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| SMART
GROWTH |
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 Smart Growth promotes development of communities and neighborhoods that are compact, walkable and pedestrian oriented, decreasing reliance on the automobile. It encourages the creation of interconnected pathways, trails and parks for recreation and community gatherings. It focuses on preservation of open space and environmentally sensitive areas. And it embraces a mix of uses, a range of housing, ecological sustainability, and access for all. Livermore Trails is founded upon the following principles of Smart Growth.* These principles will be realized through the detailed planning and design guidelines contained in the forthcoming Livermore Trails Specific Plan.
1. Provide an integration of neighborhood activities
by creating a mix of uses instead of single purpose uses and activities. Include parks and recreation activities, schools, religious institutions, community facilities, environmental preserves, and work places mixed with the residential neighborhoods. Livermore Trails contains an extensive mix of land uses that complement each other to create a dynamic, healthy community. From the mixed-use Village Commons, mixed housing neighborhoods, and civic uses (such as a library branch, fire station, elementary school and high school) to hundreds of acres of environmental preserve, open space buffers, parks and greenways, Livermore Trails fully embraces and celebrates this concept.
2. Design compact, clustered development patterns to preserve open spaces and foster a sense of community. Livermore Trails achieves this principle by preserving two-thirds (approximately
950 acres) of the site as open space and public amenities; clustering all development in the southern portion of the site; and concentrating high and medium density housing around the Village Commons and transit routes.
3. Promote contiguous development in close proximity to existing community activity nodes and town centers. Encourage concentration of development into sites adjacent to or within the existing urban fabric, avoiding suburban development that "leap-frogs" over large vacant sites close to city centers. Development should be located to support and respond to transit accessibility, transit infrastructure, and environmental constraints. Major natural resources, such as ridgelines, prime agricultural areas, waterways, and sensitive habitats should be preserved and enhanced. Located directly adjacent to the current City Limits and Urban Growth Boundary, Livermore Trails is contiguous to the existing urban footprint. Its location (the development area is entirely within three miles of downtown) affords great access and proximity to existing infrastructure, including transit. Compact, clustered development Walkable and livable neighborhoods
*Sources: Congress for New Urbanism; Smart Growth Network; Moore Iacofano Goltsman, Inc.
4. Develop a diversity of housing types for a range of family situations, incomes, and stages in the life cycle, including smaller homes for empty nesters and young couples and larger homes for larger families. A range of housing types includes single-family homes, small lot homes, townhouses, apartments, condominiums, live/work studios, and active adult units.
5. Provide for a range of incomes and affordability with a diversity of building housing types and products. Livermore Trails contains each of the above housing types in substantial quantities. Different types of units - including affordable housing (see Range of Housing Opportunities on page 14) - are provided in each phase of the community to ensure that all neighborhoods have a healthy mix of incomes, ages, and family types.
 6. Provide an active neighborhood mixed - use center
for everyday necessities, goods and services. A mixed-use center (or "village commons" or "village center") supports neighborhood residents and should be easy to walk to. A mixed-use center should be the heart of the neighborhood, transit friendly, and provide a range of public and private services (as appropriate), such as community facilities, neighborhood-serving retail, a school, religious institutions, housing, office uses and an outdoor public gathering place. The neighborhoods of Livermore Trails are developed around a central Village Commons that local residents can easily walk, bicycle or drive to. Internal trails radiate from the Village Commons, branching out to each of the neighborhoods. This village core offers residential, small-scale retail, and recreational amenities, as well as a school and public green (see page 15 for more information on the Village Commons).
7. Create walkable and livable neighborhoods with pedestrian-friendly street networks.
8. Provide a network of safe connector streets/street grid
sys tem with multiple and parallel routes between neighborhood centers, parks, transit stops, residential and other uses so that local trips are not forced onto arterial streets. The street network of Livermore Trails is based on an undulating grid pattern that provides easy circulation for pedestrians and multiple routes for automobiles. Wide sidewalks, landscaped buffers, and narrow streets foster pedestrian comfort and safety and encourage walking to the Village Commons, parks and open spaces, public amenities, and transit stops. Active neighborhood mixed-use center Safe and connected street grid System.
