BILL NUMBER: AB 2140 CHAPTERED 09/29/00 CHAPTER 832 FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE SEPTEMBER 29, 2000 APPROVED BY GOVERNOR SEPTEMBER 28, 2000 PASSED THE ASSEMBLY AUGUST 31, 2000 PASSED THE SENATE AUGUST 30, 2000 AMENDED IN SENATE AUGUST 28, 2000 AMENDED IN SENATE AUGUST 18, 2000 AMENDED IN SENATE JUNE 20, 2000 AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 4, 2000 INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Keeley (Coauthors: Assembly Members Jackson, Longville, and Wiggins) (Coauthors: Senators Costa, Figueroa, and Solis) FEBRUARY 23, 2000 An act to amend Section 65080 of, and to add Section 65080.3 to, the Government Code, relating to transportation. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST AB 2140, Keeley. Regional transportation plans. Existing law requires designated transportation planning agencies to prepare and adopt a regional transportation plan that includes a policy element, an action element, and a financial element. Existing law requires the plan to be directed at achieving a coordinated and balanced regional transportation system. This bill would revise the requirements for the policy and financial elements of the transportation plan and would limit those revised requirements to transportation planning agencies with populations that exceed 200,000 persons. The bill would authorize those agencies, except as specified, to prepare at least one alternative planning scenario, and would list the requirements for that alternative planning scenario. THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS: SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares both of the following: (a) The Legislature is concerned about increasing traffic congestion and its impacts on California's economic growth and quality of life. (b) This act is intended to improve California's long-range transportation planning by including the preparation of alternative long-range transportation plans that have the possibility of offering methods to reduce traffic congestion. SEC. 2. Section 65080 of the Government Code is amended to read: 65080. (a) Each transportation planning agency designated under Section 29532 or 29532.1 shall prepare and adopt a regional transportation plan 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 plan shall be action-oriented and pragmatic, considering both the short-term and long-term future, and shall present clear, concise policy guidance to local and state officials. The regional transportation plan shall consider factors specified in Section 134 of Title 23 of the United States Code. Each transportation planning agency shall consider and incorporate, as appropriate, the transportation plans of cities, counties, districts, private organizations, and state and federal agencies. (b) The regional transportation plan shall include all of the following: (1) A policy element that describes the transportation issues in the region, identifies and quantifies regional needs, and describes the desired short-range and long-range transportation goals, and pragmatic objective and policy statements. The objective and policy statements shall be consistent with the funding estimates of the financial element. The policy element of transportation planning agencies with populations that exceed 200,000 persons may quantify a set of indicators including, but not limited to, all of the following: (A) Measures of mobility and traffic congestion, including, but not limited to, vehicle hours of delay per capita and vehicle miles traveled per capita. (B) Measures of road and bridge maintenance and rehabilitation needs, including, but not limited to, roadway pavement and bridge conditions. (C) Measures of means of travel, including, but not limited to, percentage share of all trips (work and nonwork) made by all of the following: (i) Single occupant vehicle. (ii) Multiple occupant vehicle or carpool. (iii) Public transit including commuter rail and intercity rail. (iv) Walking. (v) Bicycling. (D) Measures of safety and security, including, but not limited to, total injuries and fatalities assigned to each of the modes set forth in subparagraph (C). (E) Measures of equity and accessibility, including, but not limited to, percentage of the population served by frequent and reliable public transit, with a breakdown by income bracket, and percentage of all jobs accessible by frequent and reliable public transit service, with a breakdown by income bracket. (F) The requirements of this section may be met utilizing existing sources of information. No additional traffic counts, household surveys, or other sources of data shall be required. (G) For the region defined in Section 66502, the indicators specified in this paragraph shall be supplanted by the performance measurement criteria established pursuant to subdivision (e) of Section 66535, if that subdivision is added to the Government Code by Section 1 of Senate Bill 1995 of the 1999-2000 Regular Session. (2) An action element that describes the programs and actions necessary to implement the plan and assigns implementation responsibilities. The action element may describe all projects proposed for development during the 20-year life of the plan. The action element shall consider congestion management programming activities carried out within the region. (3) (A) A financial element that summarizes the cost of plan