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ABAG
Report on ABAG to Marin County Council of Mayors and Councilmembers: September 2020
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
ABAG/MTC Consolidation: After having joint committee meetings for the last several years and much discussion, the ABAG Legislation Committee and the MTC Legislation Committee were combined into one. This represents the first consolidated Committee of ABAG/MTC which was approved in August 2020.
ABAG BayREN: BayREN provides single family homeowners, multi-family property owners and small businesses with the technical assistance and financial resources they need to significantly reduce monthly energy costs. They also assist local governments in evaluating and improving compliance with state energy codes. BayREN works with third-party consultants to provide those services. For more information go to their website: https://www.bayren.org
Final Blueprint for Plan Bay Area 2050: ABAG Executive Board approved the Final Blueprint that identifies the Strategies (public policies and investments for the next 30 years) and Growth Geographies (key locations for future focused housing and job growth) along with the Regional Growth Forecast that will provide the foundation for the preferred option for the Draft Plan Bay Area 2050.
ABAG Housing (RHNA) Methodology Committee: The Methodology Committee discussed options for allocating units by income that are aligned with the statutory objectives of RHNA. After, over 3 hours of debate, the Committee recommended that ABAG adopt a methodology that uses the 2050 Households from the Plan Bay Area Blueprint 2050 as the baseline allocation; the Bottoms Up income allocation; and, an addition factor for High Occupancy Areas and Proximity to Jobs (Option 8A). The final decision on the methodology will be made by the ABAG Executive Board in October 2020
ABAG Budget for FY 20/21: After the June 2020 General Assembly (GA), the ABAG Executive Board took to heart the concerns many of its members expressed about raising the dues. After scrutinizing the budget carefully, staff came back to the Executive Board with a modified budget proposal that required NO increase at all to the dues for FY 20/21. The Executive Board approved this budget modification and thanked CFO Brian Mayhew and his staff for their work.
ABAG/MTC Consolidation: Four years ago, ABAG/MTC voted to consolidate staff and begin working on consolidating governing bodies of both organizations. After staff was consolidated, on July 24, 2019 the MTC/ABAG Governance committee began meeting to evaluate consolidation of the governing bodies. In 2020, the Governance Committee recommended that the ABAG and MTC ‘consolidation’ begin with consolidating some of the committees that addressed issues of shared interest starting with the ABAG Legislation Committee and the MTC Legislation Committee.
These committees were chosen, in part, due to the fact, that these committees had been meeting jointly for several years. After much discussion, the Governance Committee recommended to ABAG and MTC that they consolidate the 2 Legislative committees into one with the following membership:
- 20 members of which MTC would have 9 voting members and 2 non-voting; and, ABAG would have 9 voting members.
- MTC Membership would include:2 city representatives and 6 supervisors and a BCDC representative
- ABAG Membership would include 5 city representatives and 4 supervisors.
The above composition resulted in a geographic representation of: 7 from the North Bay; 2 from the South Bay; 6 from the East Bay; and, 3 from the West Bay.
At the ABAG Executive Board meeting in August 2020, I moved and Councilmember Lee seconded the motion to approve the Resolution consolidating the two legislative committees by adding the following sections to the Resolution:
(i) Over time the ABAG President shall strive to achieve ABAG appointments to the Joint MTC ABAG Legislation Committee such that there shall be a balance between City and County representatives and a geographic balance among the north, south, east and west representatives of the ABAG region.
(j) Over time the ABAG members of the Joint MTC ABAG Legislation Committee shall strive to encourage appointments of the Chair and Vice Chair of the committee such that one shall be a city representative and one shall be a county representative. The motion passed unanimously.
Bay Area Regional Energy Network (BayREN): BayREN offers region-wide energy programs, services and resources to members of the public by promoting energy efficient buildings, reducing carbon emissions and building government capacity. Since 2013, ABAG has served as the program administrator and lead agency for Bay Area Regional Energy Network (BayREN) which is a 10-member unincorporated association of local government entities.
In October 2019, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) approved BayREN as a permanent program administrator and allowed PG&E and BayREN to begin negotiating contract terms independent of the CPUC. ABAG, on behalf of BayREN, and PG&E have entered into a funding agreement through 2022.
