Adopted Guidelines

In response to Senate Bill (SB) 743, the County prepared a Transportation Study Guide (TSG) with guidelines for analyzing Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) for the purposes of CEQA and other related transportation analyses, such as Level of Service, for non-CEQA purposes. The Board adopted the TSG on June 24, 2020. 

Please follow this link (provide link) to an interactive map viewer which includes information related to location-based project screening and determining a project’s VMT based on location (when applicable). Please see sections 3.3.1: Screening Criteria for CEQA VMT Analysis and 3.3.3: VMT Analysis Procedures in the TSG for detailed information on the use of the maps displayed in the map viewer. Static versions of these maps, organized by VMT metric (e.g. VMT/Resident, VMT/Employee, VMT/Service Population), can also be found in Appendix C of the TSG.

The map viewer contains multiple layers that can be turned on/off in the navigation pane on the right side of the map viewer. Please note, if multiple layers are turned “on” at the same time, the map viewer will display whichever layer is farther to the top of the navigation pane.

For each map by VMT metric, you will see three color intensities:

• Darkest color (at least 15% below the average VMT). This means that projects in this area will likely be considered as having a less than significant VMT impact and will not have to conduct further VMT analysis.
• Medium color (between 0% - 15% below the average VMT). This means that projects in this area are likely to have a significant VMT impact, but one that could potentially be mitigated with VMT reducing measures down to 85% or lower of the regional average.
• Light color (above the average VMT). This means that projects in this area are likely to have a significant VMT impact and are unlikely to fully mitigate that impact.

The VMT Efficient Area Screening Maps are one criteria that may be used to determine whether projects have to conduct further VMT analysis. For information on all screening criteria, please see Chapter 3 of the TSG.

Please see below for the introduction to the TSG: