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The BART Board of Directors unanimously approved interim general counsel Jeana Zelan Peterson as the transit district’s permanent general counsel at its regular meeting last week.
Peterson is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley law school. She first joined BART’s general counsel’s office as an attorney in 2008, before being elevated to assistant general counsel in 2021. She was named interim general counsel in October 2023, according to her LinkedIn profile.
“I love this place, my heart is in it, and I’m so excited to be in this role,” Peterson said.
The length of the contract is indefinite, and Peterson’s base salary will be $340,000 per year, with 12 months’ severance for involuntary termination.
The board also received an update at the March 14 meeting on a draft report on transit-oriented housing goals for the next four years that has the transit agency aiming to build tens of thousands of new housing units on property it controls.
BART’s ambitious housing goals are influenced by state requirements to ease a housing affordability crisis. As a public entity that controls real estate, BART is obligated to participate in regional housing goals and is partnering with local jurisdictions to implement them.
The draft report on progress and goals for transit-oriented development was presented by Carli Paine, a BART group manager. The report outlines goals for the next 5-10 years and beyond, but is updated every four years and was last updated in 2020.
BART is seeking to build 40,000 new housing units by 2040, as well as 4.5 million square feet of commercial space. About a third of the housing units are slated to be affordable housing.
The presentation showed that 4,200 housing units have been constructed since the previous plan, along with 875,000 square feet of commercial space. But the progress would likely not fulfill the mid-term goal of creating 7,000 new housing units and 1 million square feet of commercial space by mid-2025.
Paine said that the shortfall was due to the cost of borrowing going up, rising costs of construction, and a lack of available funding.
The report separated jurisdictions due for housing projects into three categories based on when they could be completed: short, medium and long term.
In the short term, the Ashby, Bay Fair, El Cerrito Del Norte, Fremont and Hayward stations are slated for new housing construction between 2024-2028.
The medium-term list included Coliseum, Concord, Dublin-Pleasanton, Lafayette, Pittsburg-Bay Point, South Hayward, Union City and Warm Springs-South Fremont stations, all slated for work between 2029-2033.
And the long-term group is Castro Valley, Daly City, Fruitvale, Glen Park, North Concord, Orinda, Pittsburg Center, Rockridge, and South San Francisco stations. Those projects are slated for 2034 and beyond.
Eight other projects are in pre-development.
South San Francisco Mayor James Coleman spoke during the public comment period and asked for the board to consider placing the city on the list of short-term projects.
Board President Bevan Dufty said he was appreciative of the mayor’s comments and said the board would continue discussions with stakeholders to see what projects could be moved forward.
Public feedback is being sought on the draft transit-oriented development report. It can be viewed at www.bart.gov/tod.
