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EXHIBITII 

 DESCRIPTIONS OF OTHER FORUMS FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY 



A brief description of each of these entities is provided below. 



Association of Bay Area Goventments (ABAG) 

 Person Interviewed: Jose Rodriguez, ABAG staff 



ABAG was set-up as a Joint Powers Agreement by the dties and counties 

 in the San Francisco Bay Area. Each dty and county selects a 

 representative to serve on the Board of Directors, which in turn selects a 

 Director, who selects the staff. Membership and payment of membership 

 fees is voluntary. ABAG has little statutory authority. Basically ABAG is 

 a regional planning entity that advises the cities and counties, although 

 the cities and counties retain the actual permitting authority. 



The only thing that has given ABAG - and most regional planning 

 authorities - any significant statutory authority is that several Federal 

 agencies, under Federal law, delegate responsibilities to the regional 

 planiung entity. This applies to water quality plaiming, air quality 

 planrung, and transportation planning. ABAG does not have all these 

 authorities, because there are separate regional air quality and 

 transportation agencies, but many regional planning agencies have these 

 authorities and they give them considerable clout ABAG does review all 

 applications from dties and counties to HUD, to ensure consistency with 

 the Regional Plan. While this is Advisory to HUD, HUD consistently 

 tvirns down applications that are inconsistent with the Regional Plan. 



Final Draft - September 15, 1993 91 