implementation constrained by a realistic projection of available revenues. The financial element shall also contain recommendations for allocation of funds. A county transportation commission created pursuant to Section 130000 of the Public Utilities Code shall be responsible for recommending projects to be funded with regional improvement funds, if the project is consistent with the regional transportation plan. The first five years of the financial element shall be based on the five-year estimate of funds developed pursuant to Section 14524. The financial element may recommend the development of specified new sources of revenue, consistent with the policy element and action element. (B) The financial element of transportation planning agencies with populations that exceed 200,000 persons may include a project cost breakdown for all projects proposed for development during the 20-year life of the plan that includes total expenditures and related percentages of total expenditures for all of the following: (i) State highway expansion. (ii) State highway rehabilitation, maintenance, and operations. (iii) Local road and street expansion. (iv) Local road and street rehabilitation, maintenance, and operation. (v) Mass transit, commuter rail, and intercity rail expansion. (vi) Mass transit, commuter rail, and intercity rail rehabilitation, maintenance, and operations. (vii) Pedestrian and bicycle facilities. (viii) Environmental enhancements and mitigation. (ix) Research and planning. (x) Other categories. (c) Each transportation planning agency shall adopt and submit, every three years beginning by September 1, 2001, an updated regional transportation plan to the California Transportation Commission and the Department of Transportation. The plan shall be consistent with federal planning and programming requirements. A transportation planning agency that does not contain an urbanized area may at its option adopt and submit a regional transportation plan once every four years beginning by September 1, 2001. Prior to adoption of the regional transportation plan, a public hearing shall be held, after the giving of notice of the hearing by publication in the affected county or counties pursuant to Section 6061. SEC. 3. Section 65080.3 is added to the Government Code, to read: 65080.3. (a) Each transportation planning agency with a population that exceeds 200,000 persons may prepare at least one "alternative planning scenario" for presentation to local officials, agency board members, and the public during the development of the triennial regional transportation plan and the hearing required under subdivision (c) of Section 65080. (b) The alternative planning scenario shall accommodate the same amount of population growth as projected in the plan but shall be based on an alternative that attempts to reduce the growth in traffic congestion, make more efficient use of existing transportation infrastructure, and reduce the need for costly future public infrastructure. (c) The alternative planning scenario shall be developed in collaboration with a broad range of public and private stakeholders, including local elected officials, city and county employees, relevant interest groups, and the general public. In developing the scenario, the agency shall consider all of the following: (1) Increasing housing and commercial development around transit facilities and in close proximity to jobs and commercial activity centers. (2) Encouraging public transit usage, ridesharing, walking, bicycling, and transportation demand management practices. (3) Promoting a more efficient mix of current and future job sites, commercial activity centers, and housing opportunities. (4) Promoting use of urban vacant land and "brownfield" redevelopment. (5) An economic incentive program that may include measures such as transit vouchers and variable pricing for transportation. (d) The planning scenario shall be included in a report evaluating all of the following: (1) The amounts and locations of traffic congestion. (2) Vehicle miles traveled and the resulting reduction in vehicle emissions. (3) Estimated percentage share of trips made by each means of travel specified in subparagraph (C) of paragraph (1) of subdivision (b) of Section 65080. (4) The costs of transportation improvements required to accommodate the population growth in accordance with the alternative scenario. (5) The economic, social, environmental, regulatory, and institutional barriers to the scenario being achieved. (e) If the adopted regional transportation plan already achieves one or more of the objectives set forth in subdivision (c), those objectives need not be discussed or evaluated in the alternative planning scenario. (f) The alternative planning scenario and accompanying report shall not be adopted as part of the regional transportation plan, but it shall be distributed to cities and counties within the region and to other interested parties, and may be a basis for revisions to the transportation projects that will be included in the regional transportation plan. (g) Nothing in this section grants transportation planning agencies any direct or indirect authority over local land use decisions. (h) This section does not apply to a transportation plan adopted on or before September 1, 2001, proposed by a transportation planning agency with a population of less than 1,000,000 persons.