Bill Text: CA SB768 | 2023-2024 | Regular Session | Chaptered
Bill Title: California Environmental Quality Act: Department of Housing and Community Development: vehicle miles traveled: study.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)
Status: (Passed) 2024-09-27 - Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 773, Statutes of 2024. [SB768 Detail]
Download: California-2023-SB768-Chaptered.html
Senate Bill
No. 768
CHAPTER 773
An act to add and repeal Section 21099.5 of the Public Resources Code, relating to environmental quality.
[
Approved by
Governor
September 27, 2024.
Filed with
Secretary of State
September 27, 2024.
]
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 768, Caballero.
California Environmental Quality Act: Department of Housing and Community Development: vehicle miles traveled: study.
The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of an environmental impact report on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment.
Existing law requires the Office of Planning and Research to prepare, develop, and transmit to the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency for
certification and adoption proposed revisions to guidelines establishing criteria, for purposes of CEQA, for determining the significance of transportation impacts of projects within transit priority areas to promote the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, the development of multimodal transportation networks, and a diversity of land uses.
Existing law establishes the Department of Housing and Community Development in the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency and makes the department responsible for administering various housing programs throughout the state.
This bill would require the department, in consultation with local governments and other interested parties, as specified, by January 1, 2028, and subject to an appropriation by the Legislature for this purpose, to conduct and post on its internet website a study on how vehicle miles traveled is used as a metric for measuring transportation impacts of
housing projects pursuant to CEQA. The bill would require the study to include, among other things, an analysis of the differences in the availability and feasibility of mitigation measures to housing projects for vehicle miles traveled in rural, suburban, urban, and low vehicle miles traveled areas. The bill would repeal those provisions on January 1, 2029.
Digest Key
Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: NOBill Text
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
Section 21099.5 is added to the Public Resources Code, to read:21099.5.
(a) On or before January 1, 2028, the Department of Housing and Community Development shall conduct and post on its internet website a study on how vehicle miles traveled is used as a metric for measuring transportation impacts of housing projects pursuant to this division.(b) The Department of Housing and Community Development, in conducting the study, shall consult with local governments and other interested parties, including, but not limited to, all of the following:
(1) State agencies, such as the Transportation Agency, the State Air Resources Board, the Department of Transportation, and the Office of Planning and Research.
(2) Local agencies, or organizations represented by member agencies, such as councils of government, metropolitan planning agencies, or regional transportation planning agencies, on a volunteer basis.
(3) Industry organizations, including those with specific expertise in analyzing traffic and housing impacts under this division, on a volunteer basis.
(c) The study shall include all of the following:
(1) An analysis of the implementation and outcomes of the guidelines described in paragraph (1) of subdivision (b) of Section 21099, as they pertain to housing projects.
(2) An analysis and comparison
of how vehicle miles traveled impacts of mitigation measures are identified, measured, and deployed at the local, regional, and statewide level that shall include an exhaustive list of housing project types that are considered to increase capacity, induce vehicle miles traveled, or both. The analysis may include how the projected vehicle miles traveled is estimated for each mitigation strategy.
(3) A list of the cost of vehicle miles traveled mitigation measures to housing projects thus far, and an analysis of whether the cost of those measures either indefinitely delayed, temporarily delayed, or necessitated the phasing of those projects.
(4) (A) A list of housing project types, if any, that are exempted from analysis of vehicle miles traveled.
(B) The study may include
an inventory of countywide regional vehicle miles traveled mitigation program framework studies that have been prepared for transportation or planning agencies, and summaries of the findings and conclusions of those studies.
(5) (A) An analysis of the differences in the availability and feasibility of mitigation measures to housing projects for vehicle miles traveled in rural, suburban, urban, and low vehicle miles traveled areas.
(B) The analysis shall include best strategies and planning changes to mitigate vehicle miles traveled in areas where public transportation or active transportation infrastructure is infeasible.
(6) A discussion of the relationship between vehicle miles traveled reduction, greenhouse gas emissions reduction, housing volume, housing
affordability, transportation, economic development, public health, and equity.
(d) Implementation of this section is contingent upon an appropriation by the Legislature for purposes of this section in the annual Budget Act or another statute.
(e) This section shall remain in effect only until January 1, 2029, and as of that date is repealed.
