Steve Doyle’s Blog

The Recommendations of the Regional Targets Advisory Committee (RTAC) Pursuant to Senate Bill 375, A Report to the California Air Resources Board, is in print! Nine months, 14 face to face meetings, a hand full of conference calls and lots of blood, sweat and tears later, the 21 committee members have created their recommendations on the Target Setting Process, Methodology and Implementation of California’s first greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction strategy for land use and transportation planners. Now, the Recommendations are off to the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and staff for their consideration and use.

What does all this mean in the real world? This is the first step in a public process that will eventually set the rules and guidelines for how the state will grow and how it will move its goods and people about, with an over-arching goal to reduce the production of GHG emissions to a 1990 level. These recommendations will be utilized by the CARB and CARB staff as they begin to analyze where the state air quality is and how they will reduce carbon emissions in the future. The next several steps look like this:

1. Between now and March 1, 2010, the CARB staff will work closely with the Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPO’s) to gather regional specific information on such things as transportation plans, land use plans, housing needs, existing and projected vehicle miles traveled, existing and projected GHG emissions, economic constraints, environmental constraints and social equity issues. This information will then be utilized by CARB staff in the next step.

2. Between March 1, 2010 and June 30, 2010 staff will analyze the information collected above, along with other empirical data, studies and reports to determine preliminary GHG reduction targets per region and statewide. These preliminary targets will be shared with the MPO’s and further refinement of the base information will continue to be shared between the MPO’s and CARB staff.

3. On June 30, 2010, CARB staff will announce their Draft Targets for GHG emission reduction to its Board, the public and the MPO’s. CARB staff and the MPO’s will continue to share and refine their base and supplemental information regarding the draft targets.

4. On September 30, 2010, CARB staff will provide the Board with any final recommendations regarding the statewide and regional GHG emission reduction targets and the Board will hold a public hearing to take testimony and consider the evidence, then adopt a statewide and regional tergets for the reduction of GHG emissions created through transportation and land use decisions made at a local level.

The bulk of the work will be performed by the MPO’s. Input and direction will be sought from the local jurisdictions, in part because MPO’s do not have land use authority. Ultimately, the MPO’s will need to create and adopt a Sustainable Community Strategy (SCS) that identifies changes to land use and transportation infrastructure that meet the targets set by the California Air Resources Board. If the SCS does not meet the GHG targets, then the MPO must prepare and Alternative Planning Strategy (APS) that will meet the target.

Once the SCS or APS is approved by the Board of the MPO, then the local jurisdictions must work to amend their local General Plans and zoning to accommodate the approved SCS. Failure to do so will subject the local jurisdiction to regulatory and potentially judicial jeopardy for their Housing Element and Transportation funding. Compliance with the SCS will provide the local jurisdiction with CEQA relief for some forms of development and future incentives from the state for funding and regulatory relief.

Future posts will include a detailed look at the features and incentives provided in SB 375 and how those programs were handled by the RTAC recommendations. Additionally, some issues still remain with regards to the implementation of SB 375 and the upcoming actions by the CARB may or may not deal with those issues. I will continue to follow this issue and bring back insights and decisions that may impact future land use and transportation decisions.

For now, step one is complete. The RTAC Recommendations have been delivered on time.