More collaboration is needed between developers, neighborhood groups and communities, said Boston Mayor Thomas Menino Thursday morning at summit sponsored by the Massachusetts Smart Growth Alliance.

"The challenge we have today is that we have a lot of folks in the neighborhood who don’t collaborate," he said. "They never check in with the [community development corporations], they never check in with the mayor’s office."

Describing his dealings with biotech firms moving into the South Boston waterfront neighborhood he has dubbed the Innovation District, Menino cited the firms’ collaborative efforts as an example for developers throughout the city.

"One of the things they talk about all the time is how they collaborate with each other, they want to work together," said Menino. "And they’re very successful. We in the neighborhood also have to be very successful working together."

The Smart Growth Alliance has launched a new initiative meant to foster the kinds of changes Menino wants. The group has selected five communities to be the initial subjects of its Great Neighborhoods initiative: Lawrence, Winchester, Roxbury, Fairmont Corridor in Boston and Somerville. The project is meant to help the communities with planning, lobbying and fundraising to support smart growth goals including affordable housing, green space near public transportation and commercial and residential development near transit.

"We haven’t seen enough real smart growth projects hit the ground in Massachusetts," said Andre Leroux, executive director of the Massachusetts Smart Growth Alliance. "It continues to be difficult." 

Efforts like those of the Smart Growth Alliance are needed in the current development environment, said Menino.

"Budgets are stressed, but so are families," said Menino. "In these unsettled times, we need not to change our promises, and figure out new ways to keep them."

He cited affordable housing, summer jobs and the environment as pressing concerns which remain to be tackled.

"This commonwealth is doing better than it has in a lot of years, be we can do better if we learn to work together," Menino said.