SB 743 Implementation by Local Governments for Land Use Projects
In 2018, pursuant to Senate Bill (SB) 743 (2013), the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research (OPR) and the California Natural Resources Agency promulgated regulations and technical guidance that eliminated automobile level of service (LOS) as a transportation impact metric for land development projects under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), and replaced it with Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT). The authors investigated how local governments have been implementing the LOS-to-VMT shift for land development projects, and how that differs from past practice. They also explored whether local governments monitor the actual VMT impacts from completed land use developments and what methods are available to do so. Their findings indicate that all responding jurisdictions acknowledged the mandatory LOS-to-VMT shift, but were in varying stages of implementing the shift. For those jurisdictions that had adopted VMT impact significance thresholds, most adhered closely to OPR’s recommendations. They also mostly tried to use apples-to-apples methods of calculating baseline VMT levels (for setting thresholds) and estimating project-level VMT, often relying on travel demand model outputs for both. However, most jurisdictions gave short shrift to VMT monitoring. Another important aspect of SB 743 implementation is how LOS will continue to be used outside of CEQA. The authors found that jurisdictions uniformly continue to employ LOS outside of CEQA. However, those LOS analyses are not necessarily as comprehensive and expensive as they would have been for CEQA purposes. The authors found a consensus amongst their interviewees that swapping LOS for VMT could streamline development in urban areas.
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Supplemental Notes:
- This document was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation, University Transportation Centers Program. Supporting dataset available at: https://doi.org/10.25338/B8F075
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Corporate Authors:
National Center for Sustainable Transportation
University of California, Davis
Davis, CA United StatesUniversity of California, Davis
Institute of Transportation Studies
Davis, CA United States 95616Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology
University Transportation Centers Program
Department of Transportation
Washington, DC United States 20590California Department of Transportation
Division of Research, Innovation and System Information
1727 30th Street, MS 83
Sacramento, CA United States 95816 -
Authors:
- Volker, Jamey M B
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0000-0002-4559-6165
- Hosseinzade, Reyhane
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0000-0003-1443-4494
- Handy, Susan L
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0000-0002-4141-1290
- Publication Date: 2023-5
Language
- English
Media Info
- Media Type: Digital/other
- Edition: Final Research Report
- Features: Figures; Glossary; Maps; References; Tables;
- Pagination: 78p
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Implementation; Land use; Level of service; Metrics (Quantitative assessment); Urban development; Vehicle miles of travel
- Geographic Terms: California
- Subject Areas: Planning and Forecasting; Transportation (General);
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01884830
- Record Type: Publication
- Report/Paper Numbers: NCST-UCD-RR-23-21, UCD-ITS-RR-23-25
- Contract Numbers: 69A3551747114; Caltrans 65A0686 Task Order 048
- Files: UTC, NTL, TRIS, ATRI, USDOT, STATEDOT
- Created Date: Jun 12 2023 9:13AM