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GCC Toolkit

A free resource to help better advocate for sound transit station development. View the Table of Contents here.

Tools

In conjunction with our local planning efforts, we also provide tools for creating walkable communities.

Becoming a Better Advocate

  • Great Communities Toolkit:  This toolkit is a free compendium of resource to help community groups shape transit-oriented development (TOD) opportunities, ensuring affordable homes, local shops, access to job centers and improved community services.
  • Communications Site Assistance: Greenbelt Alliance helps develop a strategic communications plan for each site. They also provide ongoing assistance with media communications, such as interviews, letters to the editor, and articles.
  • Site Outings: Greenbelt Alliance coordinates tours to educate community members and public officials on best practices in building walkable communities near transit. These tours include visits to developments and presentations by developers, city officials, and others on various topics related to TOD.
  • Building Support for Transit for Transit-Oriented Development: Do Community-Engagement Toolkits Work?: The Center for Community Innovation developed this report using Great Communities sites as case studies.
  • Leadership Institute: Urban Habitat assists in trainings for community members on topics ranging from density to community benefits in TOD.
  • Advocating for Senior Rights: Senior Mobility Needs, Planning for Senior Moblity [Chinese] [Spanish]

Advocating for Mixed-Income Communities

  • Transit Oriented Affordable Housing (TOAH) Fund: Great Communities Collaborative (GCC) has partnered with various entities including the Metropolitan Transportation Commission to help establish a fund to support acquisition and assembly of parcels near quality transportation for affordable housing.
  • Mixed-Income Transit-Oriented Development Action Guide: Originally developed by the Center for Transit-Oriented Development (CTOD) for GCC, this action guide is a tool to help community advocates, practioners, intermediaries, and jurisdictions in their efforts to foster mixed-income TOD.
  • Transit-Oriented for All: The Case for Mixed-Income Transit-Oriented Communities in the Bay Area: This report assesses the region’s potential for income-diverse communities around transit stations and outlines implementation tools. The paper is intended to spur dialog, enrich policy debates, and advance the practice of mixed-income transit-oriented development.
  • Mixed Income Housing Site Assistance: The Center for Community Innovation at UC Berkeley and Nonprofit Housing Association of Northern California provide technical assistance on how to ensure city plans include homes affordable to people of all incomes. These tools include housing needs assessments, identification of opportunity sites for affordable housing, and assessment of draft plans.
  • Site-Specific Reports: Collaborative partners are commissioning reports on particularly relevant issues for the site. Some of the reports are:
    • A Housing Needs Assessment for Pittsburg, California. Released in December 2007, this report by the Center for Community Innovation provides a snapshot of the housing situation in Pittsburg, CA. It looks at such issues as number of families facing a housing burden and overcrowding.
    • Creating a Regional Model of Mixed-Income, Transit-Oriented Development in Downtown San Leandro: Opportunities, Challenges, and Tools . This report by Strategic Economics analyzes the impact the San Leandro's Station Area Plan will have on housing choice and resident displacement. 

Health

  • Health Impact Assessment: A Toolkit for Community Based Planning: Developed by Human Impact Partners for the Great Communities Collaborative, this toolkit is designed to help local communities do a health impact assessment in their own neighborhoods. To read more and download the toolkit, please visit.
  • Community Health Site Assistance: Human Impact Partners, Public Health Law Policy, and other health partners provide a range of site assistance to ensure community health is addressed in the cities' plans. These tools include community health surveys, analysis of county health department data, and assessment of draft plans.

More Tools

  • Local Hire Fact Sheet: Merriweather Williams developed this tool to provide facts and strategies to support the development and sustainability of local hiring and other workforce development policies in transit oriented and infrastructure development.
  • Geographic Information Systems: GreenInfo Network provides large-format satellite maps for all the Collaborative sites to help community members visualize the planning area.
  • Traffic/Parking Analysis: TransForm conducts analyses to support site and local leaders' efforts to ensure city plans tailor parking and other requirements appropriately. This analysis uses the air district-approved URBEMIS trip generation model and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission's parking model.
  • TOD Marketplace: From 2005 - 2009, the Urban Land Institute hosted an annual symposium bringing together developers, city officials, and other key stakeholders in TOD to discuss trends and to critique recent city plans. The TOD Marketplace website hosts archived materials about the 23 Bay Area cities that were featured through the years.