Bay Area names top stimulus priorities - Birmingham Business Journal:

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Projects ranked among the highest in the plan cove r a wide range of proposalsincluding high-speed rail construction, extending the BART line to San Jose and boringh another roadway in the East Bay’s Caldecott Tunnel. the highest-priority projects are seeking morethan $7 billion in stimulu money. The priority list also includes a new stem cell researcgh facility at the inMarin County, energu efficiency and solar retrofits of publicv and other buildings in San San Francisco and energy conversions to LED streetlights; transit-orientex development projects and workforce training and placement for laid-ofvf employees.
“This plan is designed to maximizeour region’ s share of federal stimulus funding and othe state support that will benefit the Bay Area in both the near and said Sean Randolph, CEO of the , whicg was charged with compiling the list. The top 85 projects were classifierdas “strategic” priorities for the Bay Another 72 projects were considered “significant” but givemn a slightly lower ranking because they did not have the scale or regional impact of the most highly rankedd suggestions.
Those projects include things like a desalinatiobn project in the Montara Water andSanitary District, building a clean technologh demonstration manufacturing center in San Jose and outfittinbg Burlingame city buildings with solar panels. The which can be found online at was the culmination ofa three-month vetting process. The report was sent to the . That statse agency, which requested that othe r metropolitan regions around the state submitsimilar plans, will now take all those plansz and help coordinate with cities and counties to lobb y the federal government on behalf of certaib projects.
“This is to get people on the same page to minimizee the food fight where you have partsd of the state compet e againstone another,” said Dale Bonner, head of the Californiaz Business Transportation and Housing Agency. “What we’re doingh is acting as a facilitatord to help identifythe best” projects. The list’ authors said they hoped that ranking projects woul d help the region get morestimulusd money. “The Bay Area is the only regiobn in California that actually attemptedto prioritize,” Randolphg said.
“We think that’s We think that will make us more successful ingettinv attention, in getting those resources for thosw very high value projects.” Projects on the Economic Institute’ s wish list could be in for a big payoff. Abouty $30 billion in federal stimulus moneu will be divvied up in Sacramento beforee going to various regionsaround California. Anothet $20 billion is expected to be distributed directly in the stat by federal officials on adiscretionary basis. The chance to get dollara from the federal stimulus program led to a flurrygof proposals. Bay Area authorities sifted through almost570 suggestions.
To make the cut, projectds were supposed to spur job have regional impact and align with state programxand priorities, among other criteria. The Economic Institutde called upon local experts in specific fields to judgs proposals that fit at least one ofseven transportation, water, energy/climate, workforce training and business development, science and innovation or housing. The vast majorituy of projects that made it to theEconomid Institute’s short list were from government A range of companies sought federal too, saying that their service would help boostg the broader economy.
For example, a Berkeley-basedr firm called Picture it Sold sought stimulua money to franchiseits home-staging “We’re ready to move aheax with this plan immediately,” the companty wrote in its proposal, “andr we’ll help thousands of families and the whole economty to recover.” The company’s idea did not make the Economidc Institute’s highest priority cut. But an appendicx to the Economic Institute’s wish list includes every proposakit received.