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Greenbelt Alliance Successes
Photo: Galen Rowell/Mountain Light
It All Started in 1958…
That was the year a group of concerned Bay Area residents prevented 6,500 acres of watershed lands in Contra Costa County from becoming a massive sprawl development. This first victory led to the formation of People for Open Space, which later became Greenbelt Alliance. Since 1958, we have achieved many notable successes in protecting open space and promoting livable communities.
Protecting Open Spaces
Greenbelt Alliance has helped protect more than 1.1 million acres of Bay Area open space by working with local communities and partner organizations to ensure threatened places are purchased for parkland or designated off limits to development. Among the noteworthy places we led the effort to protect are Cowell Ranch in Contra Costa County (2002), Bear Creek Redwoods in Santa Clara County (2000), Pleasanton Ridge in Alameda County (1993), and Fort Funston in San Francisco (1961).
One highly effective way to protect open space is to create urban growth boundaries (UGBs) that allow for future growth within clearly defined city limits while preserving the surrounding greenbelt. Since 1995, Greenbelt Alliance has helped establish UGBs around 25 Bay Area cities and five counties.
Creating Vibrant Places
Since 1990, Greenbelt Alliance has endorsed neighborhood plans to create more than 60,000 homes within existing city limits, thereby relieving pressure to build in the greenbelt. We have also worked with cities throughout the Bay Area to create policies that promote retail, office, and housing development in downtown areas and near public transit.
Greenbelt Alliance has also produced many influential reports that have helped shape the debate over growth and development in the Bay Area. In 2007, Greenbelt Alliance's Bay Area Smart Growth Scorecard (2006) won an award from the California chapter of the American Planning Association. In 2004 we received a national Honor Award from the American Institute of Architects for Getting it Right (2003), our vision for preventing sprawl and creating a vibrant community in San Jose’s Coyote Valley. Our other award-winning studies include Smart Infill (2002), Room Enough (1983), Endangered Harvest (1980), and The Case for Open Space (1968).
Become a member or call us at (415) 543-6771.
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