Founded in 1958, the Greenbelt Alliance is a non-profit organization dedicated to effective and efficient land conservation and urban planning programs in San Francisco Bay Area’s nine counties. Its primary focus is in the promotion of walkable neighborhoods characterized by a balance between residential and commercial areas as well as jobs located near public transportation systems.

As part of its mission, the Greenbelt Alliance encourages cities in adopting smart growth policies as well as accommodating the Bay Area’s growing population. The result: Protecting the open spaces, usually parks, in cities and making the area’s numerous cities as more livable places.

Such is influence of the Greenbelt Alliance that it has been instrumental in the widespread adoption of boundaries of urban growth in over 20 cities across 5 counties in the San Francisco Bay Area. These boundaries define the limits where urban growth should and should not go, said limits of which are adopted by voters, by city councils, or by county board of supervisors.