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SB 743 Stands Up In Court By: William Fulton on Dec 21, 2019 LOS, SB 743, VMT: Challenge to Sacramento General Plan EIR rendered moot by new CEQA guidelines. Court also upholds city's general plan language. >>read more

Santa Barbara APA Report: How Localities Are Implementing SB 743 By: William Fulton on Sep 18, 2019 SB 743, Traffic, WRCOG: What's in the future: A lot of talk about low-VMT and high-VMT zones, renewed discussion of TDM, maybe some VMT banks -- and, yes, still a lot of LOS analysis, just not under CEQA. >>read more

Updated CEQA Guidelines Finally Go Into Effect By: Josh Stephens on Apr 15, 2019 CEQA, LOS, OPR, SB 743, VMT: SB 743 regulations are the highest of the latest update, six years in the making. >>read more

SB 743 Overrides Parking Concerns By: William Fulton on Mar 25, 2018 CEQA, Covina, Infill, Metrolink, Parking, SB 743: Appellate court gives Covina a victory on infill development -- and deals another loss to Cory Briggs. >>read more

OPR Finally Finishes SB 743 Guidelines By: Josh Stephens on Dec 26, 2017 CEQA, Infill, LOS, SB 743, Traffic, VMT: VMT will soon replace LOS as standard traffic analysis tool. >>read more

Some Tidbits From Cal APA By: William Fulton on Oct 24, 2016 Climate Change, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Medical Marijuana, Pasadena, SB 743: The annual state planners' conference -- being held right now in Pasadena -- appears to be bigger than ever. >>read more

Bill to Delay Implementation of SB 743 Gains Traction By: Josh Stephens on May 25, 2015 California Environmental Quality Act, Environment Watch, SB 743: A developers' group is promoting a new piece of legislation that would postpone implementation of SB 743 – the bill that would change traffic analysis to vehicle miles traveled in environmental review – for a year. The bill has apparently revealed a split among developers who say they focus on infill projects.
Sponsored by Assemblymember Cristina Garcia (D-Norwalk), who was elected in November, Assembly Bill 779 would postpone implementation of SB 743 until 2017. A lobbying group called the Infill Builders Federation is sponsoring a bill that, depending on its final form, would postpone the implementation of SB 743. Supporters insist that they embrace VMT but say that the two years are needed to help developers prepare for the switch and to work out what they see as kinks in the law. (The City of Pasadena has already implemented most of the provisions of SB 743.)

Californians Show Their Bravery on Climate Change By: Josh Stephens on May 22, 2015 AB 32, California, Climate Change, Measure R, SB 375, SB 743, Sustainability: This morning, Hector Tobar, a respected Los Angeles-area commentator, personally heaped all the ecological sins of humankind on to the current residents of Los Angeles in an editorial in the New York Times, a publication that has gotten increasingly feisty about its hatred for California of late. Tobar writes:

Pasadena Ushers in Era of VMT Metrics By: Josh Stephens on Apr 6, 2015 California Environmental Quality Act, CEQA, LOS, Los Angeles County, SB 743, smart growth, VMT: Perhaps fittingly, one of the state's oldest, stateliest cities will be the first to institute one of the most sophisticated advances in planning tools since the slide rule. Not long ago, the City of Pasadena implemented metrics that measure projects' impacts under the California Environmental Quality Act in terms of vehicle miles traveled rather than level of service.

Pasadena is not only the first city in the state to adopt VMT metrics but may also be the first in the nation.

Pasadena's switch both responds to and precedes the adoption of Senate Bill 743. Passed in 2013 as an amendment to the California Environmental Quality Act, SB 743 will require cities to evaluate traffic impacts according to vehicle miles traveled, not to traditional level-of-service thresholds.

SB 743 Stands Up In Court