History
The Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments was organized in 1968 for the purpose of regional collaboration and problem solving. AMBAG, as it is often referred to, was formed a Joint Powers Authority (JPA) governed by a twenty-four member Board of Directors comprised of elected officials from each City and County within the region. The AMBAG region includes Monterey, San Benito and Santa Cruz County. AMBAG serves as both a federally designated Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) and Council of Governments (COG). AMBAG performs metropolitan level transportation planning on behalf of the region. Among its many duties, AMBAG manages the region's transportation demand model and prepares regional housing, population and employment forecast that are utilized in a variety of regional plans.
Specialties
Government Agency. AMBAG is the Metropolitan Planning Organization for the local tri-county area (Monterey, San Benito, and Santa Cruz counties).