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ClimatePlan and SB 375

In 2006, the California legislature passed AB 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act, which requires California to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2020. California’s Climate Action Plan cites smart land use and intelligent transportation systems as the second largest source of potential emissions reductions.

In 2008, the legislature passed SB 375, the Sustainable Communities and Climate Protection Act, which identifies clear strategies to reduce emissions through housing and transportation planning decisions and funding mechanisms. Sb 375 requires the regional transportation agencies in the state's major metropolitan areas to adopt a "sustainable communities strategy" -- a comprehensive, region-wide, integrated land use and transportation plan that will designate housing sites for all the population growth of a region within the region, achieve greenhouse gas reductions for each region by the Air Resources Board, and identify farmland and habitat and exclude it from development areas from the greatest extent possible.


The bill also creates incentives for the sustainable communities strategy to be implemented by awarding transportation funding only for projects that are consistent with the plan, and by providing for improved treatment under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) for development projects that are consistent with the plan.

What's at Stake

Transportation alone accounts for 50% of greenhouse gas emissions in the Bay Area. By designing tight-knit, walkable neighborhoods with homes, shops, and jobs near transit, local governments can have a huge impact on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. But without incentives such as those proposed in SB 375, communities will just continue with business as usual – sprawling development farther from urban centers, which creates longer and longer commutes and forces people to drive for even the most basic errands.

If we continue our current poorly-planned development patterns, increased auto travel will outweigh any benefit we get from greener vehicle and fuel technologies, and our greenhouse gas emissions will go up, not down. Increased emissions put the Bay Area at risk of severe droughts, more heat-related deaths, flooding from sea level rise, and economic damage to agriculture and other industries.

What You Can Do

Successful SB375 implementation will require advocacy at the local, regional and state levels to influence plans, policies, and funding decisions. Ultimately, land-use decisions and many transportation funding decisions are made at the local level in cities and counties. It is critical that local governments and county transportation agencies participate in the process of developing the Sustainable Communities Strategy to create a sense of buy-in and ownership over the plan which will motivate implementation at the local level.