California Air Resources Board

Principal Investigator/Author: Elisa Barbour

Contractor: University of California, Davis

Sub-contractors: Gian-Claudia Sciara

Contract Number: 22STC010

Project Status: Active

Relevant CARB Programs: Sustainable Communities & Climate Protection Program, Local Actions for Climate Change

Topic Areas: Sustainable Communities, Research & Sustainable Communities, Sustainable Community Strategies (SCS), Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) Reduction & Climate Goals, Land Use & Transportation Research, Transit, Sustainable Communities Tracking Progress

Research Summary:

California’s path-breaking regional planning law, Senate Bill (SB) 375 (Chapter 728, Statutes of 2008), has come under scrutiny.  The California Air Resources Board (CARB) prepared and submitted a progress report to the State Legislature in 2018, finding that current development patterns in the state are “not on track” for achieving regional growth forecasts needed to achieve SB 375 goals for more efficient and sustainable development. The lack of incremental progress can be traced to an “implementation deficit” built into the law itself, with few mandates or incentives in place to ensure short-run implementation of long-run objectives built into regional transportation plans (RTPs) and Sustainable Communities Strategies (SCSs) developed by Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) to comply with SB 375. MPOs are hampered institutionally especially when it comes to implementing desired land use strategies in SCSs. MPOs do not directly control land use decisions, which are the prerogative of local governments (referred herein as “cities and counties” or “localities”).   

For SB 375 to succeed, in this context, it has become critical to establish stronger connections between local land use planning and policymaking and RTP/SCS goals and objectives.

This project will help realize opportunities to make these connections by addressing the following objectives: to evaluate whether and how localities have taken policy action to align with an applicable SCS; to identify strategies that MPOs and the State have adopted to encourage local implementation of SCS goals and objectives; to determine which strategies have been most effective in improving local SCS implementation; and to draw on these findings to recommend further state- and regional-level policy and program actions to improve implementation and alignment.

The Contractor will investigate barriers and opportunities by addressing questions with mixed research methods and the aid of an advisory committee, to include designing and implementing a statewide survey of planners, and conducting more intensive research with MPOs and an identified set of localities, through interviews and public documents review. Recommendations for state- and regional-level policy and program action will then be developed and presented. 

Visit the related webpage for more information on this project. 

Keywords: sustainable communities and health, climate change, light-duty vehicle, sustainable community strategies (SCS), transportation, Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT), greenhouse gas reduction strategies, equitable and affordable housing, transportation and land use