BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE BILL NO: sb 375
SENATOR ALAN LOWENTHAL, CHAIRMAN AUTHOR: steinberg
VERSION: 4/17/07
Analysis by: Mark Stivers FISCAL: yes
Hearing date: April 26, 2007
SUBJECT:
Transportation, land use, and the California Environmental
Quality Act (CEQA)
DESCRIPTION:
This bill has three separate provisions: 1) it requires regional
transportation planning agencies (RTPAs) to adopt preferred
growth scenarios that reduce vehicle miles traveled per
household; 2) it requires the California Transportation
Commission (CTC) to adopt guidelines for the use of travel
demand models by RTPAs that meet specified standards; and 3) it
provides for various forms of CEQA relief in communities that
conform their general plans to the preferred growth scenario.
ANALYSIS:
Regional transportation plans
Current law requires the Department of Transportation (Caltrans)
to prepare various transportation plans, including the
California Transportation Plan and the Federal Transportation
Improvement Plan.
Current law also requires CTC to adopt the State Transportation
Improvement Plan (STIP), which lists all capital improvement
projects that are expected to receive an allocation of state
transportation funds from CTC during the following five fiscal
years. The STIP includes both the Interregional Transportation
Improvement Program (ITIP) and the Regional Transportation
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Improvement Programs (RTIPs) developed by regional
transportation planning agencies (RTPAs). Seventy-five percent
of STIP funding is programmed by the regions through the RTIPs.
Twenty-five percent of STIP funding is programmed by Caltrans
through the ITIP.
Current law also requires the RTPAs to adopt regional
transportation plans (RTPs) directed at achieving a coordinated
and balanced regional transportation system, including, but not
limited to, mass transportation, highway, railroad, maritime,
bicycle, pedestrian, goods movement, and aviation facilities and
services. The RTP must contain a policy element, an action
element, and a financial element and is the source for projects
programmed in the RTIP.
This bill :
Requires that regional transportation plans include a
preferred growth scenario that:
? Identifies areas sufficient to house all the population
of the region, including all economic segments, over the
course of the planning period.
? Identifies significant resource land and significant
farmland and excludes these lands from the scenario to the
greatest extent feasible.
? Allows the RTP to comply with the federal Clean Air Act.
Requires that the preferred growth scenario in regions with a
population of more than 200,000 identify locations for
development and transit projects that will achieve a 10%
reduction in vehicle miles traveled per household by 2020 and
a ___ reduction by 2050.
Requires that the preferred growth scenario in regions with a
population of less than 200,000 identify locations for
development and transit projects that will prevent any
increase in vehicle miles traveled over the life of the RTP.
Requires Caltrans, when preparing RTPs for smaller regions, to
prepare the plan in a manner consistent with the preferred
growth scenario for the region.
Limits RTPAs, when designating corridors of statewide or
regional priority for long-term right-of-way preservation, to
designating corridors that are consistent with the regional
preferred growth scenario.
Requires that projects and improvements programmed for funding
in the RTIP be consistent with the preferred growth scenario.
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Prohibits Caltrans from preparing project studies reports for
capacity-increasing state highway projects unless those
projects are consistent with a preferred growth scenario.
Requires Caltrans to include within its guidelines for project
studies reports a requirement that all projects studied be
consistent with a preferred growth scenario.
Requires that an infill opportunity zone designated by a city
or county under the Congestion Management Law be consistent
with the region's preferred growth scenario.
Requires that the strategies element of the California
Transportation Plan be consistent with the preferred growth
scenarios adopted in regional transportation plans.
Requires that projects included in the federal transportation
improvement program be consistent with the preferred growth
scenarios adopted in RTPs.
Declares the intent of the Legislature that the preparation of
state and regional transportation plans involve members of the
public.
Travel demand models
Travel demand models are statistical and algorithmic attempts to
model human travel behavior. They endeavor to forecast potential
outcomes of various transportation and land use policy options.
The factors that are included in the models are a region's
demographic profile, land uses, personal income data, existing
travel, and other similar characteristics. The models are used
to evaluate alternative development patterns and their travel
implications before a regional plan is adopted. The models are
used to conduct special studies, such as corridor studies that
would assess the potential impacts of a new freeway or transit
line. Depending on the policy direction, the impacts may
include, for example, the implication for land use changes at
transit stations or at freeway interchanges. In the larger
regions, the federal government periodically reviews the
policies and practices of the regional agencies, including an
assessment of the travel demand models used in the development
of the regional transportation plans.
