ESP 179 quiz 3 Flashcards
What is the name of the old and new transportation analysis for CEQA?
(old)= Level of Service / LOS
(New) = vehicles miles traveled (VMT)
Level of service
Classifications of amount of speed of car traffic on a road
A/B = not impacted
C/D = less than significant
E/F = would have been potentially significant
What are impacts like for lower density areas?
With less centralized locations there’s less walking, biking, and busing and instead is much more driving.
Is road widening good?
Introduces more congestion and induced demand. It becomes less safe for pedestrians and bikers.
SB 743
created new metric for driving analysis VMT (vehicle miles traveled)
After when were lead agencies required to use VMT’s?
After July 1, 2020
VMT
Focus shifts to total driving.
More total driving = greater significant impact
Why do we want to reduce VMT?
helps reduce ghgs
Complaints about VMT analysis
In suburban area: more projects will have significant impacts, mitigation may be impossible (But that’s kind of the point)
Guidance for assessing impacts
Projects within a half mile are not considered of significant impact, residential with 15% less than VMT per capital are less than significant, projects that decrease VMT = less than significant
Who has jurisdiction over local roads?
cities and counties have jurisdiction
What are some safety features that may increase hazards?
Inadequate sight lines, sharp curves, inadequate separation distance between intersection, the width and location of medians, long crosswalks, trees, and etc..
Emergency access impacts
Insufficient width of roadways, too steep, road closures, inaccessibility in general.
What are the two types of numeric thresholds?
Projected-generated VMT: how much will a project produce (like land-use management)
Project effect on VMT: how much will project change area wide VMT (total impact)the
How do you estimate the impact for VMT?
Baseline VMT estimation (setting thresholds)
Project level estimation (assessing whether or not exceed thresholds)
VMT analysis on transportation
Must think about: the induced travel, the reduced perceived cost, and when the prices of driving goes down VMT goes up.
What are the thresholds for transportation projects?
Screening: projects that are not expected to increase VMT (road maintenance, reduction of lanes, etc.)
Numeric threshold: net increase across the network
How do you estimate VMT for transportation projects?
By using travel models or the elasticity based approach (formula)
What are mitigations like for transportation project?
Usually reduce active travel, increasing parking prices, but not great for feasibility
For land development project how do they estimate VMT?
Through travel demand, sketch models, and location-based assessment.
What does mitigation for land use projects look like?
Much less detailed, only 104 jurisdictions have required how to estimate mitigation measures, so rural and suburban areas lack data on how applicable mitigation measures are.
How did the move from LOS to VMT cause a paradigm shift in CA?
created the rethinking of transportation networks and streamlined the CEQA process to encourage in-fill developments. Also reduces GHGs.
What are some challenges in the process of switching to VMT?
lack of resources and smaller rural areas are less researched.
Who gets to decide how land gets used?
Local governments
Who are the land use authorities in the coastal zone?
California coastal commission (CCC), prop 20, California coastal act (1976)
What is the coastal commissions and justice goal?
Use its authority to ensure access to clean and healthy environments for communities that have been disproportionally overburdened by pollution for the benefit of wealthier communities.
How are land use goals carried out?
Through general plans and zoning codes
What are general plans?
long range goals and policies for development with a vision for future growth.
What do general plan policies consist of?
They require a mis of housing types and designs but avoid locating liquor outlets near school, and business parks should include sophisticated land planning.
What are zoning codes?
The implementation of the general plan, zoning = the law
What are some rules for zoning codes?
can either have permitted allowable uses or conditional uses that need discretionary approval.
Permitted = food, apparel, pharmacy, etc.
Conditional = commercial recreation, drive through’s, gas stations
Discretionary approvals
Discretionary approvals are subject to CEQA, like if you must amend a general plan or if you have a conditional use permit
Appendix G questions for land use
Would the project:
-conflict with land use plans or regulations adopted for the purpose of avoiding environmental effects
-physically divide an established community
About how many people live in california?
39 million
What do residents and employee need?
Commercial areas, services, places to live, public services and utilities. But buildings have not kept up with our need and growing population
Appendix G questions for housing.
Would the project:
-induce substantial unplanned population growth in an area
-displace substantial numbers of existing people or housing, necessitating the construction of replacement housing elsewhere?
What does low-density development do?
Consumes more land, higher water use, more VMT, more pollution and GHGs
Builders remedy
projects with 20% affordable to lower incomes or 100% affordable to moderate income housing are supposed to bypass zoning codes and general plans. (NOT subject to CEQA)
Whats the difference between infill and greenfield development?
Infill: Based in high density areas with lots of people where less driving is happening.
Greenfield: Low density rural/agricultural areas where there is more driving.
What are land use elements?
They tell us where things will be
What does CEQA consider unplanned growth?
Direct or indirect growth from a project
What is the RHNA?
The regional housing needs allocation, its an assessment used to determine the growth a city will have.
