Planning For Better Health
Greenbelt Alliance and the Health Trust of Silicon Valley partnered to produce six fact sheets on health issues that can be addressed by better land-use planning. The fact sheets specifically use examples from San Jose and Santa Clara County, but the policy recommendations have broader applications.
Greenbelt Alliance also worked with UCSF to highlight the neighborhood effect on health. Read how smart land-use planning can foster healthy aging, diminish childhood obesity, decrease pedestrian and cyclist fatalities, reduce neighborhood health disparities, decrease adult obesity and asthma, and boost healthy diets in Planning for Better Health.
 Bay
Area Smart Growth Scorecard
The Smart Growth Scorecard is a landmark assessment of the planning
policies of all 101 cities and nine counties of California's San Francisco Bay Area.
This award-winning report found that the region could be doing much more to
prepare for the growing population. On average, cities score 34%, with only one-third of the needed policies to achieve smart
growth. Counties are doing somewhat better than cities, scoring 51% on average, meaning they are doing half of what they could do
to prepare for the region's growth. (32 pp, June 2006)
To obtain a free download, click
here. To buy the report, click below.
 Toward
a Bright Future: Updating Sonoma County's General Plan
The first comprehensive analysis of the update process since it
began, this report recommends how to update Sonoma County's General
Plan to deal with the county's projected growth of 130,000 people
by 2025. (24 pp, November 2004)
Download
the report (no cover, 1.2 MB pdf. Download
the report cover only (365 KB pdf).
 Getting
It Right? A Report Card on the Coyote Valley Specific Plan Process
The plan to date for development in San Jose's Coyote Valley is
compared with the smart growth goals laid out in our vision, Getting
It Right: Preventing Sprawl in Coyote Valley. So far, many
aspects of the plan are on the wrong track. (16 pp, September 2004)
Download
the report (without the cover) (129 KB pdf). Download the cover (1 MB pdf).
 Preventing
Sprawl: Farmers and Environmentalists Working Together
Greenbelt Alliance and the Sonoma County Farm Bureau led agricultural
and environmental leaders in a collaboration to survey land-use
patterns in the county in an effort to prescribe strategies for
preventing sprawl and protecting agriculture. The report examines
the past, present, and future of land use in Sonoma County. (38
pp, February 2004)
Download the report. (1.8 MB pdf).
 Getting
It Right: Preventing Sprawl in Coyote Valley
Getting It Right was released in response to the City of
San Jose's plan to allow development in Coyote Valley, a 6,800 acre
area of open space and agricultural land on the city's southeastern
edge.
This attractive report provides a template for smart growth not
only in Coyote Valley, but also in other urbanizing areas throughout
the Bay Area and across the nation. (90 pp, June 2003)
To obtain a free
download, click
here. To purchase, click below.
Contra
Costa County: Smart Growth or Sprawl?
This in-depth analysis of Contra Costa's history of land
use and growth includes a systematic evaluation of challenge and
opportunities in East County, Central County, the Tri-Valley area,
and West County, and also outlines the infrastructure and affordable
housing situation in the county. It concludes with strategies for
smart growth at both the city and the county level. (June 2003)
Download
the report (4.33 MB pdf), or purchase below.
 Successful
Citizens' Initiatives: A Guide to Winning Local Land-Use Ballot
Measure Campaigns
Ballot initiatives have been extremely effective tools for preserving
open space and controlling suburban sprawl in the Bay Area, and can be tools for people throughout California and beyond. Greenbelt
Alliance has been involved in land-use ballot measure campaigns
since the 1960s; over the years Greenbelt Alliance has learned many
valuable lessons about the process of developing and winning citizen-based
open space and anti-sprawl campaigns.
This guide is not intended
to be a substitute for professional campaign or legal advice—but
it does lay out clear steps for citizens to take in contemplating,
developing and winning local ballot initiative campaigns. (2002)
Vacaville
at a Crossroads: The path to smart growth or a highway to sprawl?
Learn about Vacaville's choices are as it grows in the next decade.
Read the report and tell decision makers how you think Vacaville
should grow. (November
2002)
Download
the file (1.4 MB).
Urban Growth Boundary Bibliography
Searching for information on using UGBs for land-use planning? Download Greenbelt Alliance's UGB
bibliography. (October 2002)
 Bound
for Success:
A Citizen's Guide to Using Urban Growth Boundaries for More Livable
Communities and Open Space Protection in California
Urban growth boundaries (UGBs) are becoming an increasingly popular
land use planning tool throughout California and beyond. They are designed to offer long-term protection
for open space and encourage smarter growth. This report explores
the many advantages that UGBs offer over traditional land use planning
tools, provides activists with a checklist of issues to consider
as they organize their boundary campaigns, and discusses the various
approaches to establishing a UGB. (April 1997)
Contra Costa County: Land Use or Abuse?
A comprehensive audit of development plans—and the enormous
costs associated with those plans—in one of the Bay Area's most pro-development
counties: Contra Costa. The audit reveals a massive tide of development
threatening Contra Costa's dwindling farmland and other open space,
and offers recommendations for preserving the county's endangered
quality of life. (49 pp, April 1996)
Beyond Sprawl: New
Patterns of Growth to Fit the New California
A critique of post-war sprawl, published in conjunction with the
Bank of America. (January 1995)
Click
here to download the report.
Reviving the Sustainable Metropolis: Guiding
Bay Area Conservation and Development into the 21st Century
A concise report on how to resolve the San Francisco Bay Area's
growing metropolitan problems, including urban sprawl, greenbelt
destruction, and traffic congestion. Offers a short history of the
region, an analysis of current land development trends and their
consequences, a menu of policy solutions, and a fact-based appendix
detailing the experiences of other regions—in the U.S. and
abroad—in shaping metropolitan growth. (32 pp, June 1989)
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