Bay Area cities chase billions for transit sites

More Bay Area cities are looking to position potential development sites near transit to compete for billions of funding and attract developers.

In the last three years, more than 60 cities in the nine-county region have applied to have a transportation node in their city designated as a “priority development area.” That status makes it easier for cities secure funding for future transit-oriented residential projects.

The Association of Bay Area Governments and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission are the lead agencies that operate the development area program and have granted the status to 100 sites so far.

The number continues to climb. Oakland is in the process of adding six priority development areas, mostly around BART stations. Fremont is pursuing the status for the land around the Warm Springs BART station, which started construction last fall.

“It’s a robust program that is providing a foundation for sustainable communities,” said Miriam Chion, principal planner for ABAG.

The program was created out of an initiative called FOCUS, that is a partnership between ABAG, MTC, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District and the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission with a goal of encouraging more efficient and environmentally-friendly development.

Funding is available from numerous sources including the MTC, which has set aside $2.2 billion through 2035 for infrastructure work, improving transit access and land-banking for in-fill development in the Bay Area. The commission is accepting proposals for the first $40 million allocation of that program.

Cities can also apply grants from a pool of more than $10 million MTC has also set aside to pay for site planning and development costs. That program has already awarded 25 of those grants totalling $13.1 million.

Avalon Bay, a major builder of market-rate apartments, has built a few projects in priority development areas, including one completed last year in Union City and another in Dublin. Both are near BART stations.

“There are a tremendous number of obstacles to developing anything in the Bay Area,” said Jeff White, senior development director for Avalon Bay. “To the extent you can lower the barriers to entry, it will make whatever kind of development you are trying to do occur.”

Avalon Bay is building 422 units at Contra Costa Centre in Walnut Creek, a priority development area, where most of the site planning, including $59.5 million of infrastructure work, was already in place creating a “plug and play” situation for the developer.

“Without that investment, our project would not be financially feasible,” White said.

Thompson Dorfman Partners, a Mill Valley-based development firm, has completed more than a dozen projects near transit in the last 10 years including 555 YVR, an 87-unit project near the Walnut Creek BART station that came online last summer. The firm plans to pursue more transit-oriented projects in priority development areas.

Bruce Dorfman, a principal with the firm, said cities and potential residents have become more accepting of higher density residential projects.

“At first, living near transit was considered a nuisance,” Dorfman said. “Now, people say, ‘Isn’t it wonderful?’ Living in an urban core, you can walk out to the stores and the restaurants. Years ago, we got a push back on that.”

Besides lifestyle, putting more people closer to transit and job centers is also a necessity. ABAG estimates that the priority development areas take up about 3 percent of the total land available for development in the Bay Area. That percentage could increase if more sites are added.

Chion, the ABAG planner, said that small fraction of land could accommodate that more than half of the region’s projected population growth by 2035.

Priorities
Bay Area priority development areas:
Contra Costa: 28.
Alameda: 27.
San Mateo: 15.
Santa Clara: 11.
San Francisco: 10.
Solano: 9.
Sonoma: 9.
Marin: 3.
Napa: None.
Total: 112
Source: Association of Bay Area Governments.