>> welcome to beyond the headli headlines. today we're focusing on what's happening in our neighbohoods regarding housing and traffic, otherwise known as urban development. the population of the bay area is projected to balloon by 30% by 2040 from 7.1 million residents today to 9.3 million. that's an increase of more than 2 million people. we' going to talk today to soay area groups who already staed to address the expeing increase.

improvements are being made to make them more safe and easy congestion. one source of pride has been the easte section of the bay bridge. here is the story filedhen the bridge reopened. >> reporter: with the cemony y'a al -- the chp said the morning commute nt well but bridge tourists may have contributed to a longer than average back up at the toll plaza this family came from concord. >>i really like it. it's rally open. you can't even reallytell it's a bridge at first. it's reay broad and nice. >> the chp had been concerned out the new bridge being one giant cau for lots of distracted driving but this officer was pleantly surprised by vy little bad behavior. >> i was expecting a few more

people to do things that we were expecking ha happen. it's nice to see the commute wt well. >> 93-year-old clara's son drove her here for a look. >> and her thoughts on the newsstand? >> it's magnificent. >> abc 7 news. >> it really is magnificent. we have a shot of that every d from a newscast. randy is the director of legislation and public affairs. you had to organize that party. that must have been something. >> it was a lot easier than getting the bridge done. >> i'm sure.

24 years. >> i was really a long time. more important across the state of california, where we have a lot of earthquakes, structures thrghout our area have been made safe throughout the period of time. the bay area bridge got a lot of attention, but the key thing around the entire bay area we have a much safer traportation system. >> people don't realize that it does take decades of work. everybody has to weigh in. >> in california, we found ourselves in this predicament. the bay brge is noalone. >> how long i this bridge expected to last. >> it's design is 150 years. this bridge is bui t last and ilt to incredibly high seismic

standards. i think another important thing ishile california committed to the freeway structu to make it safe, we still have a long way to go including schools and hospitals that need to be made safe. >> andhat's going to take a t of planning, too. it's between two earthquake faults? >> one of the reasons the bay bridge looks the way it does is because of where it's located on a slope of bedrock that goes deep into the bay. all of the mud has risen p. there is a big erthquake fault on the san fancisco side and a whole host on the east bay side. it ha to be structured. and there is sill work to be done? >> that was an unfortunate way to end the process. the bolts will be replaced. we will have the bridge the standard in which it was signed. >> now the western span of the

babridge? >> it was retro fitted at great expens including the rebuild in san francisco but tt expense was wort it. unli just to the north and to the west you see the westmond cent, that bridge needso last for years. >> everybody nts to know where the troll is. >> trolls are those weird creatures that live under the bridge and they don't li the sun. but that bridge will -- at troll will be protectng that bridge in a place where boaters can find him. >> of coue. >> just like the o one. >> talk out the america's cup rac. so people need to be involved in this. how do you want themo get involved? >> the most important thing is that we in california have a process where everyone is allowed to get involved. ed is you will see that all the

plans that we do in the bay area has a significan participation level. it's really your next go on a big project is what people need to focu on, not on this one. >> thank you so much for being here today. >> it's my pleasure. enjoy it. >> and we do have to take a break right now. but coming in just a moment we will lern about an effort to invest our significant regional growth. stay wit

>>welcome back to "beyond the headlines." we're talking about urban development and sprawl. there is is a collaboration of four regional agencies coming up with housing and transportation ans on response to the california sustainable community and protection acts of 2008. what it does is itequires each of the ste's metropolitan areas to reduce greenhouse s emissions and 7% per capita by

2020 and 15% by 2035. i don't know if that's a tall order b we will find out from our experthere. with me in thedio is the executive director of t ocean of bay area governments, otherwise known as abag. i hope i g all of that right. >> you did. >> something you consider to be very important to the bay area? >> yes. it's a plan forhe future. it's a way of e oceans to work with local government and make sure that neighborhoods are ing planned in a way that people really will appreciate in the fure and that it's connected to a system that is close to employment. >> what motivated the legislature to make this happen? >> i think part of it is the work that they were dng already wre we recognizedthat if we didn't do e planning for future land uses that we were going to end up with a lot mre growth a that was going to produce annormous congestion problem on the highways.

