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Livable Communities Working Group Meeting

September 17, 2014 @ 2:30 pm - 4:30 pm

The South Bay Cities Council of Governments Livable Communities Working Group is scheduled to meet on Wednesday, September 17, 2014.  The meeting agenda and minutes are posted below.

MEETING TIME:  2:30 P.M. to 4:30 P.M.   

LOCATION:  South Bay Environmental Services Center, 20285 So. Western Avenue, Suite 100, Torrance 90501

The meeting agenda is posted below.  

To LCWG Members;

SB 743 is considered by many to have been one of the most effective initiatives for introducing “sustainability” considerations into transportation planning.  OPR has been directed to amend CEQA guidelines in order to “establish criteria for determining the significance of transportation impacts of projects within transit priority areas. Those criteria shall promote the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, the development of multimodal transportation networks, and a diversity of land uses.  In developing the criteria, the office shall recommend potential metrics to measure transportation impacts that may include, but are not limited to, vehicle miles traveled, vehicle miles traveled per capita, automobile trip generation rates, or automobile trips generated. The office may also establish criteria for models used to analyze transportation impacts to ensure the models are accurate, reliable, and consistent with the intent of this section.”  Since most of the South Bay arterials are considered to be transit priority areas, all planners will have an interest in this shift away from LOS in CEQA guidelines.  Ping Chang of SCAG will make the presentation.

Metro has funded a transportation planning process in the South Bay which will produce a Mobility Matrix.  This is parallel to similar efforts in the other LA County sub-regions.  The not so secret purpose of the Mobility Matrix is to determine  which projects in each sub-region would attract voters for the next tax measure beyond Measures A, C and R.  However, the deeper significance of the MM is as an update to the Long Range Transportation Plan which guides Metro’s transportation investments in each sub-region and feeds SCAG’s RTP.  So it is a big deal.  Work by Cambridge Systematics has just begun and will be complete by January, 2015.  Steve Lantz will describe the MM in terms of what will happen and how cities are participating.

As you all know, Metro has been conducting outreach to solicit input to the development of its Complete Streets Policy.  The draft policy has been circulated and comments are due next week.  The SBCCOG has submitted Board approved comments and I will share them with you.  I’d love to hear from any cities that have submitted comments of their own.

Finally, Jacki and I will update you on the COG’s Strategic Growth Council grant, the 2015 General Assembly, and any other late breaking topics.

The final 2014 LCWG meeting will be in November.

Hope to see you next Wednesday.  As usual, please RSVP to Rosie Lackow at [email protected] 

Wally Siembab

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