DATE: June 16, 2020
TO: Mayor and City Council
FROM: Director of Public Works
Director of Development Services
SUBJECT
Title
2040 General Plan: Introduce an Ordinance Amending the Hayward 2040 General Plan to Comply with Changes to State Law Including the Establishment of New Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) CEQA Thresholds and Adopt Updated Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction Targets
End
RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation
That the City Council:
1. Adopts a resolution (Attachment II) with amendments to the Hayward 2040 General Plan establishing new Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) thresholds for California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) analysis, consistent with SB 743; and
2. Adopts a resolution (Attachment III) with amendments to the Hayward 2040 General Plan establishing the adoption of new Greenhouse Gas Emission reduction goals for the City; and
3. Introduce an ordinance (Attachment IV) to amend the Hayward 2040 General Plan per the adopted resolutions.
SUMMARY
This report presents two changes to the Hayward 2040 General Plan - one to establish new Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) thresholds for California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) analysis, consistent with SB 743 and one to establish new Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emission reduction goals. As there is a general limitation on the amount of General Plan amendments allowed in a year, these changes were brought together in one amendment.
SB 743 changes the focus of transportation impact analysis in CEQA from measuring impacts on drivers, to measuring the impact of driving. The proposed Amendment will replace intersection Level of Service (LOS) analysis with vehicle miles traveled (VMT) per capita and provide streamlined review of land use and transportation projects that will help reduce future VMT per capita growth. VMT per capita is a quantifiable measure, in miles per capita, of the average total amount of vehicular travel. One single occupancy vehicle traveling ten miles would equal 10 VMT/capita. Four single occupancy vehicles traveling ten miles would equal 40 VMT or 10 VMT/capita. Typically, development located at greater distance from shopping and employment centers or in areas with few transportation options generates more vehicle trips and of longer distances versus a similar development located in proximity to BART Stations and other areas with more transportation alternatives. VMT is an important input in the analysis of air quality and greenhouse gas emissions and has been used for that purpose within CEQA for several years.
Since 2018, City staff and Nelson Nygaard have been working collaboratively to develop new transportation thresholds that comply with the provisions of SB 743. Currently, the City uses LOS as the threshold used in CEQA evaluations and the proposed changes would replace the current LOS thresholds with new VMT thresholds. The adoption of new thresholds to identify traffic impacts under CEQA will require an amendment to the Hayward 2040 General Plan.
The Hayward 2040 General Plan currently has goals for reducing GHG emissions with specific targets for 2020, 2040, and 2050. This report provides recommended GHG reduction goals for 2025 and 2030 and a carbon neutrality goal for 2045. This report also presents some of the actions that will be necessary to achieve the new goals as well as potential challenges related to review of new development projects.
ATTACHMENTS
Attachment I Staff Report
Attachment II Resolution
Attachment III Resolution for GHG Goals
Attachment IV Ordinance
Attachment V Exhibit A - Proposed GPA
Attachment VI Proposed VMT Thresholds Screening Criteria
Attachment VII Tech Memo for GHG
Attachment VIII StopWaste Letter 12.19.2019
Attachment IX Draft Planning Commission Minutes of 5/28/2020