TECHNICAL PLANNING ADVISORY COMMITTEE MINUTES. Thursday, May 6, :00 PM

Transcription

1 TECHNICAL PLANNING ADVISORY COMMITTEE MINUTES Thursday, May 6, :00 PM Planning Department Conference Room Buellton Planning Department 331-B Park Street Buellton, CA TPAC Voting Members Present Marc Bierdzinski (Chair) Larry Appel Irma Unzueta Shelley Stahl Eric Gage Michael Powers Jackie Campbell Anne Wells Richard Daulton Lucille Breese Derek Johnson City of Buellton City of Santa Maria City of Santa Barbara City of Solvang SBCAPCD City of Carpinteria City of Goleta City of Guadalupe City of Lompoc County of Santa Barbara TPAC Voting Members Absent: None Others Present Gregg Hart Brian Bresolin William Yim Andrew Orfila Angela Perez Vicki Parker City of Buellton County of Santa Barbara 1. CALL TO ORDER AND INTRODUCTIONS Chair Bierdzinski called the meeting to order and initiated a round of introductions. 2. PUBLIC COMMENT Chair Bierdzinski asked for public comment and there was none.

2 3. MINUTES Anne Wells expressed appreciation for the minutes and the attachments. Anne moved to adopt the Minutes and Larry Appel seconded the motion to approve the Minutes of April 1, The motion passed with Irma Unzueta, Richard Daulton, and Lucille Breese abstaining. 4. REGIONAL TRAVEL FORECAST Michael Powers provided an overview of the travel forecast effort and opened the item up for technical questions to Brian Bresolin and Bill Yim. Anne Wells indicated Steve Wagner had a concern that TTAC should review the material. Michael Powers indicated that the material was more planning oriented since it addresses future growth. Anne Wells suggested more time was needed to go through the uses and merging of the local model and s model data. Derek Johnson indicated that the Goleta model is built on to the county model. Bill Yim provided an explanation of the process the Goleta Valley consultants used to build the model and the difficulty in merging the socioeconomic data with the travel models household and employment data. Anne Wells suggested the Goleta model be applied for the entire valley and may be more realistic. Bill Yim provided reasons for the difficulty; e.g., differing definitions of TAZ s, assignment to the regional model, and local data employment aggregation to regional model (See separate staff report for more detailed responses). Derek Johnson suggested aggregating the Goleta TAZ s for the model and that the model should use a merging of the City and county models. Vicki Parker indicated that there were jobs in some residential areas. Vicki Parker requested information on the land use modeling process to be used in the SCS and if it would be similar to SANDAG s. Michael Powers indicated it would be integrated in future forecasts. The funds for the travel model upgrade have been approved and should facilitate this process in the next fiscal year This will take the modeling approach in a new direction. Michael added that the GHG targets would be received in fall and the land use modeling would occur in late Jackie Campbell inquired about how self employed are accounted for and Brian Bresolin indicated they are not part of the wage and salary employment forecast but are estimated independently from 2000 census data. Michael Powers indicated that InfoUSA a commercial database was used for the employment baseline and updated with consultant and TPAC input. Jackie Campbell expressed concern regarding the lack of employment accounting, e.g. domestic help, in the unincorporated areas. Irma Unzueta indicated that in the General Plan EIR, employment was estimated and analyzed. Bill Yim replied that the SB City local model was used for the allocations. Irma Unzueta indicated that the RGF 2007 employment summary table that used projects to estimate employment may overestimate employment since many projects have had their status changed. In addition there was a previous issue with overestimating of the Cottage Hospital renovation square footage resulting in additional employment. Vicki Parker inquired about the RGF update schedule and Michael replied the next forecast would likely show less growth and a new revision would come in Bill Yim stated that GHG reduction target setting is for 2020 and 2035 period and that will move forward with the current forecast. Michael Powers added that 2

