Local elected and appointed officials and their staff members are invited to two half-day workshops on smart growth in the Bay Area, sponsored by the Association of Bay Area Governments, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District and the Urban Land Institute. The workshops will build on the Institute's recently released report, Smart Growth in the San Francisco Bay Area: Effective Local Approaches.
The first workshop, on Community Involvement Techniques, will discuss successful methods for gaining acceptance of smart growth plans and projects. It will be held on Friday, August 22. The second workshop, on Friday, September 26, will cover Financing and Planning Strategies, particularly methods for funding infrastructure to support smart growth plans and projects. There is no registration fee, but participants should register at http://www.abag.ca.gov/abag/events/events_display.
The Bay Area Air Quality Management District, in conjunction with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and the Association of Bay Area Governments, is holding six community meetings in September to receive public input on the 2002 Ozone Attainment Strategy and the 2003 Clean Air Plan (see April/May 2003 issue). The current ozone planning process is intended to update both the ozone attainment strategy for the national standard and the plan for the state ozone standard.
The meetings are being planned to inform the public and gather input as the district assesses its progress toward achieving the federal and state ozone standards, reviews air pollution control strategies, and determines what additional control strategies are needed. Meetings will be held by groups in East Palo Alto, Southeast San Francisco (Bayview area), East San Jose, West Oakland, Richmond and Crocket/Rodeo. All meetings will run for two hours, beginning at 6:30 pm.
| Community | Date | Location |
| Rodeo/Crockett | Thursday, September 4th | Rodeo Senior Center 189 Parker Avenue @ 3rd Street Rodeo, CA |
| East Palo Alto | Wednesday, September 10 | East Palo Alto Senior Center 560 Bell Street East Palo Alto, CA |
| Richmond | Thursday, September 11 | Nevin Community Center Auditorium 598 Nevin Avenue Richmond, CA |
| West Oakland | Tuesday, September 16 | Jubilee West Community Center 1485 Chester @ 8th St. Oakland, CA |
| East San Jose | Wednesday, September 24 | Mayfair Community Center 2039 Kammerer Avenue San Jose, CA |
| S. E. San Francisco | Tuesday, September 30 | Southeast Community College Alex Pitcher Community Room 1800 Oakdale Ave @ Phelps San Francisco, CA |
For more information: Darrell Waller, BAAQMD, 415-749-4987
The current forum for discussion of better cooperation between the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) is a Task Force comprised of the chairs and six members of each agency's board, including representatives from each of the three major Bay Area cities. Task Force meetings are scheduled through December to discuss ways to improve comprehensive regional planning, including possible organizational and structural changes to ABAG and MTC. In the past, Bay Area legislators have unsuccessfully proposed legislation to make such changes (see Aug/Sept 2002 issue), but they and the two agencies have agreed to delay any legislation related to restructuring until the Task Force has concluded its work.
The Task Force meetings are being facilitated by John Fregonese of Fregonese Calthorpe Associates and Don Blubaugh, former City Manager of Walnut Creek, who have also been managing the "Shaping Our Future" countywide planning effort in Contra Costa County. Meetings are held at the MetroCenter from 10 am to 1 pm. Future meeting dates are September 19, October 17, November 21 and December 19.
For more information: Gene Leong, ABAG, 510-464-7900