Posted Friday, August 2, 2013

Local Government Health and Wellness Forum
Creating Healthy Communities

Co-sponsored by ABAG and Kaiser Permanente on September 12, 2013
View Presentations and Other Resources

The Local Government Health and Wellness Forum on Creating Healthy Communities was offered as a special resource and benefit for ABAG member cities, towns, and counties on Thursday, September 12th in the MetroCenter Auditorium in Oakland. Expert panelists showcased best practices demonstrating how communities can become healthier places to live, work and play. View these presentations online as shown below to learn more about creating worksite wellness programs, walkable active communities, and accessible healthy food options.

Loel Solomon, Ph.D., Vice President, Community Health, Kaiser Permanente
http://www.abag.ca.gov/rss/pdfs/SolomonKeynote.pdf

Scott Hadley, Human Resources Benefits Manager, County of Marin
http://www.abag.ca.gov/rss/pdfs/ScottHadley.pdf

Barbara Brown, Occupational Health Program Manager, Solano County Health and Social Services
href="http://wwww.abag.ca.gov/rss/pdfs/BarbaraBrown.pdf

Melissa Stevenson Dile, Assistant City Manager, City of Mountain View
http://www.abag.ca.gov/rss/pdfs/MelissaStevensonDile.pdf

Supervisor Eric Mar, City and County of San Francisco
http://www.abag.ca.gov/rss/pdfs/SupervisorEricMar.pdf

Coire Reilly, Manager Injury, Prevention & Physical Activity Promotion Project Community Wellness and Prevention Program, Contra Costa Health Services
http://www.abag.ca.gov/rss/pdfs/CoireReilly.pdf

Preston Maring, MD, Kaiser Permanente Associate Physician-in Chief
http://www.abag.ca.gov/rss/pdfs/Blackbeansaladrecipe.pdf

Other Local Government Health and Wellness Resources (links)

Healthy Eating Active Living (HEAL) Cities Campaign
http://www.healcitiescampaign.org/policies.html

HEAL Zones
http://bit.ly/healzones

Healthy Workplace Strategies
http://www.grahamlowe.ca/documents/93/Hlthy%20wkpl%20strategies%20report.pdf

American Heart Association: Fit Friendly Workplace
http://www.startwalkingnow.org/Fit-FriendlyCompaniesProgram.jsp

Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC)
http://www.cdc.gov/workplacehealthpromotion/

Health Enhancement Research Organization (HERO)
http://www.the-hero.org/

East Bay Parks Trails Challenge
http://www.regionalparksfoundation.org/page.aspx?pid=582

San Francisco Department of Public Health
http://www.sfdph.org/dph/default.asp

Shape Up San Francisco
http://www.shapeupsfwalkingchallenge.org

Contra Costa County Health Services
Community Wellness and Prevention Program
http://bit.ly/CCHSCWPP

City of Richmond Community Health and Wellness Element
http://bit.ly/healthelement

Concord HEAL
http://bit.ly/monumentHEAL

Healthy and Livable Pittsburg
http://bit.ly/healthypittsburg

Marin County Wellness
http://www.marincounty.org/e3wellness
http://www.facebook.com/e3wellness

Sonoma County Healthy Habits
http://www.sonoma-county.org/healthyhabits

Santa Clara County Wellness
http://www.sccgov.org/sites/wellness/

Live Healthy America
http://www.livehealthyamerica.org/

Posted Monday, July 22, 2013

Final Plan Bay Area Adopted - Materials Available

The Final Bay Area Plan was adopted at a joint board meeting of the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) on July 18, 2013. This Plan includes the region’s Sustainable Communities Strategy and the 2040 Regional Transportation Plan – and an associated final Environmental Impact Report.

Plan Bay Area materials are available at http://www.onebayarea.org/regional-initiatives/plan-bay-area/draft-plan-bay-area.html and the items approved and draft amendments proposed are available at Update Final PBA Revisions Draft Plan 7-15-13 Update Final PBA Revisions Draft Plan 7-15-13.
When the approved text revisions have been incorporated into Plan Bay Area, the Final Plan will be available at http://www.onebayarea.org/.

Posted Friday, July 19, 2013

Plan Bay Area Charts Course
for Stronger Economy, Cleaner Air
$292 Billion Transportation Blueprint

The Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) on July 18th adopted Plan Bay Area, an integrated transportation and land-use strategy through 2040 that marks the nine-county region’s first long-range plan. The plan was developed to meet the requirements of California’s landmark 2008 Senate Bill 375, which calls on each of the state’s 18 metropolitan areas to develop a Sustainable Communities Strategy to accommodate future population growth and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from cars and light trucks. Working in collaboration with cities and counties, the Plan advances initiatives to expand housing and transportation choices, create healthier communities, and build a stronger regional economy.

