love about the Bay Area! It has great parks, open spaces and trails. The farms and ranches that still border our cities have an amazing variety of fruits and vegetables we see in our farmers markets. There is such a cultural diversity of people in our community, and I just love the combination of all those things.

– Erin McDaniel

In these challenging times, it’s going to take commitment and creative solutions to build the Bay Area we all want—with homes and jobs in cities and the greenbelt reserved for enjoyment, wildlife, and growing food. But who ensures our leaders make decisions that benefit you and make the Bay Area amazing?

Greenbelt Alliance does.

We have the experience and the persistence to make a difference. Your special year-end gift will ensure that Greenbelt Alliance is able to safeguard the Bay Area’s iconic landscapes and help our cities and towns thrive—no matter how long it takes.

PROTECTING FARMLAND
Decisions made about development in the Bay Area must be done with an eye toward how they affect our ability to produce food locally. Agricultural land must be conserved so that food does not have to travel hundreds, even thousands, of miles from farm to plate.

Five years ago, Greenbelt Alliance sprang into action when the City of Oakley approved a sprawling development of tract homes on a 2,500-acre island in the San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta. The project will pave over valuable farmland, so Greenbelt Alliance took legal action against the city—and won. In a groundbreaking 2009 ruling, the court required a plan to address the loss of farmland before the development could move forward. For the next two years, Greenbelt Alliance and our lawyers negotiated with the city and the landowners to develop a program that would truly protect farmland in eastern Contra Costa County.

On June 27, 2011, a final agreement was reached that sends a clear message: If farmland is to be lost to development, similar lands must be permanently protected to preserve Bay Area agriculture. Under the agreement, the City of Oakley will collect fees from the developers to fund conservation easements that protect agricultural lands. It took five years, but Greenbelt Alliance persevered until a good solution was found.

CREATING A MODEL CITY
To imagine a great city, you have to take time to listen to people from the community and build consensus. That’s exactly what Greenbelt Alliance did over four years in San Jose.

In 2007, San Jose leaders appointed Greenbelt Alliance to the Envision 2040 Task Force. The Task Force was charged with guiding the creation of San Jose’s new General Plan, the city’s blueprint for future growth. Greenbelt Alliance led a diverse group including environmentalists, community activists, business leaders, and others to forge common ground. In San Jose’s effort to craft the plan, this coalition emerged as an influential voice advocating for what’s good for the environment, healthy lifestyles, and the economy.

On Nov. 1, 2011, San Jose’s City Council adopted a bold General Plan reflecting many of our coalition’s views. The plan puts the city on the path to become a model of smart growth.

It took four years, but Greenbelt Alliance built consensus for a plan that envisions vibrant neighborhoods, plentiful options for walking and biking, and the protection of the amazing hills that surround San Jose.

PROMOTING INVESTMENT
As we all know, times are tight right now. But creating a better future for the Bay Area will require investment—investment in our landscapes and our neighborhoods. That’s why Greenbelt Alliance is working hard to make sure the money the Bay Area has is spent wisely.

Greenbelt Alliance is strongly supporting OneBayArea, a proposed grant program managed by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. If adopted, OneBayArea would provide essential funding for everything from improving transportation options to conserving wildlife habitats.

Cities will be rewarded for planning and building in an environmentally sustainable and socially equitable way. And in a first-of-its-kind program, grants will go to fund the protection of agricultural and natural lands.

Over $200 million in federal funds is at stake under OneBayArea. Greenbelt Alliance is asking the Metropolitan Transportation Commission to spend that money in ways that benefit the environment, the quality of our communities, and the region’s long-term economic health.

Greenbelt Alliance will persevere to ensure our region uses OneBayArea to make cities more livable and to protect open space.

LEADING THE WAY
Like you, Greenbelt Alliance believes that the Bay Area can be better for everyone and we won’t stop working until our stunning landscapes are permanently protected and our cities are inviting places to live. You can count on our leadership and perseverance to fight for what’s great about the Bay Area.

Your special year-end gift to Greenbelt Alliance is an investment in your community, the region, and the greenbelt. Please donate now. Thank you for your support.

P.S. We are living in an era that requires creative solutions and perseverance. Greenbelt Alliance won’t let you down—your gift today will help us create the Bay Area we all want. 

Back in July, Greenbelt Alliance celebrated the proposal by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) for a new grant program to reward sustainable growth. We were glad to see MTC supporting cities that are doing the most to plan for sustainable and equitable development near transit and helping rural areas to protect natural resource areas and working farms. But we’re watching to make sure MTC does the right thing.

Opposition from all sides

Since then, MTC has gotten quite an earful. Several county Congestion Management Agencies suggested that half of the block grant – the Local Streets and Roads rehabilitation portion – should be spent without regard to a city’s commitment to sustainable, equitable development. Some agencies in the northern counties disagreed with the land conservation grant pilot program too: they wanted to spend the grant money on local road maintenance instead.

