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Health & Fitness

Traffic & Parking No Longer Considerations for High Density Development

High density housing infill projects near transit can now ignore, and not have to mitigate, impacts to traffic and parking. This impacts Orinda.

Yes, you read that right. While Orinda faces the proposition of its Priority Development Area designation together with high density housing - the California State Senate has in it's wisdom deemed in Senate Bill 743 the following:

65088.4(b) "Notwithstanding any other provision of law, [traffic] level of service standards described in Section 65089 shall not apply to the streets and highways within an infill opportunity zone."

This senate bill was rushed through in September. Sneakily it was under the guise of being for the new Sacramento Kings stadium, but then it threw a curveball by enacting removal of review for high density infill projects anywhere in California. It has been passed and enacted!

Orinda residents should find out the "Level of Service" of its intersections. Many are likely beyond the targeted level of D even before high density housing is added. Beyond D means waiting more than one traffic light cycle. In Marin high density housing is being implemented in locations already at F, the worst, level of service. It's as if your child came home from school with "F"s on their report card, and you said "well that doesn't matter any more"!

Orinda is an "infill opportunity zone". Anywhere within 1/2 mile of a rail line or regular bus service - now falls under SB 743.

So if residents say "what about the traffic and the parking?"  our cries of concern can now officially be dismissed.

Save the Builders


Senate Bill 743 was hastily passed by state senate house leader Darrell Steinberg. Steinberg receives major campaign contributions from the building and transportation industry.

Steinberg part justified SB 743 by saying that the building industry is in recession, so rules preventing development should be removed to boost the economy.

The other justification was something called "multimodal transit". The bill claims:
"promoting the development of a multimodal transportation system, and providing clean, efficient access to destinations."

I've covered before many times that transit emits far more greenhouse gases per passenger mile than cars, and the gap is only widening. Also highways provide access to 20x as many people as transit, and despite substantial investments since the 1980s per capita transit ridership has dropped in the Bay Area.

The data is stark and conclusive. But far be it from politicians and builders to let facts get in the way. They are going to flog this dead horse, and use it to justify and railroad their projects through.

What Does this Mean for Us?


This means that we can expect more and more high density projects to be built across the county. 

What this inevitably means is that development will continue, and at a much faster rate thanks to Plan Bay Area's entirely remarkable population growth estimates, until freeway traffic gets far, far worse until you're finally forced onto transit, or you move out of the county.

More Information


For an excellent overview of Senate Bill 743 and it's implications please read this article by Garrett Colli in the California Land use Blog:

Last-Minute CEQA Bill Brings Significant Changes for Major Infrastructure Projects and Projects within Transit Priority Areas

and here's the wording of the bill itself:

Senate Bill 743
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