Is it possible to incorporate "smart growth" into all the future planning for the Bay Area? Five regional agencies are beginning work on a Smart Growth Strategy which would institutionalize a new approach to planning for future growth in the region. The two-year effort will work toward two goals:
The agencies include the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG), the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD), the Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC) and the Regional Water Quality Control Board (RWQCB). The five agencies will be contributing funding and staffing to match a grant from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The work plan, with a proposed budget of almost $1 million, was on the MTC and ABAG agendas in July; the other agencies will be considering it in August and September.
As proposed, the work plan for the Smart Growth Strategy consists of four phases. Phase 1 is underway. In addition to approval of the work plan and budget by the five agencies, it includes designing a process to include local leaders and the public in developing the Strategy. The Steering Committee will include 3 members each from MTC, BAAQMD and ABAG; BCDC and RWQCB will each appoint one member from their boards. Advisors to the Steering Committee will include leaders from the Bay Area Alliance for Sustainable Development (BAASD), the Bay Area Transportation and Land Use Coalition, the San Francisco District Council of the Urban Land Institute, and similar organizations as appropriate. In addition, consultants will be hired to assist with defining and implementing the overall public input phase of the planning process. To avoid duplication of effort, the work plan will be coordinated with the BAASD's Regional Livability Footprint Project, which is intended to relate action recommendations in the Alliance's Compact for Sustainable Development to land use decisions in the Bay Area.
Phase 2 will focus on public input, through a series of workshops to be held around the Bay Area beginning in September. These workshops will be designed to involve key local officials and interested stakeholders, including groups and individuals who have not previously participated in regional growth and planning. Workshops will be held in five or six subregions, often based on pairs of counties, such as Marin/Sonoma. They will begin by acknowledging efforts already underway in the subregion to manage growth, such as urban growth boundaries, transit-oriented planning and development programs, and surveys of housing opportunities. Initial workshops will be "town hall meetings", bringing together the public with city councilmembers and county supervisors to brainstorm problems, issues and solutions. Followup workshops will begin to focus on specific solutions, including implementation measures which might require changes at the regional or state level.
At each step of the workshop process, one result will be a map of each subregion defining where and how the future growth should be accommodated. A final series of workshops will bring together local elected officials and staff, with attendees from the previous workshops who wish to participate, to summarize and review proposed land use changes, transportation investments, and implementation ideas which have resulted from earlier workshops. If these proposals will not accommodate all the growth in ABAG's projections, additional ideas will be solicited as well. The workshops will provide a set of preliminary strategies which can be used to shift projected growth patterns away from the status quo, and identification of needed fiscal and regulatory incentives to support smart growth land use decisions. These strategies and incentives, reflecting the needs and priorities of local jurisdictions, will be presented to the Steering Committee in March and April 2001.
While some strategies may be implemented almost immediately at the local level, reinforcing awareness of the benefits brought by smart growth, at the regional level the workshop results will lead to Phase 3, preparation and analysis of an alternative regional growth scenario. Using a 25-year time frame, ABAG will prepare both a baseline scenario based on current trends, as usual, and also a smart growth scenario incorporating workshop conclusions. A preliminary analysis of the alternative's effects on regional open space, housing, and other quality of life concerns will be prepared to help local jurisdictions as they compare and comment on the two scenarios. A more detailed analysis of both scenarios, including transportation and air quality impacts, will then be provided to the Steering Committee. The Steering Committee will also be provided with a set of implementation strategieslocal, regional and state levelwhich would be needed for the alternative growth scenario.
At a final "joint summit" meeting, the boards of the regional agencies will meet to consider the results of the previous work in the form of two growth forecasts, two sets of transportation investments, two sets of projected effects on the region, and a preliminary implementation plan tied to the future scenarios. The local jurisdictions, as represented on the ABAG Executive Board, will vote first, choosing one of the two scenarios. The regional agencies, which can provide input for the first vote, may then vote to take action on any of the implementation measures called for in the scenario chosen in the first vote. This landmark summit meeting is tentatively scheduled to take place in the summer of 2002.
Phase 4, implementation, will be an ongoing responsibility of local jurisdictions and regional agencies, with involvement by the state as well. If the preceding process has worked as intended, the region will have two advantages as it moves forward: a unified approach to applying smart growth to decisions made at all these levels, and also improved coordination between regional agencies to address the interrelated issues of land use, transportation, air quality and quality of life.
Leslie Stewart
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