Opposition vanquished! (We think…)

Fortunately, MTC saw through these outrageous proposals and – at least for the moment – is holding true to the intention of the grant programs. MTC is holding the line on using the $5 million land conservation pilot for true conservation projects and is keeping the OneBayArea grant program consistent by treating all portions of the block grant – including the Local Streets and Roads rehabilitation funds – with the same strategic focus and performance-based accountability.

Next steps to get it right

Now we need to get the details right – specifically, making sure the program rewards development of homes for low-income families, and that the numbers work out so the places taking on the lion’s share of the growth in the right way get the lion’s share of dollars. Some clever ideas to achieve these goals are in the mix, but their fate is still uncertain.

In the current proposal, funding is distributed to counties based partly on how much total housing all the cities in the county have built. It’s great that MTC is rewarding those places that actually do their part to build new homes. But there are several problems with the details of this approach:

• Problem #1: the formula doesn’t take into account the production of affordable homes, even though that’s where we see the greatest need. Solution: the distribution formula should include a component rewarding cities that build affordable homes.
• Problem #2: counting the total number of homes built anywhere in the county runs the risk of rewarding places that sprawl. Solution: count only homes built near transit (specifically, in Priority Development Areas).
• Problem #3: distributing funding to counties and letting them decide where to spend it means there’s no guarantee that the places that have done the best job of sustainable, equitable development in the past – or in the future – will get the funds they need. Solution: Include safeguards to make sure those places (specifically, those Priority Development Areas) that are doing the most get the most money.

When it comes to the land conservation program, the most important thing MTC can do is establish a clear conservation goal and put in place a competitive grant process where applicants must show how their project supports that goal.

MTC staff is revising the OneBayArea grant proposal now and will have a next draft by the end of December for discussion at an MTC Committee meeting in early January. Stay tuned to hear which of our recommendations get into version two!

Read Greenbelt Alliance’s comment letter on the OneBayArea grants (PDF)

What would it take to keep the Bay Area’s farms prosperous?

A protected greenbelt? A regional economic development strategy? Affordable loans for farmers? A group of 35 Bay Area leaders met on November 9 at the San Francisco Foundation to wrestle with these questions and more in the hopes of finding a system which will keep our food local and our greenbelt intact.

Two guests, Shelley Petrie of the Friends of Greenbelt Foundation in Ontario, Canada, and Todd Erling of the Hudson Valley AgriBusiness Development Corporation led the conversation based on the models their organizations have adopted in Toronto and Hudson Valley, respectively. (To read more about the specific model each organization uses to support local farming, check out the embedded PowerPoints below.)

Attendees were inspired by the success of these two organizations and agreed that the Bay Area is ripe for implementing an economic development strategy that combines our love of local food, a passion for open spaces, and our entrepreneurial spirit.

and

Download the notes from the event (PDF).

This November, we’re honoring Live Local outreach volunteer Wade Wietgrefe. From May through September, Wade spent each Thursday evening tabling at the downtown San Rafael Farmers’ Market, explaining the need to build more homes affordable to local employees, aging seniors, and persons with disabilities.

Wade’s passion for creating more healthy and livable neighborhoods with thoughtful community planning was clear from day one. He was instrumental in recruiting his like-minded co-workers to join him as volunteers for Live Local. Without Wade’s help, Live Local would not have been able to reach so many new constituents and triple our list of supporters in a matter of months.

Wade is also committed to living his values. He lives within walking distance of downtown San Rafael’s amenities and nightlife, and shares a car with his wife — no small feat in county with limited public transit. He recently took a new job as an environmental planner with the City of San Francisco, where we wish him a long and successful career creating vibrant places in the Bay Area’s iconic city.

Wade graduated from the University of Arizona with a graduate degree in planning in 2008. He then moved to the Bay Area with his wife to begin a career in environmental planning.

Thank you, Wade, for all your great work this summer!

***

Live Local is an initiative of Greenbelt Alliance and the Nonprofit Housing Association.

Despite struggling with budget deficits and a disappearing redevelopment agency, San Jose’s leaders are taking the long view; on Nov. 1, they approved an ambitious and bold General Plan.  Envision 2040 lays the foundation for San Jose to become a great, green city of the 21^st century.

The plan includes important conservation safeguards: the Coyote Valley and South Almaden Valley urban reserves are off limits to development through 2040 and are recognized as wildlife corridors. Strong language aims to make San Jose more walkable and bikeable for all ages. And urban villages are proposed throughout the city that will make better use of existing infrastructure, provide built-in customers for local merchants, and lead to the kind of communities that attract Millenials and Boomers alike.

“This is really the end of one chapter and the beginning of another,” says Senior Field Representative Michele Beasley. “Now we’re going to ensure that what gets built reflects the spirit and intent of Envision 2040.” Residents, advocates and all who have followed this process for the past four years must come together to support San Jose in achieving this vision — transforming policies into thriving, attractive and healthy neighborhoods for all.