This bill :
Requires CTC to adopt guidelines for the use of travel demand
models used in development or regional transportation plans by
RTPAs that require, to the extent practicable, that the models
account for all of the following:
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? Travel demands during at least four time intervals
during the day.
? Induced travel and land development resulting from
highway or passenger rail expansion.
? Mode split models that allocate trips among automobile,
transit, carpool, bicycle, and pedestrian trips.
? Residential land use densification.
? The proximity of residential areas to centers of
employment.
? The relationship between land use density and household
vehicle ownership and use.
? The Impact of enhanced transit service levels on vehicle
ownership and use.
? Mixed land uses.
? Parking charges and parking cashout.
? Peak-period freeway tolls.
? 24-hour freeway tolls.
Applies the guidelines to RTPAs in regions with a population
of 800,000 or more and makes them permissive for RTPAs with a
lower population.
Requires Caltrans to develop standards for disseminating the
methodology, results, and key assumptions of travel demand
models such that the models are useable and understandable to
the public.
Requires Caltrans to meet at least annually with CTC and the
larger RTPAs to determine whether the models meet the
requirements of the guidelines or need additional revisions.
Requires a RTPA to demonstrate in its regional transportation
plan the extent to which its regional travel demand models
assist other public agencies to evaluate large development
projects, including impacts of density and mixed land uses on
travel. The RTPA must report to CTC on how the regional
travel demand model supports certain types of planning.
California Environmental Quality Act
CEQA requires that local government conduct an analysis of the
environmental impacts associated with projects, including
private housing developments subject to a discretionary review.
In cases where a full analysis is required, the local government
must certify an environmental impact report (EIR).
CEQA provides, among others, for a limited statutory exemption
for qualified infill housing or mixed-use housing developments.
To qualify for the exemption, a project must meet all of the
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following criteria:
Be on an infill site in an urbanized area within mile of a
major transit stop,
Be consistent with any applicable general plan, specific plan,
and local coastal program.
Be on a site for which a community-level EIR has been
certified within the previous five years.
Meet various criteria intended to ensure that the project has
no apparent significant environmental impacts.
Include specified percentages of affordable housing.
Be on sites of no more than 4 acres or include no more than
100 units.
Attain a density of at least 20 units per acre, or 10 units
per acre if that is greater than the average density of other
housing within 1500 feet.
CEQA regulations also provide for a categorical exemption for
infill housing unless the project creates a reasonable
possibility of a project-specific impact or leads to a
significant cumulative impact. To qualify for the exemption,
the project must be located within city limits, be substantially
surrounded by urban uses, and meet the following criteria:
Be consistent with the general plan and zoning.
Can be adequately served by all utilities and services, has no
value as habitat for endangered, rare or threatened species,
is not a brownfield, would not result in any significant
effects relating to traffic, noise, air quality, or water
quality, and does not affect historical resources.
Be no more than five acres.
Current law allows local governments to adopt specific plans,
which identify the distribution, location, and extent of the
uses of land within the area covered by the plan and to
establish standards and criteria by which development will
proceed. Within a specific plan area, any residential
development project that is consistent with a specific plan for
which an EIR has been certified is exempt from further review
under CEQA unless substantial changes have occurred or new
information has become available since the EIR was certified.
This bill creates the Implementation of the Preferred Growth
Scenario (PGS) Law that:
Applies within a local jurisdiction that has amended its
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general plan so that the land use, circulation, housing, and
open space elements are consistent with the PGS.
Authorizes an environmental document to only examine the
significant or potentially significant project specific
impacts (or certify a so-called "short-form EIR") of a
residential or mixed-use residential project on an infill site
located in an eligible jurisdiction in an urbanized area, if
an EIR has been certified on the PGS and on general plan
amendments to conform to the PGS.
Authorizes an eligible jurisdiction to adopt a neighborhood
plan if the plan meets certain requirements, such as access to
a major transit stop and mitigates displacement of low-income
and very low-income persons, and uses a planning process that
complies with certain requirements.
