Frequently Asked Questions
Contacting Greenbelt Alliance
How can I help or get involved with Greenbelt Alliance?
What is your address and/or fax number?
How can I contact one of your staff members?
How do I reach a field office?
How can I subscribe or unsubscribe to your newsletter
email list, outings email list, or my regional email list?
Can you please add me to your mailing list or change
my information in your database?
How can I donate to Greenbelt Alliance or the Greenbelt
Alliance Initiative Fund?
Are gifts to Greenbelt Alliance tax-deductible?
Greenbelt Alliance Programs and Information
How do I sign up for an outing?
Where can I find information on Greenbelt Alliance's guidelines
and information for developers (CDT endorsements)?
Where can I find more information about the Go Greenbelt!
bicycle ride?
Where can I find the Transit Outdoors
map?
Where can I find the Family Camping
map?
Where can I find the Bay Area Protected
Lands map?
I am a student with questions about your organization
and/or issues. How can I get answers?
Do you have any publications? How can I get them?
What is your relationship to the Transportation and
Land Use Coalition (TALC) and the Bay Area Open Space Council?
Do you offer support or advice to groups outside
the San Francisco Bay Area?
Can you do something about the tree my next-door
neighbor is planning to cut down?
Does Greenbelt Alliance buy land?
The text on your Web site is too small—I
can't read it.
How do I find information on Kenya's Green
Belt Movement?
Definitions
What is smart growth?
What is sprawl?
What is a UGB (Urban Growth Boundary)?
What is infill development?
What is mixed-use development?
I have
a question not answered here. Who should I contact?
Contacting Greenbelt Alliance
How can I help or get
involved with Greenbelt Alliance?
1) Become a member!
2) Volunteer!
3) Go to the page for your region and act on a campaign!
What is your address and/or
fax number?
You can find our essential contact information and directions to all of
our offices on the Contact Us page.
How can I contact one of your
staff members?
You can find links to email our staff members from the Staff
page.
How do I reach a field
office?
Check our Contact Us page for phone
numbers and email addresses of our field offices. Please keep in mind
that the field staff are often in the field organizing, meeting with planning
officials, and working on campaigns, so they may not be available to return
your call immediately. If you need immediate assistance, please contact
the San Francisco office.
How can I subscribe or
unsubscribe to your newsletter email list, outings email list, or my regional
email list?
Our email listserv subscribe and unsubscribe form can be found in the
Get Involved section.
Can you please add me
to your mailing list or change my address and/or email address?
We would be more than happy to add or change your email address and mailing
address so that you'll receive the most up-to-date information about Greenbelt
Alliance events and campaigns. Please fill out our form
in the Get Involved section.
How can I donate to Greenbelt
Alliance or the Greenbelt Alliance Initiative Fund?
You can donate
online or send your donation to Greenbelt Alliance, 631 Howard Street,
Suite 510, San Francisco, CA 94105.
Are gifts to Greenbelt Alliance
tax-deductible?
To the extent allowed by law, yes. Greenbelt Alliance is a 501(c)(3) organization.
Our tax I.D. # is 94-1676747. You must subtract the fair market value
of any gifts you receive. For pricing please see http://www.greenbelt.org/getinvolved/store.html.
Gifts to our separate Greenbelt Alliance Initiative Fund are not tax-deductible
as these funds support our effective advocacy and lobbying efforts.
Greenbelt Alliance Programs and Information
How do I sign up for an outing?
You only need to sign up for an outing if it requires reservations. Check
the Outings page for more
information.
Where can I find information
on Greenbelt Alliance's guidelines and information for developers (compact
development endorsements)?
Greenbelt Alliance offers resources for developers interested in smart
growth through its Compact Development Program. Detailed information and
guidelines can be found on the Compact Development
Endorsement program page.
Where can I find more information
about the Go Greenbelt! bicycle ride?
Go Greenbelt! is Greenbelt Alliance's seven-day, 480 mile tour of the
Bay Area and is one of the best cycling adventures in California. Check
out the Go Greenbelt! Frequently Asked Questions for information on contributions and ride
logistics.
Where can I
find the Transit Outdoors map?
Where can I find the Family Camping map?
Where can I find the Bay Area Protected Lands map?
These maps are projects of the Bay
Area Open Space Council, a collaborative effort of public agencies
and non-profit organizations who have a role in owning and managing public
open spaces.
Transit Outdoors map: http://openspacecouncil.org/guides/parkinfo
Camping map: http://www.openspacecouncil.org/Camp/
Protected Lands map: http://maps.openspacecouncil.org/cgi-bin/zoom/Land/ba
I am a student with questions
about your organization and/or issues. How can I get answers?
You can find answers to many of your questions in our What
We Do section and in the policy
reports found in our Resources section. If you need to talk to someone,
email us your questions or requests.
Please allow ample time for a response.
Do you have any publications?
How can I get them?
Greenbelt Alliance has reports on cutting-edge smart growth thinking available
for download or purchase. Check out our
Resource Center for more information.
