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Peter Cohen will spearhead EBHO’s newly developing Sustainable and Equitable Communities Policy Initiatives focusing on the essential linkages between transportation and land use planning, climate change, and the development of affordable housing for low-income and working families. This new part-time position will strengthen EBHO’s grassroots organizing and coalition campaigns, and Housing Element advocacy, as well as work with EBHO’s membership and coalition partners to ensure the equitable and effective implementation of recent statewide climate change legislation, AB 32 and SB 375, in the East Bay. With this landmark legislation, “smart growth” advocacy is gaining further ground as a strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through more efficient land use planning. For it to truly succeed in creating vibrant and sustainable communities, it must address the affordable housing crisis. EBHO’s role will be to help shape the implementation of these policies so they can have positive impacts at ground level for affordable housing. |
A few words from Peter:
I am pleased to join the EBHO staff in a part-time capacity as the new Policy Director. For the last two years I have been a freelance consultant in community planning and land use policy work, including my work with EBHO on the Concord Naval Weapons Station Campaign. During the previous five years, I built and directed a non-profit community planning program at Asian Neighborhood Design. Over the decade and a half living in the Bay Area I have been involved in a variety of land use, housing policy and planning initiatives at local and regional levels.
As an urban geographer by training and a policy planner by practice I am interested in land use, housing, and economic development issues in relation to California’s growing population. There is a critical need to balance growth with revitalization of urban areas, addressing attendant social justice issues and preservation of environmental resources.
Working with EBHO provides a great opportunity to shape current “smart growth” policy based on EBHO’s real-world local campaign experiences, and in turn to use EBHO’s regional policy work strategically to inform local campaigns and applied advocacy tools. Affordable housing in particular and social equity in general are the most critical aspects of regional land use policy today. EBHO is well positioned to leverage its membership and coalition campaigns to have a significant contribution. I look forward to helping make that happen.
Peter's Biography:
Peter Cohen is now working part-time with East Bay Housing Organizations (EBHO) as its Sustainable and Equitable Communities Policy Director. Since 2008, he has been a freelance consultant in community planning and land use policy work throughout the Bay Area. Previously, for five years he built and directed a community planning program in the non profit sector, which is still currently housed at Asian Neighborhood Design in San Francisco. He has also worked as a project director at Human Impact Partners, an Oakland-based non-profit focused on analyzing the health impacts of land use plans and policies. Peter is an urban geographer by training who has been involved in a variety of land use, housing policy and planning initiatives in San Francisco. He serves on the board of the San Francisco Community Land Trust, is a past board member of the Bay Area Greenbelt Alliance and was previously chair of the Affordability Committee of the San Francisco Housing Action Coalition. He has been appointed to several policy task forces by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. In addition to his professional orientation to community-focused work, he is very active in his own community as a board member of Duboce Triangle Neighborhood Association. Peter has a master's degree from San Francisco State University where he occasionally lectures in the geography and urban studies departments.