The Bay Area's natural beauty and multiple opportunities to enjoy the outdoors, from coastal beaches to rolling hills, oak covered woodlands and redwood canyons, are treasured by its residents as irreplaceable assets. If the Bay Area continues to grow as it has in the recent past, however, 83,000 acres of currently undeveloped land could be covered with new structures by 2020. Amounting to an 11 percent increase in the urbanized Bay Area — two-and-one-half times the size of San Francisco — this development would erode farmland, greenbelts and other types of open space.

The Bay Area's air quality also would deteriorate if current trends continue, as more of the region’s workforce commutes from beyond the nine Bay Area counties. Likewise, the region's per capita water consumption will increase with primarily large-lot, single-family development in hotter, inland areas.

The greatest affront to the environment is already occurring in much of the Bay Area. Jammed roadways create relentless demand for widening freeways and building more roads and thoroughfares, continually encroaching on remaining agricultural lands and open spaces.