WATSONVILLE >> With Santa Cruz County looking toward a regional program to encourage alternative modes of transportation and reduce the area’s Vehicle Miles Traveled statistics, the Watsonville City Council received a presentation on the program at its Tuesday meeting and voted unanimously to direct staff to participate in the development of a multi-jurisdictional initiative.

The vote did not confirm that Watsonville would be participating in a regional Vehicle Miles Traveled program but gave staff the opportunity to pursue taking part in developing such a strategy.

Assistant Public Works Director Murray Fontes said the Vehicle Miles Traveled program dates back to 2013 when the California Legislature passed Senate Bill 743, which shifted how the California Environmental Quality Act guidelines measured transportation. It was previously measured by a “level of service” standard, which offered letter grades for traffic congestion on specific roadways based on factors such as speed and delay at intersections. The Vehicle Miles Traveled program, which went into effect in 2020, measures the total amount of miles traveled by vehicles and uses that information in studies to reduce environmental impacts, such as greenhouse gas emissions as well as improving roadways.

In 2022, Watsonville adjusted its California Environmental Quality Act guidelines to take advantage of the new program to work with developers and grant them entitlements, Fontes said. City staff worked with other agencies to create a multi-jurisdictional policy “that would provide benefits that couldn’t be achieved through a city-only policy.”

To this end, Fontes said Santa Cruz County hired engineering consultant firm Kimley-Horn to take the lead. Mike Schmitt, a senior sustainability consultant with Kimley-Horn, said the Vehicle Miles Traveled program changed how jurisdictions handle transportation.

Watsonville already has a Vehicle Miles Traveled bank program with more than $114,000 in its balance to date. Schmitt said the goal was to provide a regional approach to that, which he emphasized could provide benefits such as additional feasible mitigation options, the completion of Vehicle Miles Traveled-reducing projects sooner with more money coming in and minimized administrative burden for each agency.

“Every time we do a CEQA document, we have to look through this new lens,” he said. “It sought to change the focus to a more sustainable approach to reduce greenhouse gases for most dense infill development, reduce single-occupancy vehicles and improve mass transit.”

However, Schmitt said a side effect of this new program was very aggressive thresholds, which he said were difficult for developers to meet. New residential and office developments need to be 15% below the Vehicle Miles Traveled averages per capita and employee, respectively.

“That’s been a pretty challenging threshold for new developments to meet, and that’s been the case,” he said.

Schmitt said this has resulted in projects throughout the state not having a need to mitigate the amount of Vehicle Miles Traveled and that the “level of service” methodology would result in solutions like additional lanes or signalized intersections.

“It’s much more challenging when you’re trying to reduce Vehicle Miles Traveled,” he said. “That’s a negative impact in terms of forwarding economic opportunities, also potentially has negative impacts to housing.”

Schmitt said the county has applied for a grant to mitigate Vehicle Miles Traveled in the form of a multi-jurisdictional bank pilot program. Under this program, the county would take Vehicle Miles Traveled-reducing projects like additional lanes for bikes, pedestrians and buses, adding them together and monetizing them.

“The idea is that if you monetized it, you can buy credits to offset your mitigation requirements under CEQA and then potentially move forward with your project without needing any further mitigation,” he said. “One of the challenges with these programs is, obviously, for a local jurisdiction, you need to carry out all the actions or activities you’ll need to go along with it.”

Schmitt said the bank program is being recommended to continue as a pilot program.

“It’s really recommended to be a voluntary program for a couple of years with projects in it that are low-hanging, easy to construct, easy to fund, ones that we can move forward rather easily,” he said. “It is a little unclear as to how much need there is for it, and that’s part of the reason why it’s been identified as a pilot program, just from how much mitigation do we need and how many dollars will we come to make?”

Schmitt said the next steps would be to present the proposal to the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission and Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors, finalize the recommended program document with community input and work with Watsonville to develop a pilot program.

Councilman Eduardo Montesino asked specifically what the project would fund. Fontes said the city would identify certain projects, mostly trails. Schmitt said the same idea would be applied on a regional level and could include bike lanes and expanded transit operations.

“It’s giving you other opportunities to get out of your car,” he said.

The council voted 6-0 to direct staff work on developing the regional program. Mayor Pro Tempore Kristal Salcido was absent.