Plan Bay Area 2050 Launches

The future will be here before we know it, and Plan Bay Area 2050 is a roadmap to help the Bay Area prepare for the opportunities and challenges ahead.

Plan Bay Area 2050 is the nine-county Bay Area’s long-range plan that integrates transportation, housing, the economy and the environment. Plan Bay Area 2050 will dig deeper into the issues that face the Bay Area now and over the next 30 years.

Think of Plan Bay Area 2050 as a roadmap for the Bay Area’s future, planning for how the region will grow and how it can support that growth with new infrastructure. Only through partnership with local, state and federal governments as well as with businesses and non-profit organizations will Plan Bay Area 2050 fully be realized.

Building on the work of the Horizon initiative, Plan Bay Area 2050 will pinpoint policies and investments necessary to advance the goal of creating a more affordable, connected, diverse, healthy and vibrant Bay Area. And it will identify a potential path forward for future investments—including protections for communities from sea level rise and critical transportation infrastructure—and the types of public policies necessary to realize a future growth pattern for housing and jobs.

Beginning in October and continuing through mid-November, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) and Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) will host a series of pop-up events across all nine counties where they will ask residents to help prioritize the strategies that they think will best prepare the Bay Area for an uncertain future. These strategies will cover the four key topic areas of Plan Bay Area 2050 and will aim to make the Bay Area more resilient in the face of unexpected challenges. Feedback from the public and partner agencies will inform the analysis undertaken in the Blueprint.

Referred to as the Preferred Scenario in earlier plans, the Blueprint will analyze a set of transportation, housing, economic and environmental strategies within the context of a fiscally constrained plan. With an anticipated adoption date of mid-2020, the Blueprint will serve as the foundation of Plan Bay Area 2050.

Starting in summer 2020 through summer 2021, the Plan Bay Area 2050 document will be developed and finalized. A shorter-term Implementation Plan, along with an associated Environmental Impact Report, will be produced prior to finalizing Plan Bay Area 2050. The Implementation Plan will outline tangible actions that MTC, ABAG and their partners could advance to make the Bay Area more equitable and resilient in the future. Both MTC and ABAG are expected to adopt Plan Bay Area 2050 in summer 2021.

Learn more about Plan Bay Area 2050 and how to get involved in the process.