Rejoin Association of Bay Area Governments - YES

The Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG—worst acronym ever?) is a region-wide planning agency that helps local governments address regional issues like housing and transportation. ABAG supports communities like Corte Madera by providing research and analysis around housing, environmental, and social issues affecting the community, all of which directly impact our quality of life.

ABAG is also the agency that assigns cities their housing mandates, telling each community how many units of housing it has to build in an eight year period. Corte Madera was a member of ABAG for years, but left in 2012, in response to community anger about these housing mandates. The move was entirely symbolic; Corte Madera remained bound by ABAG's housing mandates, and for the most part, we continued to receive the technical support and grant funding they provide to their members.

Today, we're in a better place on housing: the anger has faded as the community has come to feel that we do indeed have a role to play in addressing the housing crisis, and those passions have been instead directed toward developing responsible housing plans that meet our legal obligations while protecting the small-town charm of Corte Madera.

In light of this, it was high time we rejoined ABAG, and I was proud to vote for us to do so. Renewed membership will bring even stronger support for Corte Madera's goals from the agency, and signals to our neighboring cities that we want to be at the table when it comes to addressing regional issues.