SENATE BILL 743 (STEINBERG, 2013)
The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) provides a process for evaluating the environmental effects of applicable projects undertaken or approved by public agencies. There are several classes of projects that fall under exemptions (statutory and categorical), whereby if they meet certain criteria, no additional environmental review is required. Projects which do not meet the criteria of statutory or categorical exemptions, must conduct additional environmental review, beginning with an Initial Study (IS), to determine if the project may have a significant effect on the environment. There are 19 factors or areas, by which projects are analyzed in the IS, where in the context of the project, an answer of “No Impact”, “Less than Significant Impact”, “Less than Significant with Mitigation Incorporated”, or “Potentially Significant Impact”, will determine whether the project may move forward with a Negative Declaration, Mitigated Negative Declaration, or Environmental Impact Report (EIR). Two of the 19 factors that were affected by the methodology shift created by SB 743 are Transportation/Traffic and Greenhouse Gas Emissions.
Prior to the implementation date of SB 743, on July 1, 2020, projects were required to consider traffic delay when conducting transportation/traffic analysis, measured using “Level of Service” or LOS standards, on a graded scale of A (best) to F (worst). If the project would cause a change in the grade/degrade to the intersection for example, certain mitigation measures would be required, such as widening the road for additional vehicular capacity, or signalizing an unsignalized intersection, that could result in a finding of “Less than Significant with Mitigation Incorporated”. The main goals of the previous methodology were to ensure that the project would not further exacerbate already deteriorated intersections causing adverse impacts (delay) to the driver(s), and in many ways, examine how the project could incorporate mitigation measures to improve or reduce already existing transportation/traffic impacts to the driver(s).
SB 743 “Bill” was signed into law in 2013 and had three statutory goals for determining the significance of transportation impacts: reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, development of multimodal transportation networks, and encouraging a diversity of land uses. The Bill, among other things, required the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research (OPR) to propose revisions to the CEQA Guidelines to establish new, non-LOS criteria for determining the significance of transportation impacts of projects within “transit priority areas”, which included the requirement that OPR recommend potential metrics to measure transportation impacts, such as vehicle miles traveled per capita, automobile trip generation rates, or automobile trips generated. The Bill also authorized OPR to adopt CEQA Guidelines establishing metrics for analysis of transportation impacts that are alternatives to LOS to be used outside transit priority areas, that better align with state climate policy and sustainability goals outlined in AB 32 (2006) and SB 375 (2008).
The new transportation impact metric that was selected by OPR was vehicle miles traveled (VMT). In OPR’s determination, VMT, which looks at the overall level of auto use and its impact on the environment, is much more closely related to carbon emissions and air pollution, than are local traffic levels, as measured by LOS. Once OPR determined the new metric (VMT), the agency then developed the draft updates to the CEQA Guidelines. The draft guidelines were submitted to the Natural Resources Agency for review, who certified the updates in December 2018. Agencies were required to begin implementing VMT as the new transportation impact metric for Project-level CEQA review on July 1, 2020. In addition to development projects and transportation improvement projects, long-range plans like Specific Plans and General Plans are also considered projects under CEQA, and can still examine LOS in its transportation analysis, but much like project-level analysis (a physical development project), LOS impacts aren’t considered to be CEQA impacts. On a project-level basis, agencies can require that LOS be considered in the overall project analysis during the entitlements review and may require conditions of approval that address LOS-related impacts, as long as they don’t increase roadway capacity (widened roadways, new travel lanes, etc.). Examples of conditions of approval that could result from that analysis would be the optimization of signal timing, or fair-share contribution to signalization of an unsignalized intersection, if those improvements were shown to be necessary to accommodate the proposed land uses.
OPR prepared a Technical Advisory[1] document to assist lead agencies in thinking about the variety of ways that the VMT metric may be implemented, but lead agencies must still make their own specific decisions about VMT methodology, thresholds, and mitigation. Staff utilized LEAP grant award funds to engage Fehr & Peers to develop RHE-specific information, to assist both City staff and project applicants in addressing methodology, thresholds and mitigation.
The adoption of Resolution No. 2533, will mark the City’s first step in implementing the General Plan 2040, as Implementation Measure IM 3.2.1.4, found in the Mobility Element of the General Plan 2040, states, “Adopt Transportation Impact Study Guidelines that are in line with California Senate Bill 743 (SB 743).” By adopting clear thresholds and providing project proponents with clear guidelines on how to conduct transportation impact analysis for Project-level CEQA analysis in the City, the SB 743 implementation work will aid in streamlining review of the increased density in the Commercial District, as deemed appropriate by the studies that were prepared as part of the Focused Plan preparation.
[1] Technical Advisory On Evaluating Transportation Impacts in CEQA. The Governor’s Office of Planning and Research, December 2018
SENATE BILL 743