BayREN provides single family homeowners, multi-family property owners and small businesses with the technical assistance and financial resources they need to significantly reduce monthly energy costs. They also assist local governments in evaluating and improving compliance with state energy codes. BayREN works with third-party consultants to provide those services. The third-party consultants were selected through a competitive process to assist in the implementation of energy efficiency programs. In September 2020, the ABAG Executive Board approved several amended contracts for those third-party consultants.
Plan Bay Area 2050 – Draft Blueprint: On September 17, 2020, the ABAG Executive Board approved the Final Blueprint that identifies the Strategies (public policies and investments for the next 30 years) and Growth Geographies (key locations for future focused housing and job growth) along with the Regional Growth Forecast that will provide the foundation for the preferred option for the Draft Plan Bay Area 2050.
The Final Blueprint: 35 Strategies that include public policies and investments clustered under eleven categories:
- Transportation: Maintain and Operate the Existing System
- Transportation: Create Healthy and Safe Streets
- Transportation: Build a Next-Generation Transit Network
- Housing: Protect and Preserve Affordable Housing
- Housing: Spur Housing Production at All Income Levels
- Housing: Create Inclusive Communities
- Economy: Improve Economic Mobility
- Economy: Shift the Location of Jobs
- Environment: Reduce Risks from Hazards
- Environment: Expand Access to Parks and Open Space
- Environment: Reduce Climate Emissions
Each of the strategies identifies the: 1) anticipated lifecycle cost of this strategy, in year-of-expenditure dollars, regardless of the implementing organization (local, regional, state); 2) primary goal(s); and, description of the strategy; and, a brief description of changes to strategy scope or cost since Draft Blueprint phase (if any). Following is one example of the 35 strategies that will be incorporated into the Draft Plan Bay Area.
If you would like a copy of the 35 strategies, please contact me and/or your ABAG representative on your Council.
CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE
Growth Geographies: The job and housing growth in the 9 Bay Area Counties would be focused in the Priority Development Areas, High Resource Areas, Transit-Rich Areas; and, Priority Production Areas.
- Regional Growth Forecast: The Regional Growth Forecast Methodology was approved by the ABAG Executive Board in September 2019, and since then, staff worked closely with technical experts to develop the nine-county forecasts over the 30-year planning horizon. The Draft Regional Growth Forecast was released in spring 2020, and subsequently revised to integrate the significant adverse effects of the Coronavirus pandemic and 2020 recession on the first decade of the planning period. Following is the approved Regional Growth Forecast for Plan Bay Area 2050.
ABAG/MTC will issue the notice of preparation of the EIR and develop the alternates to be evaluated in the EIR in October; decide on the preferred alternative in December 2020 and begin developing the Draft Plan Bay Area 2050, Draft EIR and Implementation Plan for release in April 2021 for public comment.
Plan Bay Area 2050 (“Plan”) will serve as the region’s next-generation plan, ultimately serving as the Regional Transportation Plan and Sustainable Communities Strategy for the San Francisco Bay Area.
ABAG Housing Methodology Committee: The Housing Methodology Committee’s (HMC) objective is to recommend to the ABAG Executive Board an allocation methodology for dividing he Bay Area’s Regional Housing Need Determination (RHND) --441,000 housing units -- among the region’s jurisdictions for the next Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) cycle. The RHNA methodology is a formula that calculates the number of housing units assigned to each city and county, and the formula also distributes each jurisdiction’s housing unit allocation among four affordability levels. The RHNA allocation must meet the five statutory objectives of RHNA and be consistent with the forecasted development pattern from Plan Bay Area 2050.
The Committee membership included an elected official and a staff person from each County along with many stakeholders who are not elected officials. ABAG hired a moderator to manage the meetings and the majority of the group agreed on a voting process.
In October 2019, the Regional Housing Methodology Committee began work and reached consensus on the following principles to guide the development of the RHNA methodology:
1. More housing should go to jurisdictions with more jobs than housing and to communities exhibiting racial and economic exclusion;
2. The methodology should focus on:
- Equity, as represented by High Opportunity Areas; and
- Relationship between housing and jobs; however, no consensus on specific factor.
3. Equity factors need to be part of total allocation, not just income allocation;
4. Do not limit allocations based on past RHNA; and,
5. Housing in high hazard areas is a concern, but RHNA may not be the best tool to address
In building the RHNA Methodology, the Committee considered three primary components:
1. Baseline allocation which is used to assign each jurisdiction a beginning share of the RHND.
2. Income allocation approach which determines how units are allocated by income group to each jurisdiction.
3. Factors and weights which are used to adjust a jurisdiction’s baseline allocation up or down, depending on how a jurisdiction scores on a factor compared to other jurisdictions in the region.
