By Ella Wise, Policy Analyst, Urban Solutions, Natural Resources Defense Council

It’s been seven years since California passed the Sustainable Communities and Climate Protection Act (SB 375), the landmark law integrating land-use and transportation planning to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Climate summer

There’s a lot of energy now in Sacramento around state climate goals and transportation planning. The first round of Sustainable Community Strategies (SCSs) is complete, and this summer the final few of these SCSs are being reviewed by the state’s Air Resources Board. The first round of Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund awards—of which 35% goes to sustainable communities, affordable housing, and low-carbon transit—will be announced this summer.

Building on this, ClimatePlan is leading two long-term projects to improve the next round of Sustainable Community Strategies. One is to learn and share best practices from the first round of SCSs. The other is to innovate policy: What are the topics related to sustainable communities that still need further attention?

Taking stock: What are the needs, and how to meet them

To support these projects and more, it’s time to take stock of SB 375 implementation. You can help by taking our SB 375 Implementation Survey.

The Natural Resources Defense Council—with help from ClimatePlan and other partners—wants to dig in to find out more about implementation of the existing plans:

1)      What are the local and regional funding needs to implement the most recently adopted Sustainable Community Strategies?

2)      How do the new Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund programs under Cap-and-Trade address these funding needs?

Please take, and share, our survey

If you’re involved in land use, transportation, housing, or conservation planning/policy, and you’re familiar with a Sustainable Communities Strategy, we want to hear from you! This survey is intended to help inform all of us who are invested in making our communities more sustainable. Please:

1)      Share your thoughts by responding to the survey.

2)      Then share the survey with advocates, city planners, regional planners, developers, and anyone else knowledgeable about SB 375 implementation.

Thank you for your help!

Please contact Ella Wise at NRDC with any questions.