Abstract

California’s seminal Sustainable Communities and Climate Protection Act of 2008—Senate Bill (SB) 375—includes two provisions specifically intended to help streamline transit-oriented development (TOD) projects through environmental review (California SB 375, 2008). One provision exempts qualifying TODs from environmental review entirely. The other provision streamlines environmental review for qualifying projects. This study explores the use and effect of those provisions. It first quantifies how much and where the provisions have been used. It then uses interviews and email communications with planning and development practitioners to explore why streamlining is used, whether streamlining actually helps reduce the time, cost, and uncertainty of permitting TOD projects, and how streamlining could be improved to better facilitate TOD projects. The study finds that SB 375 streamlining is a mixed bag. Neither streamlining provision has been used extensively. The full exemption appears to have been avoided because its costs and complications outweigh any streamlining benefit, though the more limited streamlining provision was regarded as having at least some utility. It also found that SB 375-streamlined projects might not be fulfilling SB 375’s more fundament goals—reducing vehicle kilometers traveled and greenhouse gas emissions. The clearest lesson for policymakers is to reduce the eligibility requirements for environmental review streamlining provisions.