Affordable housing around transit: clarifications

In "Building affordable housing around transit", we urged the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) to adopt a set of policies (crafted by the Transportation and Land Use Coalition - TALC) to promote housing, and bicycle and pedestrian routes, in areas around all new transit stations.

A concern has been raised why these policies speak only about housing but not about mixed-use development. Don't the Sierra Club and TALC support mixed-use development?

Indeed both organizations are strong supporters of mixed-use development in transit villages. If housing and businesses are close together, then people can walk rather than drive for a large portion of their errands.

The policy recommendations listed in the article were intended as realistic improvements for MTC to incorporate into its draft policy for planning transit zones. In particular, it is important to convey to MTC the need to set a housing threshold separate from a jobs threshold.

For TALC's much more extensive vision for transit villages, see its report It Takes A Transit Village.

Since the article appeared, TALC has updated the language of its Livable Communities platform. It is now calling on MTC not to fund transit-expansion projects until cities:

• plan for compact development so that at least half the new housing built in the Bay Area is located in station areas;
• plan for a minimum threshold of housing units within station areas, separate from a jobs threshold;
• promote affordable housing in station areas;
• prohibit big-box developments in station areas;
• create plans to minimize space dedicated to parking in station areas;
• develop bicycle and pedestrian plans for safe routes to and within station areas.

Specific projects

The article also included the following paragraph.

"Projects included in the policy would include:

• Sonoma/Marin commuter rail;
• improved bus service in Oakland and Berkeley;
• Muni Third Street light rail;
• rail extensions in Eastern Contra Costa County, between Fremont and the South Bay, and elsewhere.

Think how much more effective each of these projects will be if it can be tied in with transit-oriented land use."

This paragraph is not intended to suggest that the Sierra Club supports each of the listed projects. All these projects, however, have been incorporated into MTC's long-range plans. MTC should not allocate funding to any of these projects until they are brought into accord with the new planning policies proposed by TALC and the Sierra Club.

In particular, the Sierra Club Marin and Sonoma Groups are currently considering Sonoma/Marin commuter rail, and have made no decision on supporting or opposing such a project. For more information on this proposal, contact Gordon Bennett at (415) 663-1881.