Guide: An Overview of the Tool
What is it?
California's Infill Opportunity Zone Law is an exciting new law that gives your community the flexibility to design their streets according to local priorities rather than 'one-size-fits-all' state standards. This new law can help make infill projects more financially feasible for developers (by not wasting valuable land for excessively wide streets) and can help your community in its efforts to control automobile traffic and to grow more efficiently. The law was introduced in the 2001-02 legislative session as
Senate Bill 1636
by Senator Liz Figueroa (Senate District 10). It was sponsored by the Surface Transportation Policy Project (STPP) and signed into law by Governor Davis on September 12, 2002. Specifically, the new law does the following three things:
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Allows local governments to establish 'infill opportunity zones.' Under the law, any city or county can establish certain areas within their jurisdiction as 'infill opportunity zones'. In order to be designated as an infill opportunity zone, the area must meet four main criteria. First, the area must be zoned for infill residential or mixed-use development (so if the area isn't already zoned to allow for these types of development, the first step is that the city or county must change the area's existing zoning). Secondly, the area must be located within a 1/3 mile of a transit stop with 'frequent' service, (defined as having maximum scheduled intervals between arriving buses/trains of no more than 15 minutes for at least 5 hours during the day). Third, the area must be located in a county with a population of 400,000 or more (according to US Census Bureau
estimates, 20 of California's 58 counties had a population of 400,000 or more in 2002). Finally, infill opportunity zones can only be designated in areas where the community's general plan or specific plans calls for higher-density infill development, so that the resulting development in the infill opportunity zone will be consistent with the goals and objectives of existing planning documents. See the
Eligibility Checklist for more
information. |
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Exempts infill opportunity zones from existing traffic requirements. Why should you care about whether your local government establishes infill opportunity zones in your community? The short answer is this: the new law exempts streets and highways in designated infill opportunity zones from the level of service (LOS) traffic standards specified in the State Congestion Management Act, thereby making compact, transit-oriented development more feasible. This exemption frees development in 'infill opportunity zones' from the straightjacket of the LOS traffic standards that often block, delay, or scale-back transit-oriented infill development. Because the existing LOS standards are one-size-fits-all state-wide requirements that mandate streets wide enough to accommodate free-flowing automobile traffic typical of a conventional development, the standards require wider streets and intersections than are necessary for transit-oriented, infill development. This is due to the fact that the standards fail to adequately account for the greater rates of transit use, walking, and biking among people living within 1/3 mile of transit, as well as the lower rates of car ownership and driving. (For more information on the relationship between land use patterns, urban design, and people's travel choices, see the
Victoria Transport Policy
Institute's (VTPI) online report
Land Use Impacts on
Transport: How Land Use Patterns Affect Travel Behavior, or jump to the
'Other
Resources' section.) |
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Allows two new options for
accommodating ALL traffic types in infill
opportunity zones. Instead of the statewide mandates of conventional traffic standards, the new law provides communities with flexible alternatives that allow them to address the need of
all types of traffic (rather than just automobile traffic) according to local needs and priorities. Each city or county can choose which of the following two options it prefers to use in the infill opportunity zone:
a) Using an alternative LOS standard that balances the need for adequate automobile traffic flow with the needs of those who travel by mass transit, bicycle, and on foot. For example, conventional LOS standards typically evaluate the effectiveness of the street system only by measuring the number of automobiles that move through a particular road segment or the delays that automobiles face at various levels of traffic congestion. On the other hand, an alternative LOS standard might consider the bigger picture: evaluating the effectives of the whole transportation system by measuring the total number of
people that travel along a particular road segment, rather than simply measuring the number of
automobiles that drive through it. (The Florida Department of Transportation summarizes some of the shortcomings of conventional LOS standards and recommends alternative standards in their
Multi-Modal Quality of Service Project.)
b) Approving a list of flexible LOS congestion mitigation measures that enhance walking, biking, and transit service within a community (rather than degrading the pedestrian environment by mandating excessively wide streets and intersections that ultimately only encourage more traffic congestion). These 'mitigation options' are ways to compensate for increased traffic that might be caused by the development and could include projects such as new pedestrian, bicycle, or transit infrastructure and/or programs such as ridesharing, vanpool, or shuttle buses. These options not only mitigate potential traffic congestion, they also provide additional benefits to the community in ways that the single-minded approach of simply requiring roadway expansion around new development does not. |
It should be emphasized that all the potential benefits of using alternative traffic standards and mitigation measures in your community can only be realized if your local government designates an infill opportunity zone within your city or county. To find out how to accomplish this where you live, jump to the 'How to Put this Tool into Action in Your
Community'.
Why use it? Community advocates and neighborhood groups should lobby their local city or county government to identify and designate infill opportunities zones allowed under this new law if they are working towards one or more the following four goals:
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Promoting more transit-oriented, affordable housing in both existing communities and in new development. |
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Encouraging more efficient and compact infill development in order to reduce sprawl and protect open space from development. |
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Addressing problems associated with having too many cars driving too fast on neighborhood streets. |
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Improving biking, walking, and transit conditions in local communities. |
The Infill Opportunity Zone can help your community pursue these goals because the law supercedes the conventional statewide LOS standards within locally-designated 'infill opportunity zones'. As described above, conventional LOS standards often delay or block transit-oriented infill development and make the development of affordable housing located near existing shops, services, and transportation less financially feasible. This is because the conventional standards require any new proposed housing or commercial development to prove that it will not have a significant impact on traffic congestion and to then compensate (or 'mitigate') for any traffic impacts it is predicted to have.
Unfortunately, this mitigation is usually done through road widening, and this single-minded approach can come at the expense of preserving or enhancing bike lanes, sidewalks, crosswalk signals and markings, and lighting, benches, and shelters for transit passengers. Essentially, conventional LOS standards require every new development to improve conditions for automobiles, regardless of how these 'improvements' degrade conditions for everybody else. In this way, traditional LOS mitigation measures often
reduce safety for pedestrians and bicyclists, opposite of what most community members and public officials want to see, especially in areas immediately surrounding transit stops, mixed-use retail districts, and other places where a high level of transit activity is a desired community and policy goal.
A city or county that designates infill opportunity zones promotes transit-oriented, infill housing and a more balanced transportation system. They will also be encouraging transit ridership and enhancing overall community livability by making the physical environment leading to bus stops and train stations more pedestrian- and bike-friendly, thereby improving the cost-effectiveness of transit investments in these areas.
How does it work? Instead of using conventional LOS standards which are solely focused on ensuring that automobiles will be able to maneuver comfortably through traffic, the Infill Opportunity Law enables local jurisdictions to take into consideration the mobility of pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit riders. This allows local officials and community members to look at the transportation impacts of new development more holistically, by considering the impacts of the proposed development on all kinds of transportation modes and developing mitigation measures that benefit all kinds of travelers.
However, this increased flexibility and legal protection from NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) lawsuits- which are sometimes filed in attempt to stop new development because of a perceived fear of increased traffic from the new development- is only available to local jurisdictions that take the following steps:
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The city or county government must designate an infill opportunity zone through the adoption of a resolution. The resolution must state that the infill opportunity zone is consistent with the general plan, with any applicable specific plan, and that the area is zoned for new compact residential or mixed use development. Click
here to check out a sample
resolution. |
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Any proposed development project must occur within the designated infill opportunity zone no more than four years after the date on