Pasadena got out in front of the state of California this week by replacing "level of service" with a more holistic, less car-centric, set of standards for review under the California Environmental Quality Act.
"On November 3, Pasadena’s City Council voted unanimously to ditch the car-centric measure of mobility called 'level of service,' or LOS," according to a post on the Boyonabike! blog.
The change at the local level occurs as the state is working to revise its Level of Service requirements as a part of the California Environmental Quality Act.
The Pasadena Department of Transportation staff report to the Pasadena City Council [pdf] explains the policy change, which would replace "two existing Transportation Performance Measures with five new Transportation Performance Measures and Set Thresholds of Significance for CEQA for the new measures." Those five new measures, as listed by the staff report: "Vehicle Miles Traveled Per Capita," "Proximity and Quality of the Transit," "Pedestrian Accessibility," Vehicle Trips Per Capita," and "Proximity and Quality of the Bicycle Network."
Boyonabike! also adds this commentary on how and why LOS was shown the door: "The policy change was developed and proposed by the staff at Pasadena DOT and is a critical element of Pasadena’s efforts to become a more environmentally-friendly city by encouraging multi-modal transportation, and denser, mixed-use development downtown."
FULL STORY: An End to LOS in Pasadena
The Final Days of 'Level of Service' in California's Environmental Review Process
A long-awaited draft update of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) has finally been released, and Level of Service will finally be a thing of the past in the next two to four years.
California Environmental Law Continues to Frustrate Bike Planning (for Now)
Help is on the way. The law that requires the governor's planning office to devise an alternative method for measuring vehicle traffic for environmental compliance will also take up where an earlier law that exempted bike lanes from CEQA left off.
San Francisco Leading CEQA Reform Process—Scraps Level of Service
The San Francisco Planning Commission took historic action earlier this month, voting to end the use of Level of Service in environmental review.
What We Really Mean When We Say Gentrification
The focus on gentrifying communities has, in many cases, eclipsed the similar problems facing more stagnant neighborhoods.
Study: Market-Rate Development Filters Into Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing
New research sheds new light on one of the most hotly debated questions in planning and development.
The End of Single-Family Zoning in California
Despite a few high-profile failures, the California State Legislature has approved a steady drumbeat of pro-development reforms that loosen zoning restrictions. The state raised the stakes on its zoning reforms this week.
Elizabeth Peterson Group (EPG)
UrbanTrans North America
Houston Land Bank
Edtalkradio
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
American Planning Association
Hillsborough County Public Schools
City of Raleigh
City of Laramie, Wyoming and Albany County Wyoming
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Hand Drawing Master Plans
This course aims to provide an introduction into Urban Design Sketching focused on how to hand draw master plans using a mix of colored markers.
