STAFF REPORT
City of Lancaster
CC 5
6/23/2026
TN
Date: June 23, 2026
To: Mayor Parris and City Council Members
From: Patti Garibay, Director - Community Development
Jocelyn Swain, Senior Planner – Planning
Matt Simons. Senior Traffic Engineer – Engineering
Subject: Vehicle Miles Traveled Program Update
Recommendation:
Adopt the Vehicle Miles Traveled Program Update and City of Lancaster Local Transportation Assessment Guidelines.
G.C. Section 84308: No
Fiscal Impact:
None. No change to the fee associated with the Vehicle Miles Traveled Program is being proposed.
Background:
In September 2013, Senate Bill (SB) 743 went into effect changing how traffic impacts are analyzed under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The change required jurisdictions to focus impact discussions on vehicle miles traveled (VMT) instead of level of service (LOS) starting in 2020. On June 15, 2020, the City Council adopted the City’s VMT Guidelines including thresholds of significance.
On January 24, 2023, the City of Lancaster City Council adopted the Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) Impact Fee Mitigation Program to assist developers in mitigating their VMT impacts as it was proving difficult to mitigate under other mechanisms. The modeling used to create this program utilizes the travel demand model associated with the Southern California Association of Government’s 2024 Regional Transportation Plan/Sustainable Communities Strategy (RTP/SCS). As part of the 2050 RTP/SCS process, SCAG released a new RTP/SCS activity- based model for calculating VMT. This model has been utilized to update the City’s low-VMT 2 4
1 2
maps for both residential and employment uses. The City’s VMT Guidelines, which are part of the Traffic Engineering Guidelines, have also been updated to reflect the new modeling information, add clarifications to the thresholds as a result of recent court cases, and to provide additional guidance on how to prepare a VMT analysis.
JS/vm
Attachments:
A. City of Lancaster Local Transportation Assessment Guidelines B. VMT Methodology and Screening, including Low-VMT Maps C. Transportation Demand Management Tables
D. Resolution