so to build an alternative to that, we were inviting cities to look at their neighborhoods and see wherehey think growth would be appropriate and the help fundheir planning costs and make sure that the neighborhoods were being developed asa whole and not working it project by prject. >> what kind of reaction are you tting? i know there has been some controversy? >> there have been pockets of the bay area where there is a lot of anti-development. but mostly in the areas where we are planning on 98% of the growth aound the east baynd west bay a peninsula andouth bay, local governments have been the ones who have been drive in. >> so if i am heari you right, you come up with a plan t better incase housing

potential and. >> everybody is strugglingith public services. usually those are the first cuts that they have to make. if there is an option for dollars to besedto help them with appropriate neighborhood planning and improving amenities in the area. they are very happy to do that. >> sure. this is a gat idea. so whatre the areas that you see that have the biggest concerns? >> in terms of -- well, the ncern conrns and that is where you see sme of the protest movements. looking at petty extsive growth in the future and we have to make sure that the infrastructure can support that level of development. >> we're talking about a combination of housing? and bett transportation to

access all of that? >> it's not one size fits l. it's much higher density in the big central cities than the transit corridors, whi are three or four story bildings that are appropriate to size. >> one small was really close to this right? >> s. i think there has bee an awful lot of misinformation that has been spread. agencies are imposing mandates where they will change the way people live. these are all local government plans. every development area has been self-nominated by local government. wh we offered dollars for plnning through the transportation mechanism to tie up the transit, a lot of cities stepped up to that. so we have 70 jurisdictions participating and about 170 priority development aas. >> so one quick question.

concern about water and how will that be confronted. >> ts type of development is very efficient for energy, wate and other kindsf services, much easier to recycle. most of the water districts can supply urban water. there are a couple of pockets where it's more of a problem but in general, i tnk the utilities are able handlehe growth in the futu. there is still enough capacity. >> all right. great. so interesting to learn about this. >> all right. we do have to take anoth break but w will learn about planned bay area trnsportation areas.

>> welcome back to "beyond the headles". we're confronted with housg and transportation challenges as t bay area continues to grow over the years. this report was fil about the debate for better tnsportation in the bay area >> reporter: a major traffic study alady claims the bay area as the second worst commute in the nation. nearly 60,000 new jobs were created in san francisco last year and that number is expected tobe higher this year,putting moretrain on the highway system. >> our public transportation system, roads continue to teriorate. we do have challenges. >> a study group is working on pry ortizing needs. here in the bay area, stake holders sid better

transportation crucial for job growth. but who will pay for it? >> it's not a public sector dollar private sector funding can be part of t answer and we have projects in the state that is totally privately funded. other states and countries are doingthis. >> another example where the state kicked in only 10% for the $2.3 billion project. a half cent sales tax has been approved. >> voters have csistently reported measures that are providing more transportation. we could not do without the support of the voters. the nam of the game is regional and it is working together. >> and 49er ceo thinks levi stadium wil warm people up to support andide public ansit was they take it to games.

>> i think once californian's get re comfortable, you will see it more andmore. >> this project is still five year ace way. any new project will take years of planning, financing and constructio relief from constion is many years off. david louise. >> plning director and project manager. >> can youalk about the transportion aspect of it? >> sure. >> i think one of the things that is different about this pl than past plans, mtc has been doing regional transportation plans. this is the fourth plan that has been iegrated. sif you look at the kind of growth, really focused growth by transit, it's really incumbent on us to come up with a plan.

there are a couple of ways that has been done. the plan goes to maintain the existing system. we want to know when our children and grandchildren are trying to get on the train or drive down a neighborhd street that it's in good working order. we also have a performance based plan that looks at projects and does a cost benefit assessment and really ies to maximize the use of public tax dollars and come up with an interconnect system that serves this growth pattern. a couple of the key projects in the system. one is something called bart metro. it's t highest scoring project. it would provide a lot more capacity i the core of the brt system that lead into this segment talk about our job growth. we are fort unate to be inging in so many jobs. to support that, people haveo get to work.

