Background:

Following a series of correspondence between MTC Chair Steve Kinsey and ABAG President Gwen Regalia, and approvals of both ABAG's and MTC's policy bodies, an ABAG-MTC Task Force has been formed to review ways to improve comprehensive regional planning, including possible organizational and structural changes to ABAG and MTC.

About ABAG:

The Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) is the official Council of Governments (COG) representing the Bay Area's nine counties and 101 cities. Formed in 1961, ABAG initiates innovative programs, projects, and partnerships to help resolve the region's economic, social and environmental challenges. ABAG is known statewide, nationally, and internationally for its award-winning research and analysis and cost-effective local government service programs.

Holding the distinction of being the first Council of Governments in California and as the Bay Area's official regional planning agency, ABAG tackles the issues related to land use, sustainability, and environmental quality through cutting-edge planning, policy, and partnerships. ABAG's Projections Series are pivotal to planning and development decision-making by local government policy makers and administrators, as well as private sector business and the general public. They are consistently rated as one of the most reliable prognostications of Bay Area economic trends.

In response to critical environmental and sustainability challenges, ABAG manages a pooled natural gas purchasing program, the Hazardous Waste/Green Business Program, and contributes state and nationally respected earthquake planning research and supporting hazard maps. The Agency also administers the San Francisco Estuary Program and the Bay Trail Project, both designed to preserve and protect the region's natural resources. Recognizing that issues transcend local and regional boundaries, ABAG created and participates in two Inter-Regional partnerships with those counties and regions (San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Santa Cruz, San Benito, and Monterey) that touch the Bay Area. These inter-regional partnerships problem-solve inter-regional traffic, jobs/housing balance, and economic development issues.

ABAG's award-winning cost-effective member service programs, ABAG PLAN (Risk Management and Insurance Services) and ABAG Financial Services, represent another dimension to the variety of services, specialized training, and planning resources and publications available to member jurisdictions. An innovative example is the new workforce housing initiative (called the California Home Source/Lease-Purchase Home Ownership Program) developed by the ABAG Finance Authority for Nonprofit Corporations that directly addresses access to housing and home ownership. These services and programs reflect ABAG's regional leadership in helping meet the growing demands of an expanding Bay Area and its nearly seven million residents.

About MTC:

The Metropolitan Transportation Commission is really three agencies in one — with a shared mission to keep the Bay Area moving. Created by the California Legislature in 1970 to plan the transportation future of the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area, MTC's mandate grew as the region's population expanded and problems became more complex. In addition to serving as the transportation planning, financing and coordinating agency for the Bay Area, the 19-member Commission doubles as the Bay Area Toll Authority or BATA — charged with ensuring that funding is adequate for the upkeep and expansion of the region's seven state-owned toll bridges — and triples as the Service Authority for Freeways and Expressways or SAFE, which employs a fleet of tow trucks and a network of roadside call boxes to unclog traffic.

MTC, BATA and SAFE work together to knit the Bay Area's 20,000 miles of local streets and roads; 1,400 miles of highway; 4,000 buses, trains and ferries; and eight toll bridges into a smooth-functioning network that gets the region's nearly 7 million residents where they need to go, when they need to get there. A pioneer in new transportation technologies, MTC sponsors a number of innovative programs to smooth daily travel — including the 511 traveler information system and the TransLink® transit smart card. Through its Transportation for Livable Communities and Housing Incentive Program initiatives, the Commission is even helping redraw the urban landscape by providing direct financial incentives for transit- and pedestrian-oriented development.