Cloverdale planning commission recommends council adopt updated circulation element and transportation EIR

CLOVERDALE, Calif. — The Cloverdale Planning Commission voted May 6 to recommend that the City Council certify a subsequent environmental impact report focused on transportation and adopt an updated circulation element to the city—s general plan.

The update responds to state changes that require vehicle miles traveled, or VMT, to be used in CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act) analyses instead of relying solely on level of service, a measure of traffic delay. The commission—s recommendation includes a mitigation monitoring and reporting program and new policies to integrate complete-streets principles and VMT screening and mitigation into future project review.

The circulation element is the portion of the general plan that guides how people and goods move through the city. Mary Bean, vice president at First Carbon Solutions, said SB 743 requires jurisdictions to evaluate transportation impacts using VMT and that the update does not propose physical improvements but rather changes to policies used to assess future projects. "SB 743 came into effect in 2020. It looks at average trip length per capita," Bean said. "The circulation element addresses that and updates policies where…