(a) According to Plan Bay Area 2040, the long-range integrated transportation and land-use/housing strategy for the San Francisco Bay Area through 2040 adopted in 2013 by the Association of Bay Area Governments and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, San Francisco is expected to grow by approximately 191,000 jobs and 102,000 households from 2010 to 2040.
(b) This growth will generate an increased demand for transportation infrastructure and services on an already constrained transportation system. One of the challenges posed by this growth is the increased number of single occupancy vehicle trips, and the pressures they add to San Francisco’s limited public streets and rights-of-way, contributing to congestion, transit delays, and public health and safety concerns caused by motorized vehicles, air pollution, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and noise, thereby negatively impacting the quality of life in the City.
(c) The Transportation Sustainability Program, or TSP, is aimed at accommodating this new growth while minimizing its impact on San Francisco’s transportation system. It is a joint effort of the Mayor’s Office, the Planning Department, the San Francisco County Transportation Authority, and the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency that has spanned many years and has involved a robust process of public outreach and discussion. The TSP includes three separate but related policy initiatives: the Transportation Sustainability Fee (TSF); the modernization of San Francisco’s environmental review process under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA); and the Transportation Demand Management (TDM) Program.
(1) The first component, the TSF, seeks to fund transportation improvements to support new growth by charging a development impact fee on new development. The City approved the TSF in 2015 with the enactment of Ordinance No. 200-15 (Board of Supervisors File No. 150790).
(2) The second component, the modernization of the environmental review process under CEQA, has been shepherded by the State under Senate Bill 743 (Stats. 2013. C. 386, now codified in Public Resources Code Section 21099). SB 743 required the Office of Planning and Research (OPR) to develop new guidelines to replace the existing transportation review standard, focused on automobile delay, with new criteria that “promote the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, the development of multimodal transportation networks, and a diversity of land uses.” OPR recommended a replacement metric of Vehicle Miles Traveled, or VMT, that is, the amount and distance of automobile travel attributable to a project. The Planning Commission unanimously approved a Resolution adopting changes consistent with implementation of SB 743, including the use of Vehicle Miles Traveled as the metric for calculating transportation-related environmental impacts, at its hearing on March 3, 2016 (Planning Commission Resolution No. 19579).
(3) The third component creates the TDM Program, detailed in Section 169. The TDM Program seeks to promote sustainable travel modes by requiring new development projects to incorporate design features, incentives, and tools that support transit, ride-sharing, walking, and bicycle riding for the residents, tenants, employees, and visitors of their projects.
(d) State and regional governments have enacted many laws and policy initiatives that promote the same sustainable transportation goals the TDM Program seeks to advance. For instance, at the state level, the Congestion Management Law, Gov. Code Section 65088, establishes that to reduce the state’s traffic congestion crisis and “keep California moving,” it is important to build transit-oriented development, revitalize the state’s cities, and promote all forms of transportation. Assembly Bill 32, the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (Chapter 488, Statutes of 2006), requires statewide GHG reductions to 1990 levels by 2020. Executive Orders B-30-15, S-3-05 and B-16-12 set forth GHG reduction targets beyond that year, to 2050. Senate Bill 375, the Sustainable Communities and Climate Protection Act of 2008 (Chapter 728, Statutes of 2008) supports the state’s climate action goals to reduce GHG emissions through coordinated transportation and land use planning with the goal of creating more sustainable communities. Under this statute, the California Air Resources Board establishes GHG reduction targets for metropolitan planning organizations, based on land use patterns and transportation systems specified in Regional Transportation Plans and Sustainable Community Strategies. Plan Bay Area 2040 sets GHG and Vehicle Miles Traveled reduction targets and a target for increasing non-automobile mode share for the Bay Area.
(e) In addition, San Francisco has enacted many laws and policy initiatives that promote the same sustainable transportation goals the TDM Program seeks to advance. The “Transit First Policy,” in Section 8A.115 of the City Charter, declares that public transit is “an economically and environmentally sound alternative to transportation by individual automobiles,” and that within the City, “travel by public transit, by bicycle and on foot must be an attractive alternative to travel by private automobile.” The GHG Reduction Ordinance, codified at Chapter 9 of the Environment Code, sets GHG reduction emission targets of 25% below 1990 levels by 2017; 40% below 1990 levels by 2025; and 80% below 1990 levels by 2050. The City’s Climate Action Strategy, prepared pursuant to the GHG Reduction Ordinance, has identified a target of having 50% of total trips within the City be made by modes other than automobiles by 2017, and 80% by 2030. One of the ways identified to achieve this target is through TDM for new development.
(f) San Francisco has long acknowledged the importance of TDM strategies in the Transportation Element of the City’s General Plan, the San Francisco County Transportation Plan, and many Area Plans. For example, each of the Area Plans within Eastern Neighborhoods and the Transit Center District Plan identify policies for the development of a TDM program within them.
(g) The TDM Program set forth in Section 169 requires new projects subject to its requirements to incorporate design features, incentives, and tools to encourage new residents, tenants, employees, and visitors to travel by sustainable transportation modes, such as transit, walking, ride-sharing, and biking, thereby reducing Vehicle Miles Traveled associated with new development. The goals of the TDM Program are to help keep San Francisco moving as it grows, and to promote better environmental, health, and safety outcomes, consistent with the state, regional, and local policies mentioned above.
(h) For projects that use Development Agreements and may not be required to comply fully with the requirements of Section 169, it is the Board of Supervisors’ strong preference that Development Agreements should include similar provisions that meet the goals of the TDM Program.
(i) The Board of Supervisors finds that it is in the public interest to exempt affordable housing from the fees and requirements of the TDM Program, in order to promote this important City policy and priority, and also because these projects generally generate less VMT. A 2014 study by Transform and California Housing Partnership Corporation, “Why creating and preserving affordable homes near transit is a highly effective climate protection strategy,” finds that “Higher Income households [defined as above 120% of area median income] drive more than twice as many miles and own more than twice as many vehicles as Extremely Low-Income households [defined as 30% or less of AMI] living within 1/4 mile of frequent transit,” which demonstrates how the TDM value for on-site affordable housing units is largely dependent on the level of affordability of the targeted households.
(j) The Board of Supervisors finds that it is in the public interest to exempt some uses from the TDM Program fees, in order to promote other important City policies and priorities, such as the goals and missions of City-funded charitable health and human service organizations. As such, the Board of Supervisors finds that parking spaces dedicated to service vehicles provided for City-funded charitable health and human service organizations shall be excluded from the definition of a parking space in the TDM Program Standards.
(Added by Ord. 34-17, File No. 160925, App. 2/17/2017, Eff. 3/19/2017)