Provides that if a legislative body of an eligible local
jurisdiction finds that a residential or mixed-use residential
project meets the following requirements, then the project is
declared to be a sustainable communities project and no
additional review is required:
? The project is on an infill site in an urbanized area.
? The project is on a site of no more than 8 acres and
includes no more than 200 units.
? The project attains a density greater than the Mullin
densities established in housing element law (30 units per
acre for jurisdictions in metropolitan counties, 20 units
per acre in "suburban" jurisdictions, 15 units per acre in
cities in non-metropolitan counties, and 10 units per acre
in unincorporated areas in non-metropolitan counties).
? The project meets various criteria, similar but not
identical to those required for the statutory infill
exemption described above, intended to ensure that the
project has no apparent significant environmental impacts.
? The project does not result in any loss in the number of
affordable housing units.
? The project meets one of the following four conditions:
1) includes 5% very-low income housing, 10% low-income
housing; or 20% moderate-income housing; 2) has paid
in-lieu fees that would result in the same number of units
specified in paragraph 1; 3) is located with mile of a
major transit stop; or 4) provides five acres of public
open space per 1000 residents.
Authorizes an eligible local legislative body within an
urbanized area to adopt traffic mitigation policies that would
apply to future residential projects of at least 10 units per
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acre. A project seeking a land use approval that complies
with these traffic mitigation policies is not required to
mitigate impacts on intersections, streets, highways,
freeways, or mass transit that might otherwise be required
under CEQA.
AB 32 and greenhouse gas emission reductions
Last year the Legislature enacted AB 32 (Nu?ez), Chapter 488,
Statutes of 2006, the Global Warming Act of 2006, which requires
the Air Resources Board (ARB) to establish a statewide
greenhouse gas emissions limit such that by 2020 California
reduces its greenhouse gas emissions to the level they were in
1990. Thereafter, ARB must adopt the maximum feasible and
cost-effective reductions in greenhouse gas emissions for
sources subject to the Act. One of the potential strategies for
reducing greenhouse gas emissions is to promote more compact
land use that reduces the number and length of vehicle trips.
COMMENTS:
1.Purpose of the bill . According to the author, "Current
planning models used for transportation decisions and air
quality planning must be improved to assess policy choices.
This includes encouraging more compact development patterns,
expanding transit service, creating walkable communities, and
providing incentives. It is also necessary to achieve
significant greenhouse gas reductions from changed land use
patterns and improved transportation to meet AB 32 standards."
The author notes that "transportation and CEQA incentives are
needed for greater housing choices, shorter commutes, reduced
climate emissions, less air pollution, less fossil fuel
consumption, and greater conservation of farmlands and
habitat."
2.Seeking a comprehensive transportation, land use, and CEQA
link . This bill seeks to establish a comprehensive link
between transportation, land use, and CEQA by requiring RTPAs
to develop a preferred growth scenario, by linking funding of
transportation projects to the growth scenario, by requiring
that transportation modeling account for land use impacts on
transportation, and by revising CEQA for local governments
that conform their general plans to the preferred growth
scenario.
3.Should a strict VMT standard by imposed ? The bill requires
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that in larger regions the preferred growth scenarios,
together with transit improvement, achieve a 10% reduction in
vehicle miles traveled (VMT) per household by 2020. Smaller
regions would be required to prevent any increase in VMT over
the life of the plan. These requirements are intended to help
meet the greenhouse gas emission reduction targets required by
AB 32. These VMT requirements, however, may not be achievable
in some or many regions. In addition, by applying the
requirement to the preferred growth scenario, it precludes
RTPAs from achieving greenhouse gas reductions through other
means. The committee may wish to consider an alternative
approach that requires the ARB to assign greenhouse gas
emission reduction targets to each RTPA and then require the
RTPAs to adopt measures, including land use strategies, to
reduce emissions by an amount consistent with the targets.
Under the provisions of AB 32, the targets adopted by the ARB
must be "feasible and cost-effective."
4.Prescriptive model guidelines . This bill requires CTC to
adopt guidelines for the use of travel demand models by RTPAs
that require the models, to the extent practicable, to be
capable of evaluating numerous specific policy choices. Some
of these policy choices concern big-picture issues, such as
how changes in regional land use density or investments in
mass transit affect vehicle ownership and use. Others are
quite specific, including the impacts of parking charges and
freeway tolls. The committee may wish to consider whether it
is more appropriate to allow CTC, in conjunction with the
regions and other stakeholders, to determine the necessary
elements of a travel demand model.
