21 Oct Bay Area Planners Unveil 25-Year Roadmap for Housing, Transit and Climate Goals

(Ray Saint Germain / Bay City News)

By Bay City News

Bay Area planners on Monday released a sweeping draft plan outlining how the region could grow through 2050, proposing new strategies to tackle housing affordability, improve public transit, and prepare for climate risks across nine counties and 101 cities.

The Metropolitan Transportation Commission and the Association of Bay Area Governments unveiled Draft Plan Bay Area 2050+, an update to the region’s long-term plan adopted in 2021, along with a draft environmental impact report open for public comment until Dec. 18.

The plan charts a 25-year roadmap for a more “affordable, connected, diverse, healthy and vibrant” Bay Area, built on 35 strategies covering housing, the economy, transportation and the environment. A new companion effort, Transit 2050+, aims to coordinate improvements across the region’s dozens of transit systems.

The draft targets a 21% reduction in per-person greenhouse gas emissions by 2035, exceeding state goals, and projects a 25% drop in overall housing and transportation costs — or nearly half for low-income households — if fully implemented.

It also envisions 45% more residents with access to frequent transit and 25% more protected open space by mid-century.

More than 17,000 residents helped shape the draft through surveys and public meetings. The MTC and ABAG will host four webinars beginning Oct. 29, followed by in-person hearings in San Francisco, Fremont and Novato, before adopting a final plan in early 2026.

Residents and organizations can review the full plan and submit comments online at PlanBayArea.org/draftplan, or by mail to the MTC Public Information Office at 375 Beale St., San Francisco.

Copyright © 2025 Bay City News, Inc.  All rights reserved.  Republication, rebroadcast or redistribution without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. Bay City News is a 24/7 news service covering the greater Bay Area.