The REGENERATIVE COMMUNITIES Manifesto

The Bay Area, like much of California, is facing record heat, chronic drought, housing affordability/access issues, strained electrical grids, and a democratic crisis at the community level–to name a few of the issues. This puts greater emphasis on the importance of a city’s physical resilience, sustainability, and regenerative capabilities.

SSV’s vision of a regenerative community stems from common sense density development built close to transit that is affordable, ubiquitous, and easy. Housing should be varied in type and with an abundance of affordable options. Walkability, bicycle use, and rapid transit, should be emphasized to reduce vehicle reliance. When accommodating vehicles, electric charging should be prioritized.There is a preference for developing underutilized strip malls and vacant lots along El Camino Real and other corridors. The output of our vision will improve quality of life by equitably strengthening local communities, decarbonizing new development, and prioritizing water conservation. The health benefits to citizens of Silicon Valley are numerous and will be enjoyed for decades to come. 

The goal of the Regenerative Communities program is to increase the region’s quality of life through  educating and informing Bay Area residents on local mixed use, housing, retail, and commercial developmental happenings that will have a multi-factor impact on our communities. By doing so, we hope to stimulate community involvement in the planning process to ensure long lasting development is addressing community and region-wide concerns in a sustainable manner.

Using a multi-varied evaluation and assessment model through a sustainable lens, SSV’s Regenerative Communities will generate scoring for each developmental project. We will strive to raise public awareness and outreach to support advocacy within the specific community of the various proposed developments.