ABAGs

ABAGs is an acronym commonly used to refer to the Association of Bay Area Governments, a regional planning agency in Northern California. The organization acts as a joint powers authority that represents nine counties—Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma—and more than 100 cities within the San Francisco Bay Area. Its remit includes regional land-use planning, housing strategy, environmental protection, climate policy, and hazard mitigation, with an emphasis on coordinating policy across city and county lines. ABAG provides data, forecasts, and policy guidance to help local governments address cross-jurisdictional issues such as housing supply, transportation access, and resilience to natural hazards.

Governance is carried out by a Board of Directors drawn from member jurisdictions, supported by professional staff who conduct planning analyses, model scenarios, and prepare regional plans. Prominent initiatives associated with ABAG include Plan Bay Area, a long-range plan addressing housing, jobs, and transportation; regional growth forecasts; and data programs that support local planning decisions. ABAG works in close partnership with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) on transportation planning and funding, and the two agencies frequently coordinate on shared priorities, though they remain separate entities with distinct functions.

In other contexts, ABAGs can stand for different groups or terms depending on the field, but the Association of Bay Area Governments is by far the most widely documented use of the acronym in public policy and regional planning.