East Bay Greenway
Alameda County

Background
Every day residents and visitors throughout Berkeley, Albany, and El Cerrito utilize the open space corridor carved out by the tracks for the Bay Area’s transit system – Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART). This decades old multi-use trail and greenway, known as the Ohlone Greenway, is an indispensable regional asset because it creates a crucial link between job centers, housing, and schools, in addition to a multitude of recreational opportunities for young and old alike.

Meanwhile, the BART elevated structure from 18th Avenue in Oakland that runs southeast for roughly twelve miles to the Hayward BART station is very similar to what exists to the north, yet this corridor offers extremely limited open space, landscaping, pedestrian and bicycling amenities, or connections to neighborhood facilities. A unique window of opportunity for improvements has opened with BART investing over $1.3 billion in seismic upgrades to its system. The vital retrofit project will ensure rider safety, but should also strive to have positive impacts in the communities through which it cuts. Urban Ecology is currently negotiating with BART to include the engineering and construction of the East Bay Greenway within the final stages of the retrofit project. Instead of putting the corridor back to its current underutilized conditionat the end of the retrofit work, BART has agreed to explore the feasibility of dovetailing the East Bay Greenway with the retrofit project. The end result would be a unique transportation facility at a fraction of the cost.

Our Role
Urban Ecology intends to be the catalyst for this project. Without an organization to engage the public, build community support, design improvements to the corridor, and sell the project to BART and local decision-makers, it is likely that a regional solution to community health and safety issues will be missed. Our conceptual plan will offer a community vision for a multi-use path, similar to the Ohlone Greenway, from Oakland to the Hayward BART station. The concept plan will comprehensively and creatively address greenway development issues such as operations and maintenance, safety, right-of-way issues, design guidelines and alternative routes.

The California Endowment, the Haas. Jr. Fund and the California Coastal Conservancy will be providing their generous support to fund this $350,000 planning effort. With additional support and leadership from elected officials and community members Urban Ecology believes that the construction of an East Bay Greenway can be funded through a variety of local, regional, and state sources (Measure AA bond money funding BART’s retrofit project cannot be used on the East Bay Greenway). Urban Ecology has already secured the support of many key stakeholders and we are well positioned to make certain that this project becomes a high priority for BART, local jurisdictions, and community members.

Get Involved
This project is ambitious and challenging. It will take the continued collaboration of BART, cities, local and regional officials, but, most importantly, East Bay communities, to succeed. Urban Ecology is currently in the process of reaching out to East Bay residents. We want your input and will likely be in your neighborhood soon!

If you want more information about the East Bay Greenway or are interested in having Urban Ecology present to your community group, homeowner association, or fellow residents, please contact Don Neuwirth, Executive Director, at (415) 617-0165.