Can a Single Regional Planning Agency Fix What Ails the Bay Area?

On Wednesday (10/28), the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) in Oakland will vote on the plan to merge planning staff with the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG). Writing in the San Jose Mercury News,  Egon Terplan, the Regional Planning Director for SPUR (a civic group involved in regional planning issues for the Bay Area), sees the potential upside to the combined efforts of MTC and ABAG.

"The proposal to create a merged planning department within MTC not only offers a path toward better integrating land use and transportation, but also an opportunity to move above our sometimes narrow perspective about what's best for our neighborhood or community and toward what's best for everyone in the region."

The combined agencies efforts would also allow better planning and response to the region’s pressing issues of "displacement, access to shared prosperity and how to fully prepare for climate change," Terplan writes.