Introduction
The Transportation Impact Analysis (TIA) Guidelines for Glendale provide essential guidance for city staff, applicants, and consultants in evaluating transportation impacts for projects within the City. The guidelines aim to:
- Ensure alignment with city and state regulations;
- Facilitate analysis consistent with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA);
- Standardize study preparation by applicants and consultants;
- Provide predictability in report content for staff and public review.
While comprehensive, the Glendale TIA Guidelines may not cover all possible aspects of every transportation analysis. Applicants should first consult with City staff in a scoping meeting to ensure a clear understanding of any exemptions or specific requirements that might apply, based on professional engineering judgment during the review process.
1.1 Background
The Glendale TIA Guidelines address the mandates of California Senate Bill (SB) 743, which, effective July 1, 2020, revised CEQA transportation analysis requirements. Before SB 743, CEQA analyses focused on measuring impacts using roadway delay and capacity metrics. Signed into law in September 2013, SB 743 aimed to encourage lower greenhouse gas emissions, foster multimodal transportation, and support diverse land use development. Under SB 743, a project’s automobile delay impact no longer qualifies as a significant environmental impact, and vehicular capacity metrics like Level of Service (LOS) cannot be used to determine CEQA significance.
The California Office of Planning and Research (OPR) updated CEQA Guidelines in December 2018, recommending vehicle miles traveled (VMT) as the primary measure for transportation impacts under CEQA. The updated guidelines, certified by the California Natural Resources Agency, have been implemented and are now in effect. While VMT serves as the preferred metric for CEQA impact analysis, SB 743 does not prevent cities from using LOS for local planning policies or approval processes outside CEQA, allowing Glendale to require congestion-related transportation analyses where applicable.
1.2 Transportation Analysis in the City of Glendale
To align with SB 743, the Glendale TIA Guidelines outline procedures for transportation impact analysis within the city. The document is divided as follows:
- CEQA Analysis Requirements: This section details SB 743-compliant VMT analysis requirements, including assessments for pedestrian, bicycle, and transit impacts, hazards, and emergency access.
- Local Transportation Analysis Requirements: This section provides guidance on LOS analysis, site access assessments, and other local, non-CEQA transportation analysis requirements.
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