VISION CALIFORNIA AND POLICY CONTEXT

Vision California is an unprecedented effort to explore the role of land use and transportation investments in meeting the environmental, fiscal, and public health challenges facing California over the coming decades. The project is producing new scenario development and analysis tools to examine the impacts of varying policy decisions and development patterns.

Vision California will:

• Highlight the unique opportunity presented by California’s planned High Speed Rail network in shaping growth and other investments.
• Frame California’s development issues in a comprehensive manner, illustrating the role of land use in meeting greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets through robust analysis.
• Illustrate the connections between land use and other major challenges, including water and energy use, housing affordability, public health, farmland preservation, infrastructure provision, and economic development.
• Clearly link land use and infrastructure priorities to mandated targets as set forth by AB 32, SB 375, and the California Air Resources Board (CARB).
• Produce scalable tools, for use by state agencies, regions, local governments, and the non-profit community, which can defensibly measure the impacts of land use and transportation investment scenarios.
• Build upon Blueprints and other regional plans to produce statewide growth scenarios that go beyond regional boundaries and assess the combined impact of these plans.
• Connect state and national goals for energy independence, energy efficiency, and green job creation to land use and transportation investments.