we need more frequent service. >> are u dealing with high speedail at all? >> we are deang with high speed rail. one of the key procts is the ele elerification. its right now a dee sl system. >> that's another project that has a lot of anst in connection wit it because of the dollar amount? r >>it's a big public works project and it will take a lot to get it right. >>nd we touched on highway widening projects. can you tell us about some of the big projects? >> highway widening is not a big part of the plan.

there are no new freeways. there is something called the regional exess lanes network. most are familiar wi the high occupancy lanes. at this point they are probably also famili with the fact that there are sments that are not complete. that is a problem for buses and van pools and things of that sort that attempt to get people to and from work efficiently. that program would help address some of those gaps. we have some other major transit projects moving forward in the near term. bart to san jose is now under construction. that's a few years away. but there are more imminent openings coming. another commuter rail line is the smart corridor up in the north bay as well as the connection to oakland airport.

>> can't wait until that's done. ken, thank y so much for being here and explaining what is goi on. >> my pleasure. >> we do have to take another break. we will tk to a san francisco pnning and urban research about public transit options. stay with us. we wi

we are back with "beyond the heaines" talking about urban development. spurs was called san francco urban research but now its much, much bigger. >> we have opened in san jose, which many people don't know is not only the largest city in the

bay area but all of northern california. >> a lot of people needto get around there. >> what do you do? >> i'm the regional plning director so i am trying to tink about the bay area as we a today and wre we're going and how we get there. the urban policy think tank b we are also a group with members. we really try to bring a lot of the urban planning ideas out to the people and to t decision makers to think about where do we go? >> how doou do that? hall meeng? >>e have an urban center. we just opened an urban cy. we ve speakers on a wide array of topics. >> weave about 400,000 people who r on public traportation daily. >> about 10% of people are

taking public transit to work each day. it equateto 1.5 million trips. it i a critical and crucial part o how people get around in the bay area. imagine the freeways without that level of transit serve. >> like during the bart strike. >> and the fires and a little bore that. transit is critical to moving people around. it is also critical whenou think about increasing where we are going in our economy. people want close connections to eacother. innovati and more. yo need transit to move people in and out o the dense job cenrs. >> how is it working right now? >> it's working well. we have a very good transit system. but there are a couple of big probles. one is we need more money to really operae this system. and a lot of that is about reliality and speed. a lot -- i goes well and has great service but don't go quite fast enough. we need to grow the ridership.

>> what's your goal? what'your eam goal? we have got 10% now? >> we can compare ourselves to other parts of the world. it is more important, we have a t of capacity that we could add people that don't have many pele riding it today. that's one particular goal. and oth systems wher we are getting clos particularly coming in and out of downtown, we need to invest more there. a lot ofpeople will take transit if put more mey into that corridor. >> we have about a dozen major subway systems in new york. here we have about t dozen? >> we have 2 different trsit properties. really there i about seven big ones. bart is about 400,000 riders. bart of the challenge when you have s many operators, is a little bit difficult to vigate. we want to move forward in a

direction where someone can more seamlessly go between the different operato within the region and lookand feel like one region, not 27 different orators. >> so we need to coordinate that? >> we are doing a better job. we have clipper, it's not on every system. we nd to push it a lot further. t just imagine someone coming on. they might learn the bart map. we have different maps where you go underhe train. we ne a common p. >> i have just a few seconds. transit village are they worth investing in? >> a old ideahat we had. neighborhoods like rock dge. simply the notion we want to p a lot of people's jobs and activities around thm. they ar doing a good job.

all right. we are out of time. my thanks to all of our wonderful guests today. for more information, just go to our website. we're on facebookt abc 7 community affairs and follow me on twitter. thanks for joining us have thanks for joining us have great week. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

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