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The Metropolitan Transportation Commission adopted Plan Bay Area 2050+ and certified its environmental impact report last month, giving final approval to the region’s long-range blueprint for transportation, housing, economic resiliency and environmental sustainability.
The plan was approved unanimously a week before by the Association of Bay Area Governments’ Executive Board, concluding a nearly three-year planning process that included input from more than 17,600 residents, community organizations, advocacy groups and public agencies.
Plan Bay Area 2050+ outlines 35 strategies across transportation, housing, the economy and the environment and is intended to make the nine-county region more affordable, connected and resilient through 2050 and beyond.
The plan emphasizes expanding affordable housing, improving equity in the reach of public transit, and addressing climate risks such as wildfires and rising sea levels.
For the first time, the plan includes a regional resilience project list. It is an inventory of infrastructure projects needed to prepare the region for roughly 4.9 feet of sea level rise in coming decades.
Michael Germeraad, associate planner with ABAG, said many of the projects on the resiliency list are conceptual in nature.
“It’s meant to give the region a tool to understand the level of funding that’s needed to meet this challenge,” Germeraad said. “Our approach is allowing locals or asset managers to lead an adaptation planning … as opposed to us coming in at the regional level and suggesting a specific approach.”
ABAG is the council of governments and the regional planning agency for the Bay Area’s nine counties and 101 cities and towns, and the MTC is the transportation planning and financing agency for the same area. The two agencies are required by the state to develop the regional plan jointly.
The Final Plan Bay Area 2050+ can be viewed at planbayarea.org/finalplan. The EIR can be found at planbayarea.org/2050/environmental-impact-report-eir.
– Story by Ruth Dusseault, Bay City News Service