On September 18, 2020, the Committee met for the last time and finalized their recommendation which includes using:
- 2050 Households from the Plan Bay Area Blueprint 2050 as the baseline allocation. With this approach, a jurisdiction’s initial share of the RHND is based on its share of the region’s total households in the year 2050. Using households in 2050 takes into consideration the number of households that are currently living in a jurisdiction as well as the number of households expected to be added over the next several decades. The HMC preferred this option because it captures the benefits of using the Plan Bay Area 2050 Blueprint in the RHNA methodology while also providing a middle ground between using a jurisdiction’s existing households and its expected housing growth from the Plan
- Bottoms Up income allocation. With this approach, the income allocation methodology is used to identify the number of units for each income category, and the sum of units in the four income categories equals a jurisdiction’s total allocation. With this option, there are two separate variants:a. Bottom-Up with 2-Factor Concept; and, b. Bottom-Up with 3 Factor Concept. See the chart below for an explanation of this option:
Additional Factors and Weights. After many discussions, the Committee reached consensus to include a factor for an additional emphasis on geographic areas that are designated ‘High Opportunity Areas’ and proximity to jobs. Recently, some of the housing advocates suggested to include an “equity adjustment”.
At the September 18, 2020 meeting of the Housing Methodology Committee there were not enough votes to bring forward the equity adjustment factor. Then, after considerable discussion, the Committee voted for Option 8A.
If this option is approved by the ABAG Executive Board, the following chart provides a rough estimate of what the next RHNA cycle will be for Marin:
This recommendation now goes to the ABAG Regional Planning Committee on October 1, 2020; then, the MTC Planning and ABAG Administrative Committees on October 9, 2020. The final decision will be made by the ABAG Executive Board on October 15, 2020.
There are still some outstanding issues one of which is how the growth associated with the SOI should be distributed? In the past, the growth was assigned to the respective cities’ RHNA allocation rather than the unincorporated county. This issue has not yet been decided.
ABAG/MTC staff has developed a great tool that will show you how the various factors affect our individual RHNA allocation. This tool has been updated to include the recommended factors in assigning the number of housing units by the four income categories.
Here is the link: https://rhna-factors.mtcanalytics.org/.
UPComing meetings[1]
- September 21, 2020--MTC Policy Advisory Committee & Access Subcommittee, 10:05 am
- September 23, 2020--MTC Bay Area Infrastructure Financing Authority, 9:05 am
- September 25, 2020--Bay Area Regional Collaborative, 1:05pm
- September 28, 2020—MTC BATA Recovery Ad Hoc Working Group, 1:00 pm
- October 1, 2020—ABAG Regional Planning Committee, 1:30 pm
- October 6, 2020 --MTC Regional Advisory Working Group, 9:35am
- October 9, 2020--MTC Operations Committee, 9:35 am
- October 14, 2020 – MTC Bay Area Toll Authority Oversight Committee, 9:35 am
- October 15, 2020—ABAG Housing Committee, 4:30 pm
- October 26, 2020--MTC Blue Ribbon Transit Recovery Task Force, 1:05pm
- October 28, 2020 -- MTC Audit Committee, 9:05 am
- October 29, 2020 --ABAG POWER Board of Directors, 11:00 am
MTC Bay Area Toll Authority, 9:35 am Metropolitan Transportation Commission, 9:45 am
MTC Policy Advisory Council Fare Coordination & Integration Subcommittee, 1:05pm
Joint MTC Planning & ABAG Administrative Committees, 9:40 am
Joint MTC ABAG Legislative Committee, 9:45 am
MTC Administration Committee, 9:40 am
MTC Programming and Allocations Committee, 9:45 am
MTC Policy Advisory Council, 1:35pm
ABAG Executive Board, 6:05pm
MTC Bay Area Toll Authority, 9:35 am
MTC Bay Area Headquarters Authority, 9:40 am
MTC Bay Area Infrastructure Financing Authority, 9:45 am
Metropolitan Transportation Commission, 9:50 am
Joint ABAG MTC Governance Committee, 12:30 pm
If you have questions, contact Pat Eklund, Mayor Pro Tem, City of Novato at 415-883-9116; pateklund@comcast.net.
[1] All meetings are conducted via Zoom, webcast, teleconference, unless noted otherwise.