Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT)

Background

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

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

Project Screening

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. 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.
3. Project Type Screening

   • Some project types have been identified as having the presumption of a less than significant impact. The following uses can be presumed to have a less than significant impact absent substantial evidence to the contrary as their uses are local serving in nature:
   • Local-serving K-12 schools
   • Local parks
   • Day care centers
   • Local-serving retail uses less than 50,000 square feet, including
     • Gas stations
     • Banks
     • Restaurants
     • Shopping Centers
   • Local-serving hotels (e.g. non-destination hotels)
   • Student housing projects on or adjacent to a college campus
   • Local-serving assembly uses (places of worship, community organizations)
   • Community institutions (public libraries, fire stations, local government)
   • Affordable, supportive, or transitional housing
   • Assisted living facilities
   • Senior Housing (as defined by HUD)
   • Local serving community colleges that are consistent with the assumptions noted in the Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) and Sustainable Communities Strategy (SCS)
   • Projects generating less than 110 daily vehicle trips. This generally corresponds to the following “typical” development potentials:
     • 11 single family housing units
     • 16 multi-family, condominiums, or townhouse housing units
     • 10,000 sq. ft. of office
     • 15,000 sq. ft. of light industrial
     • 63,000 sq. ft. of warehousing
     • 79,000 sq. ft. of high-cube transload and short-term storage warehouse