Guiding Principles of Land Use - Home Page

As the Congestion Management Agency (CMA) and transit agency for Santa Clara County, VTA plays an active role in integrating land use and transportation planning.

VTA’s Land Use and Transportation (LUTI) program seeks to strengthen coordination of land use and transportation strategies with local jurisdictions and the development community by promoting equitable and sustainable development and expanding mobility options.

As part of the LUTI Program, VTA manages a Development Review Program to engage in local near-term development projects and long-range land use and transportation policies (e.g., General Plans or Specific Plans) in order to encourage a multimodal/transit-integrative planning approach.

VTA’s guiding principles for integrating land use and transportation reflect the values of equity, partnership, sustainability, and resilience.

• Equity: An outcome and process that enables just and fair access to opportunities so that all can participate and thrive.

• Partnership: an ongoing process to build shared understanding and common ground with local jurisdictions, community, developers, and other institutions to achieve meaningful results.

• Sustainability: integrating social, cultural, economic, and environmental conditions to reduce impacts on future generations.

• Resilience: ability to account for vulnerabilities (e.g., existing inequities) and withstand the impacts of varying types of adversity (e.g., economic or climate related changes).  

The guiding principles overlap and are strengthened when implemented together. The principles represent how VTA will work closely with local jurisdictions on land use planning efforts (e.g., development projects and long-range plans) at the earliest planning stages. They can also provide a framework to expand mobility options in sustainable locations (e.g., promoting growth in close proximity to VTA’s Frequent Network), and to preserve and enhance VTA operations and the quality of service VTA provides. The principles form the foundation of a transparent, comprehensive, and streamlined process for VTA, including VTA internal procedures, development review process, and other tools to facilitate well-integrated and structurally safe development adjacent to transit facilities, and ensure early and ongoing coordination. Successful implementation of these principles will create high-quality, equitably built environments that enable multimodal access, support fast and efficient transit operations, and create transit ridership.