Register now! 2024 ABAG General Assembly is June 21

Join representatives from the Bay Area’s nine counties and 101 member cities for the annual General Assembly and Business Meeting conference on Friday, June 21 at the Oakland Museum of California. Delegates, please RSVP ASAP to ensure a quorum. Register on Eventbrite.

New Research Finds Bay Area Needs $9.7 Billion to 'Unlock' 40,000 Affordable Homes in Predevelopment Pipeline

Enterprise Community Partners and the Bay Area Housing Finance Authority (BAHFA) in May released the Bay Area Affordable Housing Pipeline 2024 Report, which analyzes affordable housing projects in various stages of predevelopment and identifies solutions for moving them toward completion. The updated research reveals there are now 433 projects in various stages of predevelopment that would create more than 40,896 affordable homes across the nine-county Bay Area. These would account for nearly a quarter of the 180,000 affordable homes the state’s Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) Plan determined are needed in the Bay Area by 2031.
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Regional Housing Technical Assistance (RHTA) Information Session and New Resources Now Available

• The RHTA program is hosting a series of information sessions on AB 1332. Jurisdictions must create a program to pre-approve ADU plans by January 1, 2025. In the first session, staff from Goldfarb & Lipman LLP will provide information on the legislation. Building officials and planners are encouraged to attend. No registration is required. Attend the June 3 session.
  
  
• BAHFA, ABAG and MTC have released a Tribal Consultation Toolkit to support local government staff and other critical stakeholders during tribal consultation under Senate Bill 35 (2018) and Assembly Bill 168 (2020). The goal of this Toolkit is to help ensure that new affordable housing projects properly identify, respect and care for tribal cultural resources that may be present, while advancing and streamlining affordable housing priorities. Download the Tribal Consultation Toolkit.
  
  
• A recording of the webinar “Preparing Objective Standards for Multifamily Housing: Introducing ABAG's Objective Design Standards Handbook” is now available for jurisdictions working on or refining their Objective Design Standards. In addition to the overview webinar and slides, jurisdiction staff can access the Handbook files, template resources and reference materials. Download the Handbook.

ABAG-MTC delegation advocates in Washington for Bay Area priorities

ABAG President Belia Ramos and Vice President Jesse Arreguin, MTC Commissioners David Canepa and Carol Dutra-Vernaci, along with ABAG-MTC Executive Director Andrew Fremier traveled to Washington D.C. earlier this month to advocate for Bay Area transportation and housing priorities. Meetings were held with members and staff of the Bay Area Congressional delegation, officials with the U.S. Department of Transportation and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and U.S. House and Senate committees with jurisdiction over transportation and housing.
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Wrap-up: 2024 San Francisco Estuary Conference

The 16th biennial State of the San Francisco Estuary Conference, hosted by the San Francisco Estuary Partnership, returned in person this year for the first time since 2019. The Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the Bay Area Regional Collaborative and the San Francisco Bay Trail are sponsors of this year’s event. The State of the San Francisco Estuary Conference showcased the latest information about the Bay Area’s work to sustain and improve the estuary’s habitats, living resources, water quality, climate resilience and environmental stewardship.
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BayREN Annual Report 2023: Building Blocks for a Brighter Future

The Bay Area Regional Energy Network (BayREN) has released its 2023 Annual Report, Building Blocks for a Brighter Future, which encapsulates the significant efforts and milestones achieved throughout the year in advancing energy efficiency and sustainability across the Bay Area. In 2023, BayREN celebrated a decade of impactful initiatives, marking a pivotal year characterized by substantial growth and innovation. BayREN’s efforts are tangible, having upgraded 72,000 housing units, disbursed over $78 million in incentives, and helped to avoid 166 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions to date.
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ABAG, MTC Take a Fresh Look at Equity Priority Communities

ABAG and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) released a draft update to the Bay Area’s roster of Equity Priority Communities (EPCs) in April. The agencies invite partners and technical stakeholders to provide comments, ask questions or offer other feedback about the updated draft EPC maps and related materials. The final update will be incorporated into Plan Bay Area 2050+, currently slated for adoption in fall 2025.
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California Recognizes Bay Area Communities for Pro-Housing Policies

The cities of Berkeley, Fairfield, Pinole and Richmond are among the communities having earned the state's Department of Housing and Community Development's "Prohousing" designation for efforts to encourage development of housing at all income levels. The designation comes with funding incentives and additional resources to help speed housing production.
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State Resource Agency Approves Plan for North Bay Habitat, Species Conservation

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife in May approved the North Bay Baylands Regional Conservation Investment Strategy produced by the San Francisco Estuary Partnership, MTC, Caltrans and the Sonoma County Transportation Authority and other organizations with support from scientists and members of the public. Better known among the partner agencies as the RCIS, the new strategy outlines a comprehensive plan for protecting sensitive tidal marsh, freshwater marsh and upland areas that provide critical wildlife habitat across portions of Marin, Sonoma, Napa and Solano counties.
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San Francisco Bay Trail Part of National Celebrate Trails Day

Bay Area residents were encouraged to walk, hike or roll their way to the San Francisco Bay Trail for national Celebrate Trails Day in April. Rails to Trails Conservancy, the nation’s largest trail, walking and biking advocacy organization, sponsored Celebrate Trails Day, with hundreds of events nationwide to inspire more people to make trails part of their everyday lives.
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