Before the pandemic, El Cerrito Plaza’s 742 parking spots, spread over three parcels, filled early each weekday morning. “The parking needs to be at least the same, or more,” said Nathalie Van Linde, a resident of Kensington in the hills just east of the station. They’re facing pressure from neighbors and park-and-ride commuters to ensure there is still plenty of parking at both stops. For example, a 200-unit affordable housing development at the San Leandro station eliminated half of its spaces, and the Millbrae project, which includes 400 units of housing and 195,000 square feet of commercial space, will shrink its parking capacity by more than 550 spots, though 2,360 will remain.īART and its developers have to decide how much parking to replace at the El Cerrito Plaza station, and at the North Berkeley station a couple of miles down the line. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)īut urban stations are not likely to fit that model. MILLBRAE, CA – JANUARY 19: Work continues on the Gateway at Millbrae Station transit development adjacent to the Millbrae BART station in Millbrae, Calif., on Tuesday, Jan. One project at the East Dublin/Pleasanton station resulted in a net increase of 500 parking spaces in a new garage. The agency’s leaders insist each project, including its size and how much parking it includes, is tailored to the needs of its station and the surrounding community.ĭevelopments at suburban stations with scarce bus service and little nearby housing often include new parking spaces rather than taking them away, Thorne-Lyman said. And at least 20 percent of the new housing units it builds will be affordable, with a goal to increase that to 37 percent. It has forged partnerships with local governments to connect homeless riders with services and is investing millions of dollars in new equitable policing strategies spurred by the Black Lives Matter movement. While BART’s primary job is moving people, it has been taking on a larger role tackling problems beyond trains and tracks. BART makes money from the developments, taking in $2.2 million this fiscal year from ground leases it has in place so far. The projects are meant to increase ridership, as research suggests the thousands of new neighbors they bring to stations are likely to be frequent riders. There are plenty of incentives for BART in this development boom.

“There is a belief that in the long term, BART is going to come back and people are going to want to live near transit,” said Abigail Thorne-Lyman, the manager of BART’s development program. None of those figures include the countless other developments on privately owned land near BART stations. And those are just the beginning - the transit system wants to boost production and build about 14,000 more units over the next two decades. Nearly 1,000 units are under construction on BART property, with another 2,000 in the planning process. Much of BART’s land is currently devoted to station parking lots. Along with familiar debates between neighbors over the size and density of new buildings, the projects have also prompted worries among some BART commuters that the new developments will come at the expense of coveted parking spaces. The push for new development has thrust the public transportation system headlong into the thorny politics of the Bay Area’s housing crisis. And a developer is drawing up plans for hundreds of units steps from the El Cerrito Plaza station.ĬOVID-19 may have chased the vast majority of riders off the BART system, but it has done nothing to slow the transit agency’s efforts to spur housing construction on property it owns throughout the Bay Area.

Crews are hard at work building a new housing, office, hotel and retail complex at the Millbrae stop. Residents have moved into the new apartments towering above the MacArthur BART station.

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