REPORT TO PLANNING COMMISSION
SUBJECT
Title
Forward a Recommendation to the City Council to Adopt a Resolution Establishing Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) as the Threshold of Significance for Analysis under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), Adopt a Council Policy for Transportation Impact Analysis, and Find that the Action is Exempt from CEQA
Report
REPORT IN BRIEF
Public agencies in California have historically relied on a metric known as "Level of Service" (LOS) to evaluate transportation impacts under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). LOS is a measure of traffic congestion based on delay that drivers experience at intersections. Developers are typically required to mitigate project-related traffic by funding capital improvements that prioritize automobile movement. Because the traffic in urban centers is already congested, LOS can discourage dense infill development that would offer environmental benefits from putting jobs and housing closer together.
In 2013, the State Legislature enacted Senate Bill 743 (SB 743), which directed the Office of Planning and Research to develop new CEQA Guidelines that replace LOS with metrics that more appropriately balance the needs of traffic congestion management with statewide goals related to infill development, promotion of public health through active transportation, and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. After a five-year process of study and public engagement, in 2018, the state adopted CEQA Guidelines Section 15064.3, which prohibits the use of LOS in CEQA documents after July 1, 2020 and requires agencies to analyze projects using a Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) metric. Put simply, VMT evaluates whether the project will increase or decrease the overall amount of automobile travel in the community.
City staff began the transition from LOS to VMT in Spring 2019 with a plan consisting of outreach, engagement, technical evaluation, development of a draft policy, and Council adoption. ...
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