BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1290
Page 1
0Date of Hearing: April 29, 2013
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION
Bonnie Lowenthal, Chair
AB 1290 (John A. Pérez) - As Amended: April 23, 2013
SUBJECT : Sustainable communities strategies: California
Transportation Commission reporting
SUMMARY : Modifies the composition of the California
Transportation Commission (CTC) and imposes new duties relative
to assessing progress in implementing sustainable communities
strategies (SCSs). Specifically, this bill :
1)Expands membership of the CTC from 13 to 18 members by adding
members appointed as follows:
a) One voting member appointed by the Speaker of the
Assembly;
b) One voting member appointed by the Senate Committee on
Rules; and,
c) The Secretary of the Transportation Agency, the
Chairperson of the State Air Resources Board, and the
Director of Housing and Community Development, each to be
non-voting, ex officio members.
2)Directs the Governor, in appointing members to the CTC, to
make every effort to assure that transportation expertise that
has not traditionally been represented on the commission is
reflected in appointments to the commission, with particular
emphasis on stakeholders involved and engaged in, among other
things, efforts to make California's transportation system
more sustainable.
3)Expands the prescribed responsibilities of the CTC's Committee
on Planning to include the responsibility to monitor outcomes
from land development and transportation investments relative
to adopted SCSs.
4)By October 15, 2014, and every two years thereafter, requires
the CTC to receive from those transportation planning agencies
that are required to prepare an SCS, reports (discussed below)
describing progress in implementing their SCSs and in
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attaining greenhouse gas reductions; authorizes the CTC, after
receiving the second round of reports (in 2016) and after
consulting with transportation planning agencies, to prepare
guidelines to ensure that the reports are concise, coherent,
focused on state objectives, and comparable across the state.
5)Clarifies that the CTC's requirement to include with each
revision of its Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) guidelines
a summary of best practices or projects that have been
employed to promote health and health equity for purposes of
sharing ideas among transportation planning agencies.
6)Expands elements of the CTC's required annual report to
include a summary of its assessment of progress around the
state toward achieving greenhouse gas emission reductions,
based on land developments and transportation investments.
7)For transportation planning agencies that prepare SCSs,
requires those agencies to submit annual reports to the CTC
that describes the region's progress in implementing its
sustainable communities strategy. The report shall include an
assessment of progress made, along with any challenges the
region is facing, with respect to its ability to implement
policies and projects that were set forth in its sustainable
communities strategy.
8)Requires RTIPs to include a discussion of how it relates to
the region's SCS; this provision applies only to regions that
are required to prepare an SCS.
9)Requires the Strategic Growth Council (Council) to do the
following:
a) Identify activities, programs, and local assistance
funding of member agencies that have a significant effect
on the implementation of SCSs;
b) Notify its member agencies of the identified activities,
programs, and local assistance funding; and,
c) Require each member agency to report annually by August
15 to the Council and to the CTC on steps it has taken to
ensure that its policies, activities, programs, and local
assistance funding help reduce greenhouse gas; member
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agencies are also required to explain in the context of
their missions any statutory constraints that prevent the
agency from pursing policies, activities, programs, and
local assistance funding that would help attain greenhouse
gas emission reduction targets.
10)Deletes obsolete provisions.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Establishes the CTC to advise and assist the Secretary of the
Business, Transportation and Housing Agency and the
Legislature in formulating and evaluating state policies and
plans for transportation programs in the state.
2)Prescribes membership of the CTC as follows:
a) Nine members appointed by the Governor with consent of
the Senate;
b) One member appointed by the Speaker of the Assembly;
c) One member appointed by the Senate Committee on Rules;
and,
d) Two ex officio, non-voting members, appointed one each
by the Speaker of the Assembly and the Senate Committee on
Rules.
3)Requires the CTC to organize itself into at least four
committees, as follows: aeronautics, streets and highways,
mass transportation, and planning; vests with the planning
committee the responsibility to monitor transportation
planning and programming processes related to RTPs.
4)Authorizes the CTC to prescribe guidelines for preparation of
RTPs.
5)Requires metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) and
transportation planning agencies to adopt and submit an
updated RTP to the CTC and to the Department of Transportation
(Caltrans) every four or five years, depending on air quality
attainment within the region.
6)For MPOs, requires their RTPs to include an SCS to achieve
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greenhouse gas emission reduction targets established by the
California Air Resources Board (Board).
7)Requires MPOs to submit their adopted SCS to the Board for
review and acceptance or rejection of the MPO's determination
that its SCS will, if implemented, achieve the established
greenhouse gas reduction targets; provides that an SCS is not
subject to any state approval, except for this review.
