CITY OF SAN LEANDRO
PROPOSED GUIDELINES FOR ANALYZING
VEHICLE MILES TRAVELED (VMT)
City Council
February 5, 2024
Overview
1. Legislative Requirements
2. What is VMT?
3. Proposed Text
Amendments to the
General Plan
4. Staff Recommendations
2 Legislative Requirements • SB 743 (2013) requires lead agencies to replace level of service (LOS) or other
measures of traffic congestion in
environmental documents to: • Reduce greenhouse gas emissions • Develop multimodal transportation networks
• Encourage diversity of land uses
• In support of SB743, the State’s Office of
Planning and Research (OPR) released a
Technical Advisory in December 2018 • OPR recommends that lead agencies replace LOS with VMT-based metrics
3 Legislative Requirements • Since July 1, 2020, all CEQA documents required to use VMT as the primary
metric to identify transportation
impacts
• City of San Leandro using VMT since
2020 • Case
-by-case decisions
• Relying on OPR Guidance
• City formalizing VMT policy now: • Based on experience over the last few years
• MTC will give preference in funding to
jurisdictions that adopt VMT policy
4 What is VMT?
• Captures the total amount of vehicular travel through multiplying the number of vehicle trips generated and the length or distance of each trip.
• For CEQA transportation impact analysis purposes, VMT is usually measured on a typical weekday and only includes passenger vehicles. 5 Proposed Text Amendments to the
General Plan
• Proposed text amendments to the General Plan
would state that:
• VMT is the primary metric to evaluate transportation
impacts in CEQA documents
• City to continue to evaluate the effects of major
development projects on LOS outside of CEQA
6 7
Consistent with Planning Commission resolution unanimously adopted on January 4, 2024, staff recommends the City Council adopt text amendments to the Transportation Element of the General Plan to:
• Formalize the replacement of LOS with VMT as the criteria to be used for transportation analysis under CEQA in the City of San Leandro • Establish the appropriate context for LOS-based analyses Staff Recommendation
8 ADDITIONAL SLIDES
What is VMT?
1. BACKGROUND
Absolute Value
• The total amount of daily VMT to and
from a place, or on a roadway
• Tends to be a “big” number
• Directly related to total amount of
land use
• This can be further divided by trip
purpose
Per Capita
• Absolute VMT divided by the number of
residents, workers, or other population
• Tends to be a “small” number
• Directly related to the efficiency of the
project location and the land use type
• Can be divided by trip purpose
9 What is VMT?
1. BACKGROUND
What VMT is:
• Measures amount of driving
• More densely developed areas with
variety of land uses tend to have
shorter trip lengths = lower VMT rate
What VMT is not:
• VMT rate and level of traffic
congestion are not necessarily
related
• Low VMT rate ≠ low traffic
congestion
10 VMT Analysis Process
11 1. Screening
Does Project
meet one or
more of the
screening
criteria?
2. Estimate
Vehicle
Miles
Traveled
(VMT)
3. Evaluate
Is the Project
below the
Threshold of
Significance?
4. Apply
Mitigation
Measures
Would the
project impact
be mitigated?
