Environmental groups argue that the agency purposely split the project into two phases to obscure the true impact of expanded road capacity.

A coalition of environmental groups are suing the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) in an effort to force the agency to reassess the proposed Interstate 80 highway expansion project dubbed the Yolo Causeway, reports Melanie Curry in Streetsblog California.
The suit alleges that the environmental impact report for the project improperly divided it into separate parts to obscure its full environmental impact. “The first project is using S.B. 1 highway maintenance funds to strengthen the roadbed along the causeway between Davis and Sacramento. Because Caltrans is calling it a "maintenance" project, no environmental review was conducted. But the second part of the project will take advantage of that new roadbed to restripe the highway with a new lane, expanding capacity.”
According to the lawsuit, the EIR for the second part of the project significantly overstates congestion reduction benefits, while Caltrans only has plans to mitigate roughly half of the estimated new vehicle miles traveled. “Similar concerns - faulty VMT calculations and inadequate mitigations for what will be increased climate-damaging emissions - have arisen in numerous other highway expansion plans throughout the state, including the I-15 in the Inland Empire, Highway 1 in Santa Cruz, and Highway 99 in the Central Valley, among others.”
FULL STORY: Environmental Groups File Suit Against I-80 Highway Expansion

Maui's Vacation Rental Debate Turns Ugly
Verbal attacks, misinformation campaigns and fistfights plague a high-stakes debate to convert thousands of vacation rentals into long-term housing.

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

San Francisco Suspends Traffic Calming Amidst Record Deaths
Citing “a challenging fiscal landscape,” the city will cease the program on the heels of 42 traffic deaths, including 24 pedestrians.

Adaptive Reuse Will Create Housing in a Suburban Texas Strip Mall
A developer is reimagining a strip mall property as a mixed-use complex with housing and retail.

Study: Anti-Homelessness Laws Don’t Work
Research shows that punitive measures that criminalized unhoused people don’t help reduce homelessness.

In U.S., Urban Gondolas Face Uphill Battle
Cities in Latin America and Europe have embraced aerial transitways — AKA gondolas — as sustainable, convenient urban transport, especially in tricky geographies. American cities have yet to catch up.
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