Bay Area Industrial Roundtable Wrap-Up

On May 8 the Bay Area Industrial Roundtable held its first public event, a half-day forum on industrial land use. Co-sponsored with the Association of Bay Area Governments, the forum attracted about 100 people from around the region to the MetroCenter in downtown Oakland.

After a welcome by Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums, the keynote speaker, City of Los Angeles Planning Director Gail Goldberg, described her agency’s efforts to retain LA’s industrial lands for job-producing uses. In a city with a serious congestion problem and a low median income that contributes to an affordable housing crisis, many industrial businesses, she said, provide well-paying jobs to a local, often transit-dependent workforce.

Goldberg was followed by four local panelists: Oakland economist Linda Hausrath, reporting on her research for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission on regional goods movement, linked the displacement of industrial businesses from the inner Bay Area to worsened air quality, traffic congestion and greenhouse gas emissions. San Jose Assistant Planning Director Laurel Prevetti explained how her city is using the term “employment lands” to protect industrial businesses and the jobs and revenues they provide. Mary Lou Van Deventer, president of the Northern California Recycling Association and Operations Manager of Berkeley’s Urban Ore, told how the loss of industrially zoned land is making it hard to achieve a zero waste economy in the inner Bay Area. ABAG Planning Director Ken Kirkey said ABAG will take on the issue of identifying critical industrial areas on a regional level. After a lively general Q & A session moderated by Oakland Councilmember Nancy Nadel, concluding remarks were offered by Joint Policy Committee Director Ted Droettboom. The Bay Area Industrial Roundtable is planning to hold its next public forum in the south Bay in mid-November. More information at www.industrialroundtable.org, or call (510) 528-8345.