DATE: May 6, 2025
TO: Mayor and City Council
FROM: Director of Public Works
SUBJECT: Adopt a Resolution Committing the City to Take Steps Towards Achieving Compliance with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission's Transit- Oriented Communities Policy
RECOMMENDATION
That the City Council adopts a resolution (Attachments II) accepting a grant award from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) in the amount of $600,000 and committing the City of Hayward (City) to take steps towards compliance with the MTC’s Transit-Oriented Communities (TOC) Policy, which will allow the City to receive grants for parking management and station access grants.
SUMMARY
MTC, the metropolitan planning organization for the Bay Area, adopted the TOC Policy as part of a broader strategy to reduce vehicle miles traveled. The TOC Policy seeks to concentrate development around transit station areas, which have trips that are often shorter in length and more easily served by transit, bicycling, and walking.
To help local jurisdictions implement the TOC Policy, MTC released a call for technical assistance in October 2024. The City requested technical assistance for parking management and station access and circulation planning, and was awarded $600,000 in funding for these two studies.
To receive this technical assistance, MTC requires local jurisdictions to adopt resolutions committing to make progress towards compliance with the TOC Policy. The studies will help the City make progress by identifying appropriate parking management strategies around the City’s two BART stations and identifying multimodal access and circulation improvements around the Hayward BART station. The station access and circulation study will support and overlap BART’s ongoing transit-oriented development planning for the Hayward BART station.
BACKGROUND
To support implementation of Plan Bay Area 2050, the regional transportation plan and sustainable communities strategy for the 9-county Bay Area, MTC adopted Resolution 4530 (TOC policy).1 The TOC policy supports two strategies from Plan Bay Area 2050:
Strategy H3: Allow a greater mix of housing densities and types in Growth Geographies
Strategy EC4: Allow greater commercial densities in Growth Geographies
The TOC policy has four goals to support car free and car light households:
1. Increase the overall housing supply in part by increasing the density for new residential projects. Prioritize affordable housing in transit-rich areas.
2. In areas near regional transit hubs, increase density for businesses and commercial development.
3. Prioritize bus transit, active transportation and shared mobility (such as bike share and car share) within and to/from transit-rich areas, particularly to Equity Priority Communities located more than one half-mile from transit stops or stations.
4. Support and build partnerships to create equitable transit-oriented communities within the San Francisco Bay Area.
The policy defines TOC areas within a half mile of major transit hubs. In Hayward, that includes the Hayward and South Hayward BART stations and the Capitol Corridor station in Hayward. The TOC Policy is differentiated by the level of service at the station with more significant requirements in denser, urban areas and reduced requirements in areas with less service. Hayward two BART stations are Tier 2 stations; areas like Downtown San Francisco and Oakland that have many overlapping transit lines are Tier 1. Hayward’s Capitol Corridor Station is Tier 3; MTC staff are aware of the future plans to relocate service to the Coast line.
DISCUSSION
In October 2024, MTC released a call for technical assistance to support cities working to make progress towards the TOC policy, with support for both planning and implementation activities across several areas, including parking management, station access and circulation, housing policy, and development density. The TOC policy is meant to guide both policy actions and multimodal access improvements that enable greater housing and office development density around transit stations and enhanced access to those locations by foot, bicycle, and transit.
The City requested $600,000 for technical assistance related to parking management at both BART stations and for station access and circulation planning around the Hayward BART station, with half of the funding going to each study. The parking management grant
1 https://mtc.ca.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2023-11/MTC_Resolution_4530.pdf
would help the City update parking policies and identify strategies to efficiently manage the demand for parking. The station access and circulation grant would identify opportunities to enhance transit, biking, and walking connectivity within a half mile of the Hayward BART station. The grant would also support ongoing efforts by BART to pursue transit- oriented development at the Hayward BART station. Because Capitol Corridor has plans to stop serving Hayward, no technical assistance was requested around that station.
In January, the City was notified that both proposed technical assistance grants were recommended for funding. For both grants, MTC will directly contract with consultants to deliver the proposed services, with City staff overseeing and reviewing the work. No funding will be provided directly to the City, reducing the administrative burden of completing this work.
To move forward with these technical assistance studies, the City is required to adopt a resolution that commits the City towards making progress towards achieving compliance towards the TOC Policy (Attachment II). The TOC Policy is complex, with items related to housing policy, residential and commercial density, parking ratios, and other considerations. Few station areas across the entire Bay Area are currently in compliance with the policy and achieving full compliance is not expected. MTC staff have indicated an interest in seeing cities move towards compliance. The grants pursued by the City will help identify strategies and investments that can help the City make progress towards TOC compliance. These grants will also help the City advance multimodal transportation and parking management projects that will become eligible for future regional funding of these projects.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
Facilitating safe, multi-modal access within the Hayward BART station area can help reduce the demand for vehicle travel, contributing to more vibrant Downtown. More efficiently managing parking can help reduce the cost of development by reducing the amount of parking required.
FISCAL IMPACT
This item will not impact the General Fund. MTC will directly contract with consulting firms to complete these two studies and no funding will be provided to the City by MTC or to MTC by the City for these projects. If there are additional costs to implement policy or infrastructure recommendations from these projects, staff would return to City Council as part of the annual budget process.
STRATEGIC ROADMAP
This agenda item supports the Strategic Priorities of Invest in Infrastructure: Invest in Multimodal Transportation and Preserve, Protect & Produce Housing for All: Incentivize Housing Production for All. Specifically, this item relates to the implementation of the following project:
Project H11: Work with BART to encourage Transit Oriented Development at the two Hayward stations
SUSTAINABILITY FEATURES
These technical assistance projects will identify multimodal improvements and parking management strategies that will reduce vehicle miles traveled and increase transit, biking, and walking in the vicinity of Hayward’s two BART stations.
PUBLIC CONTACT
Public engagement will be conducted as part of both of these studies.
NEXT STEPS
If City Council approves execution of the attached resolution (Attachment II), MTC will hire consultants to conduct these two studies. MTC expects to have consultants ready to perform work starting in August, with the studies taking approximately 18 months to complete.
Prepared by: Hugh Louch, Deputy Director of Public Works – Transportation
Recommended by: Alex Ameri, Director of Public Works
Approved by:
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Dr. Ana M. Alvarez, City Manager