5.Changes to CEQA . Within cities and counties that conform
their general plans to the region's preferred growth strategy,
this bill provides for various forms of CEQA relief. First,
the bill authorizes the use of a short-form EIR for
residential or mixed-use residential project on infill sites
within such jurisdictions. Second, the bill allows local
governments to adopt traffic mitigation policies that allow
infill housing developments to address local impacts without
having to address regional transportation impacts. Third, the
bill effectively expands the existing statutory exemption for
infill housing developments by defining "sustainable
communities projects" for which no further environmental
review is required. Fourth, the bill allows local governments
to adopt a new "neighborhood plan."
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It is worth noting that while the sustainable communities
project provisions of the bill do expand slightly on the
existing statutory exemption for infill housing, many local
governments reviewing infill housing developments already use
the categorical exemption in CEQA regulations that is much
broader in scope and provides similar benefits. In addition,
the conditions for using the neighborhood plan proposed in
this bill are more restrictive than those that currently exist
for using specific plans, while the neighborhood plan provides
no specific CEQA benefit to project applicants. The committee
may wish to consider deleting the neighborhood plan provisions
of the bill.
6.Correcting references to the PGS . The bill requires that
various transportation plans and projects lists developed by
Caltrans and the RTPAs be consistent with the preferred growth
scenarios adopted by the RTPAs. To the extent that that the
PGS is just one element of the regional transportation plan
and that the action element of the RTP, which includes future
projects, must be consistent with the PGS, it may be more
appropriate to change the references in the bill to require
that the various plans and projects lists be consistent with
the relevant RTPs.
7.Amendments taken in the Environmental Quality Committee . When
this bill was heard in the Senate Environmental Committee
earlier this week, the author committed to take three
amendments in the Transportation and Housing Committee as
follows:
On page 10, line 38, strike out "and (iii)" and insert
"(iii) is consistent with the state planning priorities
pursuant to Section 65041.1; and (iv)"
On page 15, line 27, strike "Projects" and insert "On
and after January 1, 2009, projects"
On page 24, line 12, strike out "no"
1.Support and concerns . Supporters note that SB 375 provides a
new vision for growth in California and "would establish
needed policies to implement AB 32 and to reduce greenhouse
gasses from light vehicles." They argue that the bill would
also integrate transportation and land use planning and help
"achieve greater housing choices, shorter commutes, reduced
climate emissions, less air pollution and fossil fuel
consumption, and greater conservation of farmlands and
habitat."
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The Planning and Conservation League and Sierra Club
California believe that the bill will not work because the
processes involved are lengthy, because results of such local
transportation planning efforts usually achieve the "lowest
common denominator" in regional land use, and a more
standards-based approach is needed. These organizations
outline several concerns with SB 375, such as: a) the lack
of needed policy statements; b) the absence of any entity to
determine if general plans or amendments are consistent with
the preferred growth scenario; c) the possible weakening of
current CEQA exemptions; d) the fact that local governments
are not required to implement the land use strategies of the
preferred growth scenario; e) the lack of a requirement for
the preferred growth scenario to direct growth to existing
areas; f) the lack of specific protection for resource lands
or farmlands; g) the lack of an enforceable standard to
counteract sprawl; h) the lack of clarity about how SB 375
will accomplish reductions in vehicle miles traveled; and i)
the "opportunity cost" associated with spending money and time
on a very indirect approach.
PREVIOUS ACTIONS:
Senate Environmental Quality Committee: 5-2
RELATED LEGISLATION
AB 842 (Jones) restricts access to certain Proposition 1B and 1C
programs to projects that are consistent with a regional land
use and transportation planning document that will reduce the
growth increment of vehicles miles traveled for the region by a
specified amount. This bill is in the Assembly Housing and
Community Development Committee.
POSITIONS: (Communicated to the Committee before 5 PM on
Tuesday, April 24, 2007)
SUPPORT: California League of Conservation Voters
(co-sponsor)
Natural Resources Defense Council (co-sponsor)
Sacramento Area Council of Governments (in
concept)
Southern California Association of Governments
CONCERN: Planning and Conservation League
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Sierra Club California
OPPOSED: None received.