Plan Bay Area 2050

Draft Plan Bay Area 2050 Strategies

 ABAG and MTC has identified several overall objectives in the draft Plan Bay Area 2050. In summary, they include increasing housing production and creating inclusive communities; protecting, preserving, and producing more affordable housing; and shifting the location of jobs. Based on these objectives, the draft Plan Bay Area 2050 includes 9 strategies to address housing, economic, transportation, and environmental changes that are projected to occur in the Bay Area over the next 30 years. The draft Plan Bay Area 2050 Blueprint objectives are described in more detail below.

Saratoga & Plan Bay Area 2050 Strategies

Some of the strategies include allowing a variety of housing types at a range of densities in locations identified as a “High-Resource Area,” reducing barriers to housing development near transit by increasing incentives to build housing, including reduced parking requirements, project review times, and impact fees.

 The Plan Bay Area 2050 Draft Blueprint “Growth Geographies” identify sections of the City of Saratoga as High Resource Areas, including areas near Prospect Road, Quito Road, Allendale Avenue, and Fruitvale Avenue.  

Saratoga has seen policies, like those proposed by the draft Plan Bay Area 2050, implemented in a manner that strips the City of its ability to control future land use and development. For example, the City was recently required to approve a luxury townhome development under Senate Bill 35 requirements, leaving Saratoga with just one grocery store to serve more than 30,000 residents.    

Proposed Housing Objectives & Strategies

1. Spur Housing Production and Create Inclusive Communities
   • Allow greater mix of housing types and densities in priority development areas, transit-rich areas, and high resource areas (HRA) as defined by the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD).
   • Reduce barriers to housing near transit and areas of opportunity by increasing incentives to build housing, including reducing parking requirements, project review times, and impact fees.
   • Transform aging malls and office parks into mixed-income neighborhoods by permitting new land uses and reducing development costs.
2. Protect, Preserve, and Produce More Affordable Housing
   • Fund affordable housing by raising $1.5 billion in new annual revenues to leverage Federal, State, and local sources to protect, preserve, and produce deed-restricted affordable housing.
   • Require 10 to 20 percent of new housing to be affordable for developments of 5 units or more.
   • Strengthen renter protections, including limiting annual rent increases to rate of inflation for unites that are 10 years or older.

Proposed Economic Objectives & Strategies

1. Improve Economic Mobility
   • Expand childcare support for low-income families by providing a 50% childcare subsidy to low-income households for children under 5.
   • Create incubator programs or technical assistance in economically challenged areas, as well as access to workspaces, mentorship, and financing in disadvantaged communities.
   • Retain key industrial lands by establishing Priority Production Areas in local land-use policies.
2. Shift the Location of Jobs
   • Allow greater densities for new commercial development in Priority Development Areas as well as Transit-Rich Areas.
   • Apply transportation impact fees on new office developments.
   • Apply jobs-housing linkage fees to generate funding for affordable housing when new office development occurs in a job-rich location to incentivize locating more jobs in housing-rich locations.

Proposed Transportation Objectives & Strategies

1. Maintain and Optimize Existing Infrastructure
   • Operate and maintain the existing system, including roads and transit infrastructure while ensuring Priority Development Areas have sufficient transit service.
   • Enable seamless mobility with unified trip planning and fare payments.
   • Reform regional transit fare policy with streamline fare payment and replacement of existing operator-specific discounts.
   • Implement per-mile tolling on congested freeways that have transit alternatives, with discounts for carpoolers, low-income residents, and during off-peak travel hours.
2. Create healthy and safe streets
   • Build a Complete Streets Network to promote walking, biking, and other micromobility options through sidewalk and bike lane improvements.
   • Advance regional Vision Zero Policy through reductions in speed limits on local streets and by reducing speeds to 55 miles per hour on freeways, using design elements on roadways to slow traffic, and using automated speed enforcement on freeways.
3. Enhance regional and local transit
   • Advance low-cost transit projects that require limited regional dollars to be fully funded.
   • Build a new Transbay Rail Crossing to help reduce overcrowding during peak commute periods and provide system redundancy.

Proposed Environmental Strategies

1. Reduce Risks from Hazards
   • Adapt to sea level rise by protecting shoreline communities, prioritizing areas of low cost and high benefits, and providing support to vulnerable populations.
   • Modernize existing buildings with seismic, wildfire, drought, and energy retrofits through new building ordinances and incentives.
2. Reduce Our Impact on the Environment
   • Maintain urban growth boundaries by confining new development within areas of existing development or areas otherwise suitable growth.
   • Protect high-value conservation lands through strategic matching funds.
   • Expand the MTC Climate Initiatives Program, which includes investment in transportation demand management and electrification incentive programs, while also working with the Air District and State to reduce greenhouse gas emissions for other transportation sectors.