 9. Design transit - oriented communities to reduce reliance on the automobile as the primary means of transportation. Transit-oriented communities provide for a range of transportation modes, including buses, bicycles, transit vehicles and other innovations (such as ride share opportunities and electric vehicles). These modes should provide direct connections to local and regional public transit systems, schools, shopping, regional job centers, public amenities and other destinations.
10. Provide regional transit connections
via a range of modes and links from the neighborhood to regional transit systems, area activity nodes, and other destinations. Modes and methods can include shuttle buses, local buses, trains, park and ride lots, bicycle paths and other techniques to encourage use of alternative and public transit and reduce reliance on the automobile as the primary means of transportation. A central transit spine with frequent shuttle service runs through the middle of Livermore Trails. This transit route, within a ¼ mile (typically a five- to 10-minute walk) of a majority of the project’s homes, will provide bus service to BART, downtown, the Springtown neighborhood to the east, and other Livermore destinations.
The
shuttle will also provide service
to the mixed-use
Village Commons,
Sports
Park
and high school. A comprehensive set of Transportation Demand Management (TDM) strategies are also key to the project’s transit orientation (these are discussed in detail beginning on page 18).
 11. Integrate a system of connected open spaces, parks and recreation spaces,
and environmental areas connected through a network of trails and paths. Parks and open spaces should include neighborhood parks within ¼ mile walking distance of surrounding homes. Parks and open spaces should be integrated with natural drainage systems, environmentally protected areas and viewsheds. Regional recreation systems should be provided as needed. Approximately
950 acres of Livermore Trails will be preserved as open space buffer, Scenic Corridor, environmental preserve, agricultural land, neighborhood and pocket parks, and a Sports Park. These green spaces will be directly accessible to residents and the greater Livermore community via an extensive system of trails and greenways (with natural bioswales) open to pedestrians, bicycles and equestrians. The Sports Park will be approximately 130 acres and contain a range of ball fields and other facilities to serve the entire City of Livermore (the Sports Park is discussed in detail beginning on page 12).
12. Incorporate context sensitive design
of the site and buildings so that they reflect the local and regional history, culture and character of the environment. The layout, architecture and character of Livermore Trails reflect a deep respect and understanding of the surrounding context. Landscaping incorporates native
plants. The
community’s landscaping,
signage, building materials,
architectural and other elements
will draw upon
Livermore’s rich heritage. In addition, a replica of the historic May School building is located at the Village Commons to help educate the community about the area’s heritage.
 13. Incorporate sustainable design practices into site layout and building design. Ecological design can include on-site surface stormwater drainage and management systems, use of native drought tolerant planting materials, solar orientation of buildings, use of recycled building materials, and energy saving building design practices and technologies. As a natural extension and complement to Pardee Homes’ LivingSmart™ program, all of these ecological design methods are incorporated into the site layout, landscaping, construction techniques, and building design of Livermore Trails.
14. Employ universal access design solutions in all site and building designs. Universal design creates an accessible environment for people of all abilities. Accessible sidewalks, trails and access points should be incorporated into the major travel paths (not relegated to back doors or secondary entryways and routes). Apply universal access at all levels of design, including paths of travel, public furniture, building entries, parks and open spaces. Livermore Trails embraces this principle and its applications as part of the project’s emphasis in creating a community for people of all ages and abilities.
15. Provide
for city services and
infrastructure to
ensure that infrastructure needs
are met.
Livermore Trails is
designed to utilize existing
systems (such as the cable and
telephone lines in North
Livermore) and to provide for its
share of needed services (such as
the development of an on-site,
state-of-the-art waste water
treatment plant, if required); and
augment existing services (such as
provision of fire and police
safety, which will bolster these
services and response times for
all of North Livermore).
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