Rendering of an apartment building across the street from a transit stop with people riding bikes and walking in the neighborhood
Construction has begun on the first of six buildings that will make up the transit-oriented development at the El Cerrito Plaza BART Station.

Building housing near transit isn't enough if the people who depend on transit most can't afford to live there. That dynamic has shaped advocacy in the Bay Area for more than 20 years.

On February 25, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) reached an important milestone when it approved the Transit-Oriented Communities Incentive Program. The new program maintains the region's commitment to affordable housing production, preservation, and tenant protections — the three P's — and ensures that transit-oriented development works for the communities it was designed to serve.

A Holistic Vision Two Decades in the Making

The Bay Area's transit-oriented development (TOD) work goes back to 2005, when MTC passed its original TOD Policy, a groundbreaking effort that encouraged increased residential density in transit corridors in exchange for discretionary state and federal funding. The results are visible across the region today.

In 2022, MTC built on that foundation with the landmark Transit-Oriented Communities (TOC) Policy, the primary implementation tool for Plan Bay Area 2050, the region's sustainable communities strategy. The TOC Policy takes a more holistic approach than its predecessor, setting affordable housing, residential and office density, parking, and station area access requirements around the Bay Area's rail, ferry, and bus rapid transit stations with equity at the center. Importantly, the affordable housing components of the policy reflect a commitment to the three P's.

At its core, the TOC Policy is about opportunity. It envisions a Bay Area where all residents — regardless of income — can live in neighborhoods where they can walk, bike, or take transit to work or school, spend an afternoon at the park, or pick up groceries around the corner.


From Policy to Practice

The TOC Incentive Program approved last month is the mechanism for making that vision actionable. It includes the TOC Evaluation Framework, a 100-point scoring system that jurisdictions must use to demonstrate compliance with the TOC Policy, with an 85-point minimum average required for eligibility.


The program is paired with $45 million in incentive funding from the One Bay Area Grants (OBAG) 4 Program, which MTC approved in January. The Framework also makes targeted adjustments to TOC Policy requirements to reflect local conditions and recent changes in state law, including:

  • Providing credit for tenant protections administered through countywide programs
  • Providing credit for the Maximum Allowable Residential Density standard for areas subject to Senate Bill 79
  • Removing No Net Loss and Right of Return as a policy option, since both are now codified in state law

The approved program is the result of sustained advocacy. Enterprise led a coalition of affordable housing, transportation, and climate advocates to protect the integrity of the TOC Policy after concerted efforts were made to weaken it — particularly its three P's commitments — or to eliminate the policy altogether. Over several months, the coalition engaged MTC commissioners directly, educating them on the policy's history and goals and making the case for the three P's as essential to equitable outcomes.

While the funding conditioned on TOC compliance ended smaller than initially envisioned, the approved program leaves the TOC Policy requirements largely intact, a testament to the breadth and persistence of the coalition.

With the TOC Incentive Program now approved, attention turns to local implementation. Enterprise looks forward to supporting partners across the region as cities work toward compliance, and the Bay Area moves closer to the equitable, sustainable, transit-centered future the TOC Policy envisions.