“Plan Bay Area is an historic and important step forward for our region,” explained Napa County Supervisor Mark Luce, who also serves as President of the ABAG Executive Board and as an MTC Commissioner. “It’s the product of more than three years of collaboration between cities and counties to do our part to create a more sustainable Bay Area for current and future generations.”

Noting that Plan Bay Area is the successor to Transportation 2035, the long-range plan adopted by MTC in 2009, Commission Chair and Orinda Mayor Amy Rein Worth described the new plan as evolutionary rather than revolutionary “For decades, MTC has been charged by state and federal law to produce a long-term regional transportation plan, while ABAG has been responsible for assessing regional housing needs. Plan Bay Area puts these elements together in a way that makes sense.”

Projecting a healthy regional economy, the Plan anticipates that the Bay Area’s population will grow from about 7 million today to some 9 million by 2040. “Maintaining our region’s high quality of life,” continued Worth, “will depend on making wise decisions about transportation, housing and land use.”

Plan Bay Area provides a strategy for meeting 80% of the region’s future housing needs in Priority Development Areas (PDAs). These are neighborhoods within walking distance of frequent transit service, offering a wide variety of housing options, and featuring amenities such as grocery stores, community centers, and restaurants. Identified by cities and towns across the region, the PDAs range from regional centers like downtown San Jose to suburban centers like Walnut Creek’s West Downtown area, to smaller town centers such as the Suisun City Waterfront. The Plan funds mixed-income housing production and locally-led planning in PDAs.

Plan Bay Area’s transportation element specifies how some $292 billion in anticipated federal, state and local funds will be spent through 2040. Nearly 87 percent (or $253 billion) will be used to maintain and operate the transportation network we already have. Another way of looking at the distribution of the revenues — which include fuel taxes, public transit fares, bridge tolls, property taxes and dedicated sales taxes — is by mode of transportation. Maintenance and operation of the Bay Area’s existing public transit services will receive about 54 percent ($159 billion) of the revenues. The remainder includes 32 percent for street, road, highway and bridge maintenance; 7 percent for transit expansion; and 5 percent for roadway and bridge expansion. A $3.1 billion reserve comprised of anticipated future funding through the California Air Resources Board’s Cap-and-Trade program for greenhouse gas emissions accounts for another 1 percent of expected revenues.

At an evening meeting in Oakland, MTC and the ABAG Executive Board jointly approved both the final Plan Bay Area — which includes the region’s Sustainable Communities Strategy and the 2040 Regional Transportation Plan — and an associated final Environmental Impact Report. The ABAG Executive Board separately approved a state-mandated Regional Housing Needs Allocation for 2014 through 2022. MTC separately approved the 2013 Transportation Improvement Program (TIP), which updates the list of Bay Area projects that receive federal funds, are subject to federal action, or are considered regionally significant; as well as a final Air Quality Conformity Analysis that establishes both the TIP and Plan Bay Area comply with federal air pollution standards.

The final adopted Plan Bay Area will soon be available at http://www.onebayarea.org/.

MTC is the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area’s transportation planning, coordinating and financing agency. ABAG is the official regional planning agency for the Bay Area’s cities and counties.

Posted Friday, June 7, 2013

Bay Trail Trekker Circling The Bay In 30 Days
New Boxed Bay Trail Map Set Will Be His Guide

A continuous 330-mile network of walking and biking paths encircling the Bay and spanning 47 cities will be scaled on foot by Bay Area outdoorsman/trekker Kurt Schwabe of San Francisco. Schwabe took off on his trek on Saturday, June 1 and every day in the month of June, he will set out from his condo in San Francisco’s Pacific Heights to walk a new segment of the Bay Trail using a new set of map cards and an online map tool developed by the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG).

“The Bay Trail Project will culminate in a 500-mile walking and bicycling path and will one day allow continuous travel around the San Francisco Bay. Schwabe’s adventure will highlight the diversity of experiences provided on the shoreline paths for locals, tourists, and commuters,” said Julie Pierce, ABAG Vice President and City of Clayton Mayor at the kick-off of Schwabe’s month-long trek. At month’s end Schwabe plans to have traveled 250 miles along the trail. Schwabe will document the ease of accessing the Bay Trail via the region’s bus, rail and ferry network. He plans to ride buses, trains and ferries to and from the trailheads, each morning picking up from where he left off the day before, using a Clipper® card provided by Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) to pay his fares.