3 updating a new travel forecast is a complex task and the focus of the forecast was long term, years and that there is an ebb and flow of individual projects in the short term. Derek Johnson indicated that the consultant Strategic Economics work for the City of Santa Barbara still indicated forecast employment growth. Jackie Campbell recommended that employment be adjusted due to the economic downturn since she found it difficult to justify allocating any jobs to TAZ s if there were none as she believed to be the case in Carpinteria. Anne Wells referred to estimated buildout and that it is theoretical and would not likely happen especially with the number of pending projects. Anne Wells indicated the city was entering a mitigation agreement with UCSB anticipating their development plan implementation. Michael Powers indicated that the forecast is periodically updated and a similar method has been used over the last 20 years. Irma Unzueta indicated that the city had better estimates of pending development and was concerned the past estimates may be overstated; however, Bill Yim indicated the updated city traffic model was used for the allocation. The travel model relies on input data from the growth forecast. Eric Gage questioned the trip generation table as it related to the college employment and why the museum was 10 times more trips. Bill indicated that the special generators had daily or annual AM or PM trips. Anne Wells inquired if the trips were students or employment and Bill Yim indicated employment was the driver for the model. Anne Wells felt it was ironic that UCSB LRDP was not included in the forecast but projects that Goleta has approved but not being developed are. Michael replied that Goleta has an adopted General Plan; UCSB is still updating their LRDP. Michael Powers indicated that UCSB LRDP had not yet been approved so it was not included in the growth forecast whereas the pending projects were approved and are consistent with the local Plan. Derek Johnson suggested that the UCSB trips are understated. Bill Yim indicated existing UCSB trips on SR217 is approximately 18,000 and future forecasts estimated on SR217 being between 19,000 and 20,000. The travel forecast at UCSB is quite reasonable considering based on an assumed capping of employment at about 10,000. Derek Johnson suggested that the land use models would provide a more relevant conclusion He added that the countywide forecasts may be more relevant at the subregional, vs. local, level. Michael Powers indicated that the local data was needed to run the model but countywide output is what ARB is looking for in the GHG analysis discussed in the next item. Michael Powers summed up the issues as Santa Barbara was concerned about the square footage used for the employment distribution, Impacts of the recession on the forecasted growth, using a county basis for ARB not city level, combining the forecast years using only a beginning and endpoint, and considering the Goleta model in its entirety (both the city and unincorporated) for allocating growth, and Carpinteria concerned with inclusion of domestic, and other employment help in the unincorporated area and the overly optimistic local employment allocation given the economic recession. 5. SB-375: REGIONAL GREENHOUSE GAS TARGET SETTING Michael Powers reviewed a slide show on alternative planning scenarios, and other information, prepared by, to assist ARB in setting Greenhouse Gas emission reduction targets for Region. Larry Appel inquired about need for expanded TDM programs and asked if the ramp metering options were consistent with longer onramps. Michael Powers indicated affirmatively in both cases. Derek Johnson requested a copy of the PowerPoint presentation. Derek Johnson inquired about transit in the GHG reduction effort and Andrew Orfila indicated it was not in the same GHG 3

4 inventory. Michael Powers indicated page 4 of the staff report included some factors for ARB to consider such as the newer population forecast and the impact of major institutions outside the influence of local governments. Derek Johnson indicated the Chumash Casino may have an opportunity to expand with recent land acquisitions. Jackie Campbell inquired about the potential RGF growth reduction due to the recession and how that would influence GHG reductions. Michael indicated the issue is referred to generally in the letter. Bill Yim stated a study associated with 101 In Motion indicated a slight 2% to 3% reduction in trips and VMT on Highway 101 with substantially lower growth. Michael Powers emphasized the analysis was generally a countywide approach without referencing individual jurisdictions, with the exception of Santa Barbara City who is examining parking pricing. Anne Wells proposed a joint TTAC/TPAC meeting. Michael replied that a joint TTAC and TPAC would be useful. The draft GHG targets should be issued by ARB in June and they also conduct workshops. Derek Johnson suggested putting the meeting topic on the agenda to facilitate discussion of meeting content. Michael Powers indicated staff would prepare a draft letter to ARB for board consideration that would include all the issues mentioned in the staff report. He asked if TPAC members concurred with that approach and there were no objections. 6. ANNOUNCEMENTS A. Receive status report on Draft Proposition 84 Grant application schedule. Michael Powers indicated that MPOs may jointly apply for the grant money. He added the RFP from the Strategic Growth Council had not yet been released. However, had received a notice of award for the travel model upgrade grant of $400,000. Derek Johnson indicated that should strongly consider applying for the HUD sustainable grant program that will be noticed this summer. B. Local agency updates Marc Bierdzinski (Chair), City of Buellton indicated another round of the visioning effort occurred with 60 participants. Buellton has also scheduled a Spanish language only visioning meeting on June 2 nd. Larry Appel, City of Santa Maria indicated that there were 13 comments on their Housing Element draft highlighting their discretionary review process. Irma Unzueta, City of Santa Barbara indicated that the general plan was going to the planning commission for policy direction and review of growth alternatives. The draft should be back in the winter for adoption. Eric Gage, SBCAPCD indicated they are preparing a draft of the State Clean Air Plan. Jackie Campbell, City of Carpinteria indicated that the housing element is still under review, the planning commission approved a 33 unit affordable farmworker housing project without any public opposition. Jackie also requested staff provide summaries to TPAC of board comments on any TPAC items of interest. Anne Wells, City of Goleta received a $387,000 grant from So Cal Edison for GHG Inventory and Plan/ordinance work. 4

5 Richard Daulton, City of Guadalupe indicated that the housing element is going through one more round of review. The DJ Farms project is slowly moving forward. Lucille Breese, City of Lompoc indicated that the WalMart EIR is in public review and a hearing on the General Plan will occur soon. Derek Johnson, County of Santa Barbara indicated that a letter was sent to HUD for grant money that would supplement Prop 84 grants. They received a So Cal Edison $330,000 grant for their climate action plan, GHG data inventory and building review process to promote green building. Their housing element is in another round of review by HCD. He added that the proposed County budget includes a 10% reduction for Long Range Planning Division among other reductions. 7. ADJOURN The meeting adjourned at 2:30. 5