The Future of MTC and ABAG

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In 2015, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) commenced a hostile takeover of the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG). Not content with the power to control hundreds of billions of dollars, MTC decided it was no longer willing to share power over the Regional Transportation Plan and Sustainable Communities Strategy with ABAG. It decided it wanted to bring ABAG planners under the control of MTC’s Executive Director, Steve Heminger.

The power plays of these two key regional agencies have been captured in exceptional detail in reporting by Zelda Bronstein:

The false promise of regional governance (Note that the statements about CEQA streamlining are incorrect)
Displacement policy at risk in quiet power struggle
Secrecy rules in regional-planning power struggle
Should the regional transportation agency be elected?
A pricey palace, huge losses in risky investments, a busted bridge
The strange and telling story behind the regional planning merger deal

TRANSDEF has twice weighed into the fray:
testimony to the MTC meeting preliminarily considering the take-over of ABAB planning staff, and testimony to the MTC meeting expected to give a final go-ahead to the take-over.