PCL’s Capital Insider – June 2026

PCL’s Capital Insider for June 2026

SB 1087 and the Sustainable Communities Strategies We Need

Among PCL’s many interests this legislative session, a top priority is Senator Cabaldon’s SB 1087, seeking to update the historic 2008 bill, SB 375 – The Sustainable Communities and Climate Protection Act. SB 375 was a precedent-setting statute that has shaped PCL’s work to improve land use and transportation policy ever since, and we have been centrally engaged in the almost two-year conversation that has culminated in SB 1087.

PCL, along with ClimatePlan, and many coalition partners, are currently joined in a “Letter of Concern” on SB 1087. We are very committed to making SB 1087 the bill we want to support, and are diligently working with the author, the regional governments, and the many stakeholders involved to that end, but SB 1087 is not yet that bill.

The bottom line – we need accountability measures in the bill to ensure that we are not just developing good plans but actually following them.

Background:

California’s first landmark climate law in 2006, AB 32, established the state’s GHG reduction mandates—covering everything from conversion to renewable energy, electrification of our buildings and vehicles, and efficiency across all sectors of our stuff and how we make it. SB 375, however, focused on where we live and work and how we move around, specifically how we can reduce GHG emissions through better land use planning and improved transportation investments.

SB 375 required that our Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs), responsible for developing our Regional Transportation Plans (RTPs) under the Federal Clean Air Act, also develop a corresponding land use plan in an effort to bring jobs, housing, and services closer together to reduce driving, or “Vehicle Miles Traveled” (VMT). These “Sustainable Communities Strategies” (SCS) for denser, more walkable communities with greater transit options have the co-benefits of conserving natural and working lands, improving public health outcomes, and providing more equitable access to opportunity—while reducing GHG associated with driving.

SB 375 charged the CA Air Resources Board (CARB) with developing GHG reduction targets specifically for the VMT reduction potential of each region’s SCS, and it quickly found that this land-use component was essential. CARB’s 2017 AB 32 Scoping Plan Update found that to achieve our 2050 GHG reduction mandate—even with 100% zero-emission vehicles and 75% of energy production from renewable sources—we will still need 15% more vehicle-miles-traveled (VMT) reduction beyond what was projected by our RTP/SCSs (2017 Scoping Plan Update, pg 101). 

(ARB Draft Scoping Plan, 2017)

In short, clean vehicles and clean energy will not alone be sufficient to meet our Climate mandates.  We must significantly change historic growth patterns to enable people to drive less.  Yet, despite broad recognition of this need, all of CARB’s subsequent reporting has shown that per capita VMT is increasing in California, and none of the State’s regions are on track to meet their respective SB 375 GHG reduction targets. 

During COVID, driving was indeed significantly reduced for obvious reasons (as was transit use). Yet, since the early years of the pandemic, VMT has steadily risen back to pre-COVID levels, and it is fully anticipated that CARB’s next Scoping Plan update and SB 375 reporting will yield findings similar to those in earlier reports. 

Today, and the opportunity of SB 1087:

Under SB 375, most of the state’s regions have produced good plans, certified by CARB, that, if implemented, would achieve their respective reduction mandates. The problem is that the plans are not being implemented. Not only is there no specific requirement in SB 375 that our local governments or state agencies follow the regional plan, but the plans rely on promises of great things happening (huge transit improvements, much higher densities, etc.) before the 20-year horizon—but the promises keep getting pushed back with every plan update, while highway expansion and greenfield development continue across the state unfettered. 

This is not necessarily the fault of the MPO’s charged with developing the plans. It is our state and local agencies that are making investment decisions that are not aligned with the plans. How to correct this fundamental problem is what we are all endeavoring to do now.

The scope of details involved in updating SB 375 is deep and wide, entailing how the plans are developed, how the plans are reviewed and approved, how projects are prioritized to implement the plan, how “consistency” with the plans is defined, and what obligations state and local agencies have to make investments that are consistent with the plans. This is truly a monumental task, and we greatly commend Senator Cabaldon’s willingness to take this task on. We also greatly appreciate the time and commitment that the Senator, the MPOs, and all of the stakeholders have dedicated over the last year to forge an update to 375 that results in more positive outcomes on the ground than the law has produced to date.

However, the current bill does not yet do that. The current bill greatly lightens the requirements on MPOs for developing plans, allowing them to focus more resources on implementation, but it does not yet adequately address the lack of oversight or accountability measures to ensure that progress towards implementation is actually being made.

Among many other details, the bill currently lengthens the MPO’s SCS plan cycle from 4 to 8 years while eliminating the review required under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). We don’t object to the 8-year cycle but believe the CEQA exemption would be a huge mistake. While we sympathize with the amount of time and cost associated with the development of the environmental document for the regional plan, the public environmental review of the RTP/SCS is amongst the most important programmatic planning documents we have, as it comprises the intersection of so many of the state’s goals regarding climate, air quality, housing, mobility, natural resources, health, and equity. Further, so much existing policy, funding, and streamlining incentives are hinged to SCS consistency, and while what “consistency” means has always been murky, without an environmental document, questions of “consistency” will only be murkier.

In PCL’s view, the ideal would be to make the programmatic review more robust and more granular. More detailed front-end review, coupled with greater accountability that the plans are actually on track, would allow for much more meaningful incentives and streamlining on the project level to drive greater consistency with the plans. 

But this conversation can’t just be about how the plans are reviewed; it has to be about how implementation is reviewed.

We want to see meaningful, iterative progress reporting of a clear, standardized set of indicators for both transportation and land use that objectively demonstrate if the plan is, or is not, on track to achieve its projected performance outcomes. And we want clear constraints on what state funding can be used for (VMT-reducing projects) if the plans cannot demonstrate compliance.

We want more efficiency for the MPOs and the process, but we also need more accountability that the plans are implemented as well. 

We think that is still possible with SB 1087. PCL still believes in the vision of SB 375 and that, with the right course correction, the vision could be realized. With all the collaboration of the MPOs and the stakeholders that has taken place, SB 1087 is the best opportunity we’ve had to make that course correction, but there is still much more work to be done to get to the bill California needs.

Stay tuned.

As always, you can visit PCL’s Legislation Watchlist page for the latest updates on these and the hundred-plus bills we are following.