SB 768 (Caballero) (Chapter 773, Statutes of 2024)

SB 768 adds PRC Section 21099.5 requiring the Department of Housing and Community Development to conduct and submit to the Legislature a study on how vehicle miles traveled is used as a metric for measuring transportation impacts of housing projects pursuant to CEQA. The bill specifies the required contents of the study, including an analysis and comparison of how vehicle miles traveled impacts of mitigation measures are identified, measured, and deployed at the local, regional, and statewide level that shall include an exhaustive list of housing project types that are considered to increase capacity, induce vehicle miles traveled, or both. The analysis may include how the projected vehicle miles traveled are estimated for each mitigation strategy; a list of the cost of vehicle miles traveled mitigation measures to housing projects thus far and an analysis of whether the cost of those measures either indefinitely delayed, temporarily delayed, or necessitated the phasing of those projects; and best strategies and planning changes to mitigate vehicle miles traveled in areas where public transportation is inadequate.

The study is required to be submitted to the Legislature by January 1, 2028. The statute repeals itself on January 1, 2029.