Schwabe is a veteran of a number of marathons and triathlons and expects to walk anywhere from five to 13 miles a day. At night, Schwabe will return home to download his photos and blog about his experience at walkingthebaytrail.com. Not only is public transit the most sustainable way to reach the region’s great outdoors, but it will also allow him to get home at night without having to backtrack to a car parked at his starting point. “The Bay Trail is connected to public transportation at just about any point along our shoreline,” Schwabe writes in one of his pre-trek blog posts.

“MTC has been a strong supporter of the Bay Trail and has contributed $4.4 million in planning moneys over the past 25 years to make the trail a reality,” said MTC Commissioner Anne Halsted. “With this walk, Schwabe is becoming an ambassador for the Bay Trail as well as for the Clipper transit fare card, showing that these two innovations go hand in hand and that the Bay Trail is an important corridor for green commuting.”

The State Coastal Conservancy is a primary funder of the Bay Trail, allocating over $20 million over the past 15 years for planning, design and construction of Bay Trail segments throughout the region. Conservancy grants are matched by other funding sources resulting in increased momentum for trail completion. The Conservancy has also funded the publication of popular outreach tools such as the new Bay Trail map set and the San Francisco Bay Shoreline Guide.

The Bay Trail offers access to commercial, industrial and residential neighborhoods; points of historic, natural and cultural interest; recreational areas like beaches, marinas, fishing piers, boat launches, and over 130 parks and wildlife preserves totaling 57,000 acres of open space. It passes through highly urbanized areas like downtown San Francisco as well as remote natural areas like the San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge. (The Bay Trail’s policies specifically seek to protect sensitive natural habitats.)

The timing for Schwabe’s adventure couldn’t be better coinciding with beginning of summer and the publication by ABAG of a handsome new boxed set of two dozen Bay Trail map cards, each with a suggested trip and points of interest along the way. The maps will be a mainstay of Schwabe’s backpack, along with the latest edition of the San Francisco Bay Shoreline Guide, which showcases the trail’s ecological riches and recreational offerings.

ABAG Bay Trail Project Director Laura Thompson enlisted Schwabe to try out and promote a new interactive online map tool capsulizing the entire Bay Trail network on desktops, laptops and mobile devices: http://baytrail.org/maps-online.html. The Bay Trail map card set includes a fold-out map of the entire system as well as a guide to birding on the trail and is available for purchase at http://www.baytrail.org for $14.95, as well as at the Bay Crossings store at the San Francisco Ferry Building and in area bookstores.

Observers can monitor Schwabe’s movements in real time via a GPS tracker that will link to his blog, located at walkingthebaytrail.com. Schwabe is inviting local officials and the public to join him at any point along his 30-day adventure, and to experience the joys of the Bay Trail first hand. He can be reached at 415-867-0915 or kurt_schwabe@yahoo.com. Note: Photos of Kurt Schwabe and a downloadable Bay Trail map are available at http://baytrail.abag.ca.gov/pdfs/BayTrail-Brochure.pdf.


ABAG is the regional planning agency for the nine counties and 101 cities and towns of the Bay Area, and is recognized as the first Council of Governments in California. MTC is the transportation planning, financing and coordinating agency for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area.

Posted Monday, May 13, 2013

New San Francisco Bay Trail Maps Now Available

The completely re-designed and updated San Francisco Bay Trail maps invite you to enjoy the 330 miles of completed shoreline paths. Easy-to-pack and easy-to-use, the San Francisco Bay Trail maps are now available for purchase at http://www.baytrail.org for $14.95, just in time for Bike to Work Day on May 9th. A companion online and mobile phone application are also available by visiting the website.

Conveniently packaged in a colorful box, 25 four-by-seven-inch map cards and a large fold-out map are essential tools to discovering the San Francisco Bay Trail—a shoreline walking and bicycling path that will one day encircle the entire Bay, stretching 500 miles through all nine Bay Area counties. With over 330 miles of trail currently in place, there’s a ride or a stroll for everyone from the long-time local to the first-time tourist. The maps were funded in part by the State Coastal Conservancy.

The Bay Trail passes through highly urbanized areas such as downtown San Francisco and natural areas such as the San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge. It offers access to commercial, industrial, and residential neighborhoods; points of historic, natural and cultural interest; recreational areas such as beaches, marinas, fishing piers, boat launches, and over 130 parks and wildlife preserves. The Bay Trail offers access on paved multi-use paths, dirt trails, bike lanes, and sidewalks.

