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Campaigns and Action Alerts

Climate Change and Land Use
AB 32 and SB 375

Given the increasing threat of global warming and climate change, the need to implement smart land use policies at the regional and state levels should be a recognized solution in combating negative climate change effects. Regional and state land use planning that focuses growth; creates more tight-knit, walkable communities; and includes development near transit stations and in downtowns leads to fewer car trips, which significantly reduces climate change pollution. Greenbelt Alliance is part of a statewide coalition called ClimatePlan, which finds effective land use solutions to climate change. Visit the ClimatePlan website to find out more.

In 2006, the California legislature passed AB 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act, which requires California to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2020. In December, the California Air Resources Board adopted its Scoping Plan for meeting our AB32 goals. The Scoping Plan includes regional land-use and transportation planning as a key strategy for curbing climate change.

In September, Governor Schwarzenegger signed SB 375, which identifies clear strategies to reduce emissions through housing and transportation planning decisions and funding mechanisms. Greenbelt Alliance is working regionally and locally to make sure that implementation of SB 375 here in the Bay Area makes our cities and towns better places to live and protects the greenbelt.

Funding for Livable Communities

Greenbelt Alliance is working closely with the Association of Bay Area Governments on a project called Focusing our Vision. As part of this effort, local governments and agencies have identified "Priority Development Areas" where well-planned development should occur. Good plans that will help the region accommodate growth sustainably should be rewarded with dollars to make those plans a reality.

That's where the Regional Transportation Plan comes in. This is the $100+ billion blueprint for how transportation funding will be spent in the Bay Area over the next 25 years. It is critically important that it steer precious transportation funds to areas with plans that protect open space, create walkable neighborhoods, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Greenbelt Alliance is working to make sure cities and counties that are planning for sustainable growth get the dollars they need.

Transportation for America

Greenbelt Alliance has joined with the Transportation for America campaign. Together, we are focused on bringing our economy into the 21st century with modern infrastructure, healthy communities, and a stronger national transportation program.

Congress and the new administration are debating a recovery plan to bolster our nation’s economy. Greenbelt Alliance and our allies believe a green recovery is possible through investment in modern rail and rapid bus lines; high-speed rail; and good land use, with streets that foster walking and biking. Our infrastructure investments should help to achieve the goals of reducing carbon emissions and oil dependence and supporting job creation. To learn more, visit www.t4america.org.

Creating Great Communities

Today, Bay Area residents have an opportunity to fundamentally shift the way the region grows. We can keep new development off open space and reinvest in existing city centers. We can build great communities with a variety of homes all residents can afford, close to parks, transportation, shopping and other necessities.

Greenbelt Alliance and several other Bay Area nonprofit organizations have together created the Great Communities Collaborative to make this a reality.

The Great Communities Collaborative recently released a report called Transit-Oriented for All: The Case for Mixed-Income Transit-Oriented Communities in the Bay Area. The report assesses the Bay Area’s potential for creating communities around transit stations that include homes for people with a diverse array of incomes, and outlines implementation tools.  Transit-Oriented for All was produced under the auspices of the Great Communities Collaborative, of which Greenbelt Alliance is a member, and was researched and written by Reconnecting America, UC Berkeley’s Center for Community Innovation, and the Nonprofit Housing Association of Northern California.

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