My latest volunteer project was putting together a website for the Alum Rock Transit Village Advocates (ARTVA).

Back in 2000, the Santa Clara VTA announced that it was going to build a new BART station, surrounded by a 17 acre parking lot, behind the Five Wounds Church at 28th street in San Jose.  Instead of rejecting the idea, the neighbors got together to help them do it the right way.

Over the past 15 years, hundreds of neighborhood volunteers, community activists, city and VTA staff members and university students, have attended a massive number of community meetings and workshops to develop a supportable vision for the development of an urban village around the proposed BART station.

The first team, guided by the Redevelopment Agency,  published the Five Wounds/Brookwood Terrace Neighborhood Improvement Plan in August of 2002.

CommUniverCity led the second effort, which produced the Five Wounds BART Station Plan in 2010.

Finally, in 2013 by the City of San Jose developed the Five Wounds Urban Village Plan as the first, official planning document supporting the Envision 2040 urban villages effort.

This site was created to document the vision of the neighborhood, to help ensure that vision doesn’t get lost as time progresses.  In addition to the urban village / BART station, it also supports documentation for Five Wounds Rail to Trail conversion.

This effort is an example of the way neighbors can get together and work to create a better neighborhood.  The mission of the ARTVA group is there to ensure everything works together for the good of the neighborhood.

Check out:  The Five Wounds Urban Village