Project Exempt
from Analysis,
No Impact
No
Yes
Impact is Less
Than Significant
Impact is Less
Than Significant
with Mitigation
Yes Yes
Impact is
Significant and
Unavoidable
No No No
Screening • lead agencies may use screening criteria
to quickly identify low-VMT projects
that do not need detailed analysis
• Proposed Screening Criteria in San
Leandro:
1. CEQA Exemption
2. Small Project
3. Local Serving
4. Affordable Housing
5. Transit Priority Area
6. Low-VMT Area
7. Infill Residential Development
2. PROPOSED VMT ANALYSIS PROCESS
12 Screening Criteria • Projects not eligible if: • Density too low • Too much parking • Replace affordable housing • Other characteristics that indicate it would generate
significant VMT
2. PROPOSED VMT ANALYSIS PROCESS
13 5. Transit Priority Areas
Screening Criteria
6. Low VMT areas for
residential projects
2. PROPOSED VMT ANALYSIS PROCESS
14 • Projects not eligible if: • Density too low • Too much parking • Replace affordable housing • Other characteristics that indicate it would generate
significant VMT
Screening Criteria
6. Low VMT areas for
employment-based
projects
2. PROPOSED VMT ANALYSIS PROCESS
15 • Projects not eligible if: • Density too low • Too much parking • Replace affordable housing • Other characteristics that indicate it would generate
significant VMT
Thresholds of Significance
• Thresholds vary by land use type and VMT metric
• Thresholds for most common land uses:
Residential projects The project’s VMT exceeds the level that is 15% below existing home-based VMT per resident for the Central Planning Area Employment generating/office
projects
Project VMT exceeds the level that is 15% below existing homework VMT per worker for the Central Planning Area Employment generating/industrial
and warehouse projects
Project VMT exceeds the level that is below existing home-work VMT per worker for the Central Planning Area
2. PROPOSED VMT ANALYSIS PROCESS
16 Thresholds of Significance
• Consistent with State Guidelines, VMT generated by a
project is considered a significant impact if:
Residential (and similar) projects: The project’s VMT exceeds the level that is 15% below existing homebased VMT per resident for the Central Planning Area Employment generating/office (and
similar) projects
Project VMT exceeds the level that is 15% below existing home-work VMT per worker for the Central Planning Area
Employment generating/industrial and
warehouse (and similar) projects
Project VMT exceeds the level that is below existing home-work VMT per worker for the Central Planning Area
Mixed-use projects
Each land use component of the project should be analyzed independently, applying the appropriate threshold of significance from above to each land use type included in the project.
Other land use and regional-serving
project types
Net increase in total VMT in the region (that is, the difference in total VMT in the region with and without the project), an appropriate per capita metric, or as determined by the Planning staff
Transportation projects Net increase in total VMT in the region
2. PROPOSED VMT ANALYSIS PROCESS
17 Thresholds of Significance
2. PROPOSED VMT ANALYSIS PROCESS
18 VMT Metric Comparison
Geography Home-Based VMT
per Resident
Home-Work VMT
per Worker
City of San Leandro 17.5 18.4
Central Planning Area 20.6 19.2
Alameda County 19.4 15.9
Bay Area Region 19.8 18.1
• Residential = 15% below existing home-based VMT per resident for the Central Planning Area = 17.5
• Employment/Office = 15% below existing home-work VMT per worker for the Central Planning Area = 16.3
• Employment/Industrial = Existing home-work VMT per worker for the Central Planning Area = 19.2
VMT Estimation • Project that do not meet any of
the screening criteria are subject
to VMT analysis
• Main tool for estimating VMT for
projects in San Leandro is the
Alameda County Transportation
Commission Travel Demand Model
2. PROPOSED VMT ANALYSIS PROCESS
19 Mitigation Measures
• If a project has a significant impact on VMT,
CEQA requires the implementation of all
feasible measures to reduce the project VMT
• Mitigations for VMT include:
• Changing project characteristics
• Implementing Transportation Demand Management
(TDM) measures
2. PROPOSED VMT ANALYSIS PROCESS
20 Other Transportation Analyses
OTHER TOPICS
• In addition to VMT, projects are required to evaluate the following in CEQA documents:
• Conflict with a program, plan, ordinance, or policy addressing the circulation system, including transit, roadway, bicycle and pedestrian facilities.
• Substantially increase hazards due to a geometric design feature (e.g., sharp curves or dangerous intersections) or incompatible uses (e.g., farm equipment).
• Result in inadequate emergency access.
• Outside of the CEQA process, projects generating more than 100 net new peak hour vehicle trips required to prepare a Local Transportation Impact Analysis to address traffic operations, parking, and access and circulation for various travel modes. 21