Draft MTP/SCS Comments Received - sacog

NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL
January 25, 2012
Chair Susan Peters
Board of Directors
Sacramento Area Council of Governments
1415 L Street, Suite 300
Sacramento, CA 95814
Re: Comments on Draft MTP/SCS 2035
Dear Chair Peters:
We appreciate the opportunity to comment on SACOG’s 2035 MTP/SCS. This plan truly
implements the intent of SB 375 by designing a transportation network and land use pattern to be
mutually reinforcing to reduce emissions, and your staff should be commended. In particular, the
following achievements are of note:
• By employing land use as a transportation demand management strategy, this plan
achieves a remarkable 7% reduction in congested vehicle miles traveled per capita, a
noteworthy first for the region. While regions across the country have widened their
roads in vain attempts to alleviate congestion, SACOG demonstrates that the more lasting
and effective approach is to reduce the distances between homes and daily needs and
provide real transportation choices for local travel. This is such an important
accomplishment it can hardly be overstated.
• This plan responds to the strong and growing demand for real transportation choices by
increasing transit service hours by 98% and bike lanes by 77%.
• Job accessibility improves by 31% on average, with jobs-housing balance improving in
14 out of 15 major employment centers. SACOG’s innovative approach of focusing new
housing around existing employment centers stands as a model for other regions to
consider.
In the spirit of collaboration and continual refinement, we offer our thoughts below on the areas
in which this plan could be improved.
Ensure that SACOG’s Housing Product Mix Meets Market Demand and Strengthens the
Regional Economy
As noted in the MTP/SCS, the 28 cities and counties of the SACOG region have been working
voluntarily to incorporate the Blueprint plans and policies into their local general plans, and thus
the housing mix SACOG assumes with this MTP/SCS is far different than the original Blueprint
base/case scenario. Both the local general plans and SACOG’s analysis of housing market trends
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