REGIONAL PLANNING TOOLS

• Great Communities Toolkit:  This downloadable toolkit helps community groups shape transit-oriented development opportunities, ensuring affordable homes, local shops, access to job centers and improved community services.  February 2008
  
• 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 Human Impact Partner's website. November 2007
  

Transit-Oriented for All: The Case for Mixed-Income Transit-Oriented Communities in the Bay Area: This Great Communities 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. Downloadable copies of the report can be found on UC Berkeley's Center for Community Innovation website. July 2007

• Communicating Transit-Oriented Development: In spring 2007, Resource Media, with Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, & Associates, produced two reports on how to communicate transit-oriented development for the Great Communities Collaborative. These reports describe findings from a materials audit, media audit, polling, and interviews in three case study communities: Antioch, Menlo Park, and Oakland. Contact the Collaborative for a copy of the report at info[at]greatcommunities.org.  May 2007

• Land Banking Strategy: The Bay Area Local Initiatives Support Corporation, with support from Reconnecting America and The San Francisco Foundation, is conducting a study of successful land acquisition and banking strategies in both the Bay Area and nationally. Local experts will convene and create a final recommendations report.
• TOD Clearinghouse Website: In development by Reconnecting America, this will be a searchable online collection of articles covering every aspect of transit oriented development literature, particularly focused on best practices throughout the United States.
  

TOOLS FOR SITE PLANNING

• Traffic Generation Model: The Collaborative is using the URBEMIS model to show how individual Transit-Oriented Developments (TODs) can reduce driving and air pollution, compared to the same size development far from transit and services, and to show how changes in the plan could further reduce traffic and driving.
• Site Outings: Greenbelt Alliance is applying its successful Outings Program to sites in the Collaborative to provide city officials and residents alike inspiration on how they can build a truly great community in their own neighborhood.
• Site Mapping: GreenInfo Network is creating maps for the Collaborative in several sites to help community members visualize the planning area.
• Leadership Development: Urban Habitat is developing a Leadership Institute for community leaders in Collaborative active sites to build their skills to advocate for great communities.
• Health Impact Assessments: Human Impact Partners, with a multi-disciplinary team, is documenting methods for health assessment of land use and transportation goals, and the potential of transit oriented development as a health promotion strategy. They also are identifying strategies to mitigate potential environmental health costs associated with transit oriented development and ways to design new development to promote health.
• Mixed Income Housing Policy Options: A team is providing technical assistance to a few cities on how to integrate mixed-income housing in transit oriented development in the Bay Area. The team includes Center for Community Innovation at UC Berkeley, Nonprofit Housing Association of Northern California, and Reconnecting America.
• Site-Specific Reports: Collaborative partners are commissioning reports in several of our active sites 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, RHNA allocations, and overcrowding. Download the report.
  

• 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, centered in downtown around the future Bus Rapid transit stop and inclusive of the San Leandro BART station, will have on housing choice and resident displacement.  This paper explores how housing choice within the Station Area Plan relates to the City's goals of increasing transit ridership, boosting downtown retail, and creating a vibrant, walkable community. It also presents specific strategies and policies for achieving very low-income housing production and preservation in the context of a downtown housing market with great potential for appreciation. Download the report.

BAY AREA AND NATIONAL RESOURCES

• The Transit Oriented Development (TOD) Resource Guide - a full listing of links to online resources and reports describing national and regional efforts to address TOD issues and opportunities.

• Bay Are and National Resources Directory - lists groups and agencies involved in transit oriented development here in the San Francisco Bay Area as well as other parts of the United States.
• Bay Area Alliance for Sustainable Communities has a short video on creating healthy, affordable communities near transit, entitled "Building Communities We Care About." Watch the video.
• The Urban Land Institute's Bay Area chapter has a free, comprehensive online compilation of Bay Area maps and land use information. The website lists map information by county and by topic. Check it out at www.urbanmap.org.