The San Francisco Bay Trail Project is a non-profit organization administered by the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) and supported by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC).

Posted Friday, May 3, 2013

Call for Proposals for Plan Bay Area Priority Conservation Area Grant Program

The State Coastal Conservancy (SCC), in cooperation with Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) and Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG), is pleased to issue a call for proposals for the Priority Conservation Area Program. This pilot program focuses on the Priority Conservation Areas (PCAs) in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara Counties. MTC has made $5 million of federal funds available which will be combined with additional funding provided by SCC.

The goal of the PCA Program is to support Plan Bay Area by preserving and enhancing the natural, economic and social value of rural lands amidst growing population across the Bay Area, for residents and businesses. These values include globally unique ecosystems, productive agricultural lands, recreational opportunities, healthy fisheries, and climate protection (mitigation and adaptation), among others. Proposed projects should protect or enhance resource areas or habitats, provide or enhance bicycle and pedestrian access to open space/parkland resources, or support the agricultural economy of the region.

Grant guidelines and call for proposals are located at http://www.abag.ca.gov/rss/pdfs/PriorityConservationArea.pdf . For more information, go to http://scc.ca.gov. Letters of Interest are due from eligible applicants by July 19, 2013.

Two public workshops will be held to provide prospective applicants with an overview of the Plan Bay Area (PCA) Grant Program and to answer questions.

May 20, 2013, 1pm to 3 pm
Mountain View Community Center
201 South Rengstorff Avenue
Mountain View, CA 94040

May 23, 2013, 1 pm to 3 pm
Oakland State Building, Room 11
1515 Clay Street
Oakland, CA 94612

Posted Monday, April 22, 2013

ABAG Spring General Assembly, April 18, 2013
Planning for People and Places
Speaker and Panelists Presentations

Robert Reich, Former US Secretary of Labor; Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy, UC Berkeley
Presentation not available

Allan Jacobs, Author, Great Streets and Making City Planning Work; Professor Emeritus UC Berkeley
http://www.abag.ca.gov/rss/pdfs/AllanJacobsABAGTalk2013.pdf

Bonnie Fisher, Principal, ROMA Design
http://www.abag.ca.gov/rss/pdfs/BonnieFisherABAGPres.pdf

David Rabbitt, Sonoma County Supervisor
http://www.abag.ca.gov/rss/pdfs/DavidRabbittFisherTownDesignMixedUsePetaluma.pdf

Anu Natarajan, City of Fremont Vice Mayor
http://www.abag.ca.gov/rss/pdfs/AnuPDAplacemaking.pdf

Laurel Prevetti, Assistant Planning Director, City of San Jose
http://www.abag.ca.gov/rss/pdfs/ABAGLaurelPrevetti.pdf

Posted Monday, April 8, 2013

Review and Comment on Draft Plan Bay Area and Companion Draft Environmental Impact Report

The Draft Plan Bay Area and the companion Draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) were recently released by the Association of Bay Area Governments and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. This starts the public comment period for the long-range plan that looks forward to the year 2040.

Click here to Review and Comment on the Draft Plan Bay Area (release date Friday, March 22, 2013; close of comment period, 4 p.m., Thursday, May 16, 2013).

Click here to Review and Comment on the Draft EIR, which examines the proposed plan and four alternatives and analyzes the range of potential environmental impacts that could result from the implementation of Plan Bay Area (release date Tuesday, April 2, 2013; close of comment period, 4 p.m., Thursday, May 16, 2013).

Posted Monday, March 4, 2013

APA Basic Planning 101 Workshop Series Offered for Planning Commissioners, Elected Officials and Planners

The American Planning Association (APA) California Chapter Northern Section will offer a series of four FREE workshops that will cover planning fundamentals with emphasis on practical planning skills. The workshops are appropriate for planning commissioners, elected officials and planners. Each workshop will cover different topics and will be led by experienced planning professionals. The workshop series is co-sponsored by the Bay Area Planning Directors Association (BAPDA) and ABAG. Light breakfast will be provided. Seating is limited and preference will go to planning commissioners.

Workshop #1:
MARCH 23
9:00 AM to 12:15 PM
San Jose Library, Rose Garden Branch, 1580 Naglee Avenue, SAN JOSE.
Topics: role of officials and staff; Roberts Rules of Order; public hearing procedures; making an effective public record; basics of general plans and zoning.

Workshop #2:
APRIL 6
9:00 AM to 12:15 PM
Community Center, Garden Room, 7007 Moeser Lane, EL CERRITO
Topics: land use legal principles and key cases; defensible findings and project conditions; development project case study.

