Transportation Impact Studies

SB743/TIS Guidelines:

On April 22, 2021 the City Council adopted Resolution 2021-024, adopting the TIS Guidelines and SB743 Guidelines. Recent changes in state law changed how the City can evaluate impacts to the city’s transportation network. These changes, largely in response to Senate Bill 743 (SB743), necessitate the development of SB743 Guidelines and the update of the city’s Transportation Impact Study (TIS) Guidelines to ensure development review is consistent with SB743 and CEQA.

TIS Guidelines

TIS Guidelines outline the methodology, procedures, and content for the preparation of Transportation Impact Studies (TIS) for new development projects in the City. The TIS Guidelines are used by the City’s on-call Traffic Engineering consultants to prepare Transportation Impact Studies. 

The TIS Guidelines may be downloaded here: LINK

SB743 Guidelines

In 2013, the State of California passed Senate Bill 743 (SB 743), which altered how transportation impacts from new development are measured under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Traditionally, transportation impacts have been assessed in terms of Level of Service (LOS), a measure of automobile delays along a roadway. SB 743 shifts from LOS to metrics aligned with state goals around greenhouse gas reduction, land use diversity, and development of multi-modal travel networks.  

The law stipulated that starting on July 1, 2020, automobile delay and LOS may no longer be used as the performance measure to determine the transportation impacts of land development projects under CEQA. Instead, an alternative metric that supports the goals of the SB 743 legislation will be required. In this case, Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) was determined by the state to be the most appropriate metric.

The SB743 Guidelines provide CEQA thresholds of significance for VMT as well as provide guidance for the evaluation of projects under SB743. This includes exemptions, screening maps, and outlines the technical process for evaluating VMT. To view the adopted SB743 documents click the following link: LINK

More Information 

If you have questions about Traffic Impact Studies, contact the Planning Division at planning@citrusheights.net or Leslie Blomquist, City Engineer at lblomquist@citrusheights.net