What is your relationship
to the Transportation and Land Use Coalition (TALC) and the Bay Area Open
Space Council? How can I reach these organizations?
Greenbelt Alliance is the fiscal agent for the Bay Area Open Space Council.
We were the fiscal agent for BATLUC (now called TALC) until 2002. Go to
the TALC and
Bay Area Open
Space Council web sites for more information about these groups.
Do you offer support or
advice to groups outside the Bay Area?
Greenbelt Alliance focuses on the San Francisco Bay Area. However, many
of our policy reports and organizing tools may be useful to groups elsewhere.
Please go to our Resource Center to
find the latest resources for smart growth and conservation activists.
Can you do something
about the tree my next-door neighbor is planning to cut down?
Greenbelt Alliance focuses on encouraging good urban development through
public policy. However, you could try contacting the parks or urban forestry
department of your city
government (or just search for the word "trees" on
the city
government site). The California
Releaf Network also has a list
of organizations that work on tree planting, such as San Francisco's
Friends of the Urban Forest.
Does Greenbelt Alliance
buy land?
Greenbelt Alliance is not a land trust; we do not acquire land. For information
on donating land or selling conservation easements, contact your local
land trust from our Links page.
The text on your Web site
is too small—I can't read it.
We are committed to making this site accessible to all visitors using
any browser. However, if you experience any difficulty in viewing any
of the pages, you can control text size. Instructions for users of
Microsoft Internet Explorer for PC: Open your Internet Explorer Web
Browser, Select 'Tools' from the menu at the top of your window. From
the options which appear, select 'Internet options...' Click on the 'General'
tab, then, click on the button marked 'Accessibility.' To change your
font size, select the checkbox marked 'Ignore font sizes specified on
Web pages.' Click 'OK' (and again if necessary) Select 'View' from the
menu at the top of your window. From the options which appear, select
'Text size.' Select your desired text size. IE for Apple Mac: Open
your Internet Explorer Web Browser. Select the "edit" menu at the top
of your window. From the options menu which appears, select "preferences",
then click on "web browser." Select "language/fonts" and select the font
size you require. Instructions for users of Netscape Navigator:
Select 'Edit' from the menu at the top of the window and choose 'Preferences.'
Open the Appearance group and click the 'Fonts' category. Next to 'For
the encoding' should read Western to tell the computer which types of
letters and symbols to use. From 'Size' select 18. Next to the Variable
Width Font field is a drop down box: select 'Arial'. The Fixed Width Font
box should already read 'Courier New'. From 'Size' select 18. To override
the fonts used by the designer of the web page, select 'Use my default
fonts overriding document specified fonts'. Click 'OK.'
How do I find information
on Kenya's Green Belt Movement?
Greenbelt Alliance has no affiliation with Kenya's Green Belt Movement
or its founder, 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai. For more
information on the Green Belt Movement, visit http://greenbeltmovement.org/
Definitions
What is smart growth?
Smart growth strengthens communities, while preserving
open space and working farms and ranches. Smart growth:
- Creates compact cities surrounded by accessible open space.
- Encourages a mix of shops, homes, jobs, and offices in town centers.
- Offers a range of housing and transportation choices.
- Preserves working farms and natural areas.
- Involves local communities in deciding their future.
Smart growth is
about creating better places to live for everyone.
What is sprawl?
Sprawl is low-density development outside cities and towns,
along highways, and in rural countryside. Telltale signs of sprawl include:
- The need for a car to meet basic needs.
- Fragmented open space with wide gaps between development.
- Large paved areas.
Sprawl wastes land and costs more than compact development. It limits
choices in housing and transportation, and it erodes a community's
identity and vitality.
What is a UGB (Urban Growth
Boundary)?
An urban growth boundary is an officially adopted and mapped line that
separates an urban area from its surrounding greenbelt of open lands,
including farms, watersheds and parks. UGBs are set for significant periods
of time—typically 20 years or more—to discourage speculation
at the urban or suburban fringe. For more information, download our fact sheet.
What is infill development?
Infill development means building in existing urban areas. In almost
every city or suburb there are empty lots and underutilized land--like aging strip malls and abandoned parking lots--that would be better used for new homes or mixed-use developments.
Infill is more economical than development at the urban edge because it uses existing infrastructure
rather than requiring more tax dollars for new sewers and roads.
Properly
designed and coordinated with transit investments, infill development
can slow the increase in traffic by offering options besides driving; people living in central
locations can use public transit or walk rather
than use their cars. Infill development can create safer, revitalized, more attractive
neighborhoods with better amenities for everyone. For more information,
download our fact sheet.
What is mixed-use development?
Mixed-use development brings people
closer to the services and stores that they need. Mixed-use buildings
have ground-floor stores below and residential units above. This provides
shop owners with a stable customer base while making shopping more convenient
for residents.
I have a question
not answered here. Who should I contact?
Please email us.
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