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 Panelelists 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

Posted Monday, May 21, 2012

Bay Area Agencies Approve Preferred Land Use Scenario and
Transportation Investment Strategy

Plan Bay Area Links Local Aspirations with Goals for a Strong Economy, Healthy Environment and Social Equity

OAKLAND, CA, May 18, 2012... At a packed joint meeting of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) and the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG), officials voted last night to approve a draft long-range guide to the Bay Areas transportation, jobs and housing. The Preferred Land Use and Transportation Investment Strategy is a key milestone in developing the final Plan Bay Area, which is due for adoption in April 2013. MTC also voted to approve the One Bay Area Grants (OBAG) program, and ABAG approved a draft housing allocation methodology for Bay Area cities.

We’ve heard over and over that the publics top priorities are preserving the Bay Areas high quality of life and each community’s unique characteristics, said Ken Kirkey, ABAG planning director. Plan Bay Area will achieve these goals by strengthening the connection between housing, jobs and transportation, by growing jobs and the economy, and by ensuring stewardship of our regions spectacular scenic and natural resources. ABAG President and Napa County Supervisor Mark Luce added that these actions signify the strides we are making toward adopting a long range plan that links local aspirations with goals for a strong economy, healthy environment, and social equity.

The Preferred Land Use and Transportation Investment Strategy approved last night by MTC and ABAG steers Plan Bay Area to promote compact, mixed-use development that combines both residential and commercial uses and is located close to public transit, jobs, schools, shopping, parks, recreation and other amenities.

The approved One Bay Area Grants initiative is an incentive-based program designed to stimulate the production of housing in areas well-served by transportation, particularly public transit. It uses federal transportation dollars to reward jurisdictions that accept housing allocations through the states Regional Housing Need Allocation (RHNA) process and that actually produce housing.

When completed, Plan Bay Area will be the regions 25-year blueprint for transportation, housing and land use policies and investments. California’s Sustainable Communities and Climate Protection Act (SB 375, Steinberg) requires that each of the states 18 Metropolitan Planning Organizations and in the Bay Area specifically MTC and ABAG develop a long-range plan to reduce per-capita greenhouse gas emissions from cars and light trucks. The Bay Area is required to reduce emissions by 7 percent by 2020 and by 15 percent by 2035. SB 375 also requires Plan Bay Area to include a strategy to house by 2035 all of the Bay Areas projected 25-year population growth, without displacing current low-income residents.

The Preferred Land Use and Transportation Investment Strategy will comprise the Plan Bay Area project alternative to be evaluated as part of the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) required by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). In December 2012, the agencies expect to release the draft Plan Bay Area and EIR, which will be followed by public hearings throughout the region. MTC and ABAG are due to adopt the final Plan Bay Area and certify the final EIR in April 2013.

In a separate action, ABAG voted last night to approve a draft Regional Housing Need Allocation (RHNA) methodology. The methodology will be used to meet state requirements to include sufficient affordable housing for the Bay Areas projected population growth, so that people won’t have to commute to their jobs from homes outside the Bay Area. ABAG will take final action on the RHNA methodology at its July meeting.

MTC is the nine-county San Francisco Bay Areas transportation planning, coordinating and financing agency. ABAG is the council of governments and regional planning agency for the nine counties and 101 cities and towns of the San Francisco Bay region.

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