The Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) is a regional planning agency incorporating various

local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of governance or public administration within a particular sovereign state. Local governments typically constitute a subdivision of a higher-level political or administrative unit, such a ...

s in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. It encompasses nine counties surrounding the San Francisco Bay. Those counties are Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa,

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma. It has the ability to establish housing and transportation goals for cities to minimize

urban sprawl Urban sprawl (also known as suburban sprawl or urban encroachment) is defined as "the spreading of urban developments (such as houses and shopping centers) on undeveloped land near a city". Urban sprawl has been described as the unrestricted ...

by requiring that housing be zoned for near new workplace construction. It deals with land use, housing, environmental quality, and economic development. Non-profit organizations as well as governmental organizations can be members. All nine counties and 101 cities within the Bay Area are voluntary members of ABAG. As an advisory organization, ABAG has limited statutory authority. It is governed by its General Assembly, which consists of an elected official (delegate) from each city and county which is a member of the organization. The General Assembly determines policy, adopts the annual budget and work program, and reviews policy actions taken or proposed by the organization's Executive Board. A majority of city and county votes are required for action. The organization is associated with such agencies and projects as the San Francisco Bay Trail and the San Francisco Estuary Partnership. ABAG works with other regional agencies, including the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC),

Bay Area Air Quality Management District The Bay Area Air District (BAAD), formerly Bay Area Air Quality Management District or BAAQMD, is a public agency that regulates the stationary sources of air pollution in the nine counties of California's San Francisco Bay Area: Alameda County, ...

, and

San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission The San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC) is a California state commission dedicated to the protection, enhancement and responsible use of the San Francisco Bay. It holds jurisdiction over almost the entirety of the Ba ...

, to promote

sustainable development Sustainable development is an approach to growth and Human development (economics), human development that aims to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.United Nations General ...

by working in partnership with city and county governments to establish both Priority Development Areas and Priority Conservation Areas. These local actions will, in turn, help achieve a more efficient, equitable, and environmentally sustainable region.

History

ABAG was formed in 1961. In 1970, it issued its Regional Plan, 1970-1990, the Bay Area's first comprehensive regional plan. The document outlined a regional open space plan, regional information systems and technology support, criminal justice and training, water policy and waste collection, and earthquake hazards and planning. ABAG, along with the MTC, worked together to develop and implement Plan Bay Area in 2013 as a transportation and land-use/housing strategy through 2040.Plan Bay Area website, http://planbayarea.org/plan-bay-area.html

Housing

References

External links

*
Priority Development Areas

Priority Conservation Areas

ABAG Earthquake-related information.
(See also

earthquake An earthquakealso called a quake, tremor, or tembloris the shaking of the Earth's surface resulting from a sudden release of energy in the lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from those so weak they ...

)
Home structure seismic evaluation.
(See also

seismic retrofit Seismology (; from Ancient Greek σεισμός (''seismós'') meaning "earthquake" and -λογία (''-logía'') meaning "study of") is the scientific study of earthquakes (or generally, quakes) and the generation and propagation of elastic ...

.)
For seismic shake maps generated for this area.
(See Hayward Fault Zone for examples of use in an article.) {{Authority control Government in the San Francisco Bay Area Councils of governments