8)Provides that projects programmed for funding before December
31, 2011, or projects that are specifically in a sales tax
measure adopted prior to December 31, 2010, are not subject to
the constraints of an SCS.
9)Establishes the Council and prescribes its membership, to
include:
a) Director of State Planning and Research;
b) Secretary of the Resources Agency;
c) Secretary of Environmental Protection;
d) Secretary of Business, Transportation and Housing;
e) Secretary of California Health and Human Services; and,
f) One public member, appointed by the Governor.
10)Tasks the Council with coordinating activities and
identifying funding programs of its member agencies to do the
following:
a) Improve air and water quality;
b) Protect natural resources and agriculture lands;
c) Increase the availability of affordable housing;
d) Promote public health;
e) Improve transportation;
f) Encourage greater infill and compact development;
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g) Revitalize community and urban centers; and,
h) Assist state and local entities in planning sustainable
communities and in meeting AB 32 goals.
11)Requires the Council to recommend policies and investment
strategies and priorities to the Governor, the Legislature,
and to appropriate state agencies to encourage the development
of sustainable communities.
12)Directs the Council to provide, fund, and distribute data to
local government and regional agencies to assist them in
planning sustainable communities.
13)Sets forth a process to develop the State Transportation
Improvement Program (STIP), which is comprised of the
interregional transportation improvement program submitted by
Caltrans and RTIPs submitted by transportation planning
agencies.
14)Grants the CTC authority to adopt or reject, in its entirety,
an RTIP submitted to it by a transportation planning agency;
generally requires projects identified in RTIPs to be
consistent with RTPs.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : According to the author, AB 1290 modifies the CTC
organizational structure and composition to improve its capacity
to analyze and integrate connections between transportation and
land use into its administrative programs and review processes.
The author points out that, since 2006, there have been
significant policies that have altered the course of
transportation policy in California, including:
1)The Highway Safety, Traffic Reduction, Air Quality, and Port
Security Act of 2006 that resulted in nearly $20 billion in
transportation infrastructure bonds;
2)The California Global Warming Solutions Act (AB 32 (Nunez),
Chapter 488, Statutes of 2006), that set a greenhouse gas
emissions limit equivalent to the statewide greenhouse gas
emissions levels in 1990 to be achieved by 2020;
3)SB 375 (Steinberg), Chapter 728, Statutes of 2008, that
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requires development of SCSs; and,
4)The Governor's reorganization plan that requires increased
coordination and integration of housing and transportation
policies.
The author contends that, in light of these significant policy
shifts, it is therefore critical that the CTC's statutorily
described mission is updated to support the statewide goals
related to greenhouse gas emission reductions, SCSs, and
coordinated housing and transportation policies.
In addition to restructuring the CTC, AB 1290 imposes reporting
requirements on state and regional agencies directed at
providing ongoing assessments of the progress being made toward
reducing greenhouse gas.
Understandably, policy makers are scurrying to assess the real
effects of California's recent series of landmark policies
related to greenhouse gas reductions and specific efforts are
underway to this end. For example, just last week, the Council
released a request for proposal to secure the services of a
consultant to bring together the state's 18 MPOs so that they
can, as a group, assess the first round of SCSs and formulate a
common understanding of what was learned, what needs to be
improved, and where the SCS process should be heading over the
next few cycles.
Unfortunately, given the long-term nature of community and
infrastructure development, the actual outcomes of these policy
shifts may not be known for some time. In the meantime, experts
suggest that the best short-term indicator of likely long-term
outcomes is an analysis of changing land use decisions and
associated public investments. The reporting requirements
imposed by this bill will provide the data by which some of
these early-term assessments may be made.
Related legislation: AB 1179 (Bocanegra) requires MPOs to
identify, in consultation with local educational agencies, how
their SCS may impact school enrollments and school capacities in
the areas targeted for infill. The bill is in the Assembly
Local Government Committee.
Previous legislation: AB 32 (Nunez), Chapter 488, Statutes of
2006, the California Global Warming Solutions Act, set a
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greenhouse gas emissions limit equivalent to the statewide
greenhouse gas emissions levels in 1990 to be achieved by 2020.
SB 375 (Steinberg), Chapter 728, Statutes of 2008, requires MPOs
to include SCSs in their RTPs for the purpose of reducing
greenhouse gas emissions.
SB 732 (Steinberg), Chapter 729, Statutes of 2008, among other
things, established the SGC.
SB 1039 (Steinberg), Chapter 147, Statutes of 2012, requires the
Department of Housing and Community Development, Caltrans, and
the CTC to coordinate state housing and transportation policies
and programs.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
California Bicycle Coalition
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Janet Dawson / TRANS. / (916) 319-2093