Regional transportation plans: greenhouse gas emissions: State Mobility Action Plan for Healthy Communities.

(1) Existing law requires designated regional transportation planning agencies to prepare and adopt a regional transportation plan. Certain of these agencies are also designated under federal law as metropolitan planning organizations. Existing law requires a regional transportation plan to include a policy element, an action element, and a financial element, and, if the transportation planning agency is also a metropolitan planning organization, a sustainable communities strategy or alternative planning strategy, which is designed to achieve certain targets for 2020 and 2035 established by the State Air Resources Board for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles and light trucks in the region. Existing law requires the state board to update those targets every 8 years. Existing law requires the state board, by September 1, 2018, and every 4 years thereafter, to prepare a report that assesses progress made by each metropolitan planning organization in meeting the regional greenhouse gas emission reduction targets set by the state board. Under existing law, the action element of a regional transportation plan describes the programs and actions necessary to implement the plan and assigns implementation responsibilities. This bill would require the state board to adopt a regulation that requires a metropolitan planning organization to provide any data that the state board determines is necessary to fulfill the requirements of the above-described report and to determine if the metropolitan planning organization is on track to meet its 2035 greenhouse gas emission reduction target. After completing each report, the bill would require the state board to determine if each metropolitan planning organization is on track to meet its 2035 target. The bill would require the action element prepared by a metropolitan planning organization to identify near and long-term steps to be taken to implement a sustainable communities strategy and achieve the greenhouse gas emission reduction targets established by the state board. The bill would require the metropolitan planning organization to monitor progress toward implementing these steps and to report that progress to the state board for purposes of the above-described report. By imposing additional requirements on transportation planning agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) Existing law establishes the Strategic Growth Council in state government consisting of various state agency heads and 3 public members. Existing law requires the council to, among other things, identify and review activities and funding programs of state agencies that may be coordinated to improve air and water quality, improve natural resource protection, increase the availability of affordable housing, improve transportation, and meet greenhouse gas emission reduction goals. This bill would establish an interagency working group to be administered by the Strategic Growth Council and to be composed of a specified membership. The bill would require the interagency working group to develop and implement a State Mobility Action Plan for Healthy Communities to ensure that regional growth and development is designed and implemented in a manner that will help achieve the state's environmental, equity, climate, health, and housing goals. The bill would require the plan to include specific actions, measures, and timelines, and an investment strategy. The bill would require the interagency working group to submit the plan to the Legislature by December 31, 2020, and would require the interagency working group to submit an updated plan to the Legislature by September 1, 2024, and every 4 years thereafter. (3) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.