How ABAG Will Manage Bay Area Growth

ABAG (Association of Bay Area Government in Oakland) plans to control the population growth and congestion of the Bay Area by forcing massive, stack-and-pack real estate development to our nine counties. So ABAG is mandating 187,990 units be built, not giving credit for renovations of delapidated buildings. What they don't tell you is that where their "Plan" took effect in Dublin, four to seven people, who were often recent immigrants imported from elsewhere, moved into such units, causing significant disruption to pubic schools. Assuming the number of arrivals we realize is five persons, the Bay Area will take on 939,950 new residents - this does not include existing real estate projects already underway that will easily triple this figure.

Now to look at Contra Costa County. It has been allocated 20,630, high-density units. Multiplying that by five brings another 103,150 residents to our County alone. Now add existing projects that will boost that number to over 300,000 more people. In effect, Plan Bay Area (and developers) are constructing another huge city, twice the population of Concord, in our crowded Contra Costa County. And more of those sized cities will be added to the eight other Bay Area counties. 

So, could existing real estate projects really be this aggressive? Let's examine Orinda as an example. City of Orinda approved three major developments and two minor ones: Orinda Senior Apartments, Orinda Grove, Wilder Subdivision, Lavenida Lane and J and J Ranch, totaling 418 properties. Thus, Orinda will be providing for approximately 1,356 more people (not including a Bolinger Canyon development, currently under consideration. ABAG's allocation for Orinda is 227 units.

Combined, Orinda will be taking on 45 times the population growth in nine years as compared to what it realized between 2000-2010, according to the U.S. Census Report. In a few short years, Orinda is growing by over 10% and the same has been approved for Moraga by Moraga City Council. How will this impact Moraga Road, our educational corridor and lifeline, that is already operating at maximum capacity? That is for another blog post.

ABAG Final Housing Allocation Number are here:
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxwbGFuYmF5YXJlYWxhbW9yaW5kYXxne...

What is ABAG's rationale? They purport to be expediting development near public transportation to relieve congestion and CO2 emissions. But who relies soley on public transportation and won't this accelerate overdevelopment? And is it healthy to move children into high-density housing beside freeways?

Here is a video trailer on the health risks of living near expressways.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xVUA4jrAY0