The City is pursuing ways to align and meet state requirements set by California Senate Bill 743 (SB 743). SB 743 changes the method used to measure transportation impacts associated with development and/or roadway projects. The new method is called Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT), and the bill requires California municipalities to:

• Use VMT to comply with California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) assessments of transportation impacts.
• Develop a VMT policy guidance, including thresholds of significance, project screening criteria, and mitigation VMT reduction strategies.

VMT, which focuses the measurement on the number of miles driven for traffic, is meant to better align with state goals of environmental protection, land-use diversity, and development of multi-modal travel networks. This change toward VMT analysis is expected to:

• Align transportation impact analysis and mitigation with goals to reduce greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions.
• Reduce overall VMT with land-use planning.
• Streamline review of land-use and transportation projects.

In December 2018, the California Governor’s Office of Planning and Research (OPR) published the Technical Advisory on Evaluating Transportation Impacts in CEQA (referred to herein as the OPR Technical Advisory), which provides guidelines on the implementation of SB 743. The OPR Technical Advisory’s guidelines state that VMT must be the metric used to determine significant transportation impacts. This requirement will apply statewide effective July 1, 2020; lead agencies can opt in sooner at their own discretion.

In addition to VMT, the City of Santa Rosa will still use the old measurement method of Level of Service (LOS), which focuses on congestion at intersections and roadways, to address local roadway operations.