Pushing Back on ABAG

Dedicated to Empowering and Informing the Burlingame Community

June 4, 2016

Yesterday's Daily Post had an article about the State Assembly candidates seeking Rich Gordon's seat. It focussed on their commentary about the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) and how they set "housing quotas". It is a pretty good article getting most of the candidates on the record as being critical of the agency, how it calculates the housing quotas, and how they are currently implemented (i.e. city by city which is ironic for something called "ABAG"). These candidates are not in our district so I don't need to get into who said what as much as what the main themes were. I'll just quote one of the best parts from Seelum Reddy

"We cannot live with their quotas," Reddy said. "We do not have room for more construction".

In 21 column inches they hit on most of the main points: the cost of the studies, the lack of incentives, etc, but they missed the Big One. Altogether now people, "Where will the water come from????"

Posted in County Issues, Local Real Estate, Planning, Smart Growth, State Ievel issues, Water

4 responses to “Pushing Back on ABAG”

Bruce Dickinson

June 9, 2016

Well Joe, I gotta tell ya, according to the standard-bearer of the Republican Party, President Trump, there is no water shortage in California!
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/trump-s-dubious-drought-claims/?WT.mc_id=SA_FB_POLE_NEWS
Bruce Dickinson cannot believe how this person has single-handedly duped the entire Republican party. You gotta admit, he is smarter that what we give him credit for!
Jennifer

June 9, 2016

Check this out, it is unbelievable–A new Proposal from the Governor to “streamline affordable housing approvals”…Our City has written a letter in opposition. I hope others will join them. http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/real-estate/2016/05/brown-affordable-housing-development-approval-ceqa
Money in their pockets…

June 10, 2016

Meanwhile, city council members in the area are being asked to speak at community organizations to promote “Regionalism” aka ABAG (I recently got a speaker request for a committee that I lead).
I didn’t really understand even the term, until a few years ago when City Councilman, Matt Grocott, pointed it out to me at a political meeting.
http://www.cityofsancarlos.org/depts/mayor_council/members/council_member_matt_grocott.asp
Besides getting slabs of crap architecture like you see on San Mateo Dr and El Camino now, Regionalism specifically circumvents the voice of individuals and of cities to ensure local control and review via planning commission and city council hearings for new housing projects.
In addition to creating more housing supply, and also creating more affordable units, the ABAG Regionalism Credo supports The Trades via on-going construction contracts.
ABAG Regionalism subverts individual rights and power for the greater good of the group.
And, politicians have long won elections based on what jobs and contracts they could bring to their area and constituents. The environmentally friendly flavor of high density, transit oriented housing and various other political initiatives is just the icing on the cake for The Team, not the cake itself.
If you want to push back on ABAG and Regionalism, then you should understand it’s motives.
As I’ve written about for years on The Voice, when you consider ABAG, HSR, GBI, etc, don’t be surprised if more initiatives like these keep popping up. It’s all the same initiative, pushed by the same organization, all rooted in money in their member’s pockets – the ultimate motivator.
Jennifer

June 11, 2016

I think you are on to something there….

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The Burlingame Voice is dedicated to informing and empowering the Burlingame community. Our blog is a public forum for the discussion of issues that relate to Burlingame, California. Opinions posted on the Burlingame Voice are those of the poster and commenter and not necessarily the opinion of the Editorial Board. Comments are subject to the Terms of Use.