Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT)

Guidelines
As a result, the City of San Dimas (City) established VMT thresholds of significance for purposes of analyzing transportation impacts for projects subject to CEQA review, and adopted Transportation Study Guidelines for Vehicle Miles Traveled and Level of Service Assessment (TS Guidelines). While the revised CEQA guidelines require that projects subject to CEQA are analyzed using VMT, the City has vehicle LOS standards for which local infrastructure will strive to maintain. The LOS standards apply to discretionary approvals of new land use and transportation projects. Therefore, in addition to VMT guidelines, the adopted TS Guidelines also include instructions for vehicle LOS analysis consistent with City requirements.

Application of Guidelines
An applicant seeking project approval will submit the proposed project to the City with a planning and land use application. After a preliminary review of the project by City Staff, the applicant will be notified by the project planner as to whether or not a TS is required. The TS should consider changes in both LOS and VMT.

A TS which includes LOS analysis shall be required for a proposed project when either the AM or PM peak hour trip generation from the proposed development is expected to exceed 50 total trips. (A traffic study may be required for smaller projects based on land use and location per City’s discretion.)

Furthermore, all TS’s must include a VMT assessment that explains either why the project screens out or provides a full VMT impact analysis. A proposed project may screen out of full VMT analysis if it meets one or more of the following project screening criteria:

• Transit Priority Areas Screening
• Low VMT-generating Areas Screening
• Project Type Screening

Project Screening
There are three types of screening that may be applied to effectively screen projects from project-level assessment. These screening steps are summarized below:

 1.  Transit Priority Area (TPA) Screening
Projects located within a TPA, which is defined as a half-mile area around an existing major transit stop or an existing stop along a high-quality transit corridor, may be presumed to have a less than significant impact absent substantial evidence to the contrary. This presumption may NOT be appropriate if the project:

1. 1. Has a Floor Area Ratio (FAR) of less than 0.75;
   2. Includes more parking for use by residents, customers, or employees of the project than required by the City;
   3. Is inconsistent with the applicable Sustainable Communities Strategy (as determined by the lead agency, with input from the Southern California Association of Governments [SCAG]); or
   4. Replaces affordable residential units with a smaller number of moderate- or high-income residential units.

2.  Low VMT Area Screening
Residential and office projects located within a low VMT-generating area may be presumed to have a less than significant impact absent substantial evidence to the contrary (to identify if a project is in a low VMT-generating area, the analyst should use the SGVCOG VMT Evaluation Tool at: https://apps.fehrandpeers.com/SGVCOGVMT/.) In addition, other Employment-related and mixed-use land use projects may qualify for the use of screening if the project can reasonably be expected to generate VMT per resident, per worker, or per service population that is similar to the existing land uses in the low VMT area.