Title
Adopt a Resolution to Consider and Approve Text Amendments to the Transportation Element of the General Plan to Replace Level of Service (LOS) with Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) as the Criteria to be used for Transportation Analysis under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), in Compliance with Senate Bill (SB) 743 and CEQA Guidelines Section 15064.3
Staffreport
COUNCIL PRIORITY
* Infrastructure
* Community & Business Development
SUMMARY & RECOMMENDATIONS
Senate Bill (SB) 743, signed into law in 2013, required a shift in the focus of transportation analysis under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) to better align with the State's sustainability and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction goals. SB 743 requires lead agencies, which started on July 1, 2020, to change the primary metric utilized to evaluate a project's transportation impacts from Level of Service (LOS), as measured by roadway capacity and vehicle delay, to Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT), which is an estimate of the amount and distance people drive by vehicle to reach a destination.
Staff recommends that the City Council adopt a Resolution that amends the Transportation Element of the General Plan to formalize the replacement of LOS with VMT as the criteria to be used for transportation analysis under CEQA and to establish the appropriate context for LOS based analyses outside of the CEQA process. On January 4, 2024, the Planning Commission, by a vote of 6-0-1 (Commissioner Rich was absent), recommended that the City Council adopt a resolution to adopt the proposed General Plan text amendments.
BACKGROUND
CEQA requires public agencies to identify, disclose, and mitigate environmental impacts of projects by comparing potential impacts against adopted significance thresholds. Historically, lead agencies have used LOS to identify significant transportation impacts under CEQA. LOS prioritizes moving the largest number of automobiles as fast as possible and does no...
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