Seeks San Diego to balance housing and climate impact

SAN DIEGO – The San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted to adopt a two-phase approach to implementing the state’s vehicle miles traveled law to balance the need for housing with the importance of addressing climate change.

The first phase will consist of finalizing, within six months, the current definitions of “infill” areas in unincorporated communities where developments could be built without the need for a vehicle miles traveled study and mitigation.

In the second phase, longer-term work will begin to explore the possibility of “unlocking” large unincorporated areas where development could be hindered by vehicle miles traveled requirements.

This state law is intended, in part, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by requiring land use jurisdictions to ask proposed developments how many miles cars will have to travel in order for their projects to add roads.

Projects where cars will travel at least 15% more kilometers than the regional average – such as infill development in urbanized areas near roads, jobs and public transportation – can be built without costly studies and mitigation measures.

Whereas for those projects where drivers would have to drive more than the regional average, they would have to pay for the study and mitigation. That could make it much more expensive for developers to build in the unincorporated areas of the County, where people typically drive farther to get to jobs and services.

The Board voted to finish identifying infill areas in unincorporated communities that could potentially allow interested developers to build up to 5,441 homes without having to meet the miles driven requirement.

In addition, the longer-range phase, which would begin with staff returning to the Board in four months, was approved with a “sustainable land use framework” that could ultimately lead to an update of the County’s general plan.

Source: MEXICNOW Staff