Workshop #3:
MAY 11
9:00 AM to 12:15 PM
Burlingame Public Library, 480 Primrose Road at Bellevue, BURLINGAME
Topics: housing laws and elements, RHNA process; design guidelines and design review; integrating climate change and sustainability into plans and codes.

Workshop #4:
JUNE 1
9:00 AM to 12:00 PM
San Leandro Main Library, 300 Estudillo Avenue, SAN LEANDRO
Topic: basic CEQA and environmental review.

To register or for more information, contact Janet Palma, AICP at janetpalma@comcast.net. Visit the APA Northern Section website for more training opportunities: www.norcalapa.org.

Posted Thursday, November 29, 2012

SUCCESSFUL EL CERRITO GREEN STREETS PROJECT LEADS TO LARGER EFFORT ON SAN PABLO AVENUE

Water quality monitoring results taken from last year’s rainy season show that rain gardens constructed in El Cerrito in 2010 are doing the job they were built to do: removing pollutants from stormwater runoff. Urban stormwater runoff is a leading cause of pollution to local creeks and the San Francisco Bay. Analyses of water samples from before and after treatment in one of the rain garden cells show lowered amounts of common runoff pollutants, such as sediments, copper, PCBs, and pyrethroids (a chemical insecticide). These contaminants can harm aquatic habitats, kill the living things in those waters, and make the eating of certain types and amounts of fish caught in the Bay unhealthy.

In 2010, the San Francisco Estuary Partnership collaborated with the City of El Cerrito to install a series of rain gardens on the 11000 and 10200 blocks of San Pablo Avenue. Rain gardens are a type of “green infrastructure,” designed to capture and clean stormwater runoff using natural filtration and breakdown of pollutants by soils, microscopic animals in the soil, and plants. As the name suggests, the El Cerrito gardens are lushly planted, beautifying the streetscape with an array of mostly native plants. The State Water Resource Control Board’s Clean Water State Revolving Fund provided the funding for this project using money from the federal stimulus bill, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Next Step: San Pablo Avenue Green Stormwater Spine Project
The success of the El Cerrito rain gardens project has spurred an even more ambitious project along portions of San Pablo Avenue, a major East Bay thoroughfare- the San Pablo Avenue Green Stormwater Spine project, also known to locals as the “Spine Project.” The Spine Project will make green infrastructure retrofits to the right-of-way at selected San Pablo Avenue locations in Oakland, Emeryville, Berkeley, Albany, El Cerrito, San Pablo and Richmond. A variety of approaches will be used, including rain gardens, bio swales, and permeable paving, to demonstrate ways to treat runoff before it enters nearby creeks and waterways. The design process is underway with construction planned to begin in the late summer of 2013. The Estuary Partnership is managing the Spine Project, which is funded by the California Department of Transportation and grants from the Environmental Protection Agency, the California Natural Resources Agency, and the State Department of Water Resources.

For more information about these projects and green infrastructure, visit the San Francisco Estuary Partnership’s website at www.sfestuary.org.

The San Francisco Estuary Partnership (a program of the Association of Bay Area Governments) is a coalition of resource agencies, non-profits, citizens, and scientists working to protect, restore, and enhance water quality and fish and wildlife habitat in and around the San Francisco Bay Delta Estuary.

Posted Friday, October 19, 2012

Creating a Resilient Region – Protecting our Investments

ABAG Fall General Assembly, October 18, 2012
Speaker and Panel Presentations and Earthquake Recovery Toolkit

Jon Haveman, Chief Economist, Bay Area Council Economic Institute
www.abag.ca.gov/rss/pdfs/JonHaveman.pdf

Tom Tobin, President, Earthquake Engineering Research Institute and Chris Poland, Chairman and Senior Principal, Degenkolb Engineers
www.abag.ca.gov/rss/pdfs/TomTobin.pdf

Local Government Panel: Regionwide Decision Making for Long-Term Disaster Recovery Planning
www.abag.ca.gov/rss/pdfs/ABAGLocalGovernmentPanel.pdf

Workshop: Making Post-Disaster Land Use Planning and Policy a Reality for Local Governments
www.abag.ca.gov/rss/pdfs/WorkshopmoderatedbySarahKarlinsky.pdf

Dr. Enrico Moretti, Economics Professor, UC Berkeley
Full Presentation can be found in his book The New Geography of Jobs

ABAG Earthquake Recovery Toolkit
http://quake.abag.ca.gov/resilience/toolkit/


Conference Agenda
http://www.abag.ca.gov/rss/pdfs/FallGeneralAssembly.pdf

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