DATE: March 12, 2020
TO: Planning Commission
FROM: Planning Manager
SUBJECT
Title
SB743 Work Session on Level of Service (LOS) to Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) Analysis
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RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation
That the Commission review the report and provide feedback on the proposed local land use thresholds for Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) related to CEQA impact analysis, which requires an amendment of the Hayward 2040 General Plan.
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SUMMARY
SB 743 changes the focus of transportation impact analysis in CEQA from measuring impacts to drivers, to measuring the impact of driving. The change is being made by replacing LOS with vehicle miles of travel (VMT) and providing streamlined review of land use and transportation projects that will help reduce future VMT growth. This shift in transportation impact focus is expected to better align transportation impact analysis and mitigation outcomes with the State’s goals to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, encourage infill development, increase the mix of land uses, and improve public health with more multimodal transportation networks.
City staff and the transportation consultant, Nelson\Nygaard, will present information about the new SB743 regulations and present proposed changes to the CEQA guidelines to identify Vehicle Miles Traveled (i.e., vehicle usage) as the metric to evaluate a project’s transportation impacts. The proposed changes will require the adoption of new local thresholds to identify traffic impacts and will require an amendment to the Hayward 2040 General Plan. Currently, the City has Level of Service (LOS) as the threshold used in CEQA evaluations and the proposed changes would replace the current LOS thresholds with new VMT thresholds.
ATTACHMENTS
Attachment I Staff Report
Attachment II Proposed VMT Threshold Maps