AMBAG selects RBF for Sustainable Communities Strategy

MONTEREY BAY, CALIF. — The Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments (AMBAG) selected RBF Consulting, a company of Michael Baker Corporation, to provide planning services for the Sustainable Communities Strategy Scenarios Development and Public Participation project. “Moving Forward Monterey Bay” is part of a multi-agency collaboration to produce an integrated land use/transportation plan through the year 2035. It inaugurates a new process — the development of a Sustainable Communities Strategy — to reduce transportation-generated greenhouse gases and promote new thinking about public policies and strategies aimed at meeting the diverse mobility needs of the greater Monterey Bay region.

RBF will work with the AMBAG staff, member agencies and community members to develop, evaluate and compare growth, land use and transportation scenarios and weigh policy options. Extensive outreach with the public and stakeholders will be ongoing throughout the planning process.

"Moving Forward Monterey Bay is about promoting a regional dialogue about who we are, where we are going, and how are we going to get there. It’s a unique opportunity to engage stakeholders from agricultural, tourism, education and businesses in the greater Monterey Bay, and craft a vision that reflects their desires and aspirations," says Bill Wiseman, RBF’s project manager and vice president. "We will work collaboratively with AMBAG as an extension of their staff using our experience and relationships with the many diverse local agencies to provide insight and creative solutions to meet the needs of agencies, elected officials, stakeholders and the general public."

In an effort to garner the broadest level of public involvement, RBF has created a live, interactive web-based mapping site using RBF’s LiveMapGIS. Additionally, the web-based MetroQuest preference survey will allow the public to rate their preferences regarding future growth and rank various regional scenarios. The final preferred scenario will help define a sustainable land development pattern that incorporates financially grounded transportation investment priorities for the next 25 years.

The RBF/Baker team has partnered with AECOM, APEX Strategies and Environmental Relations to provide AMBAG a team that is both technically superior and politically astute, consisting of team members who have extensive first-hand local knowledge of the Monterey Bay region.

More information about the project can be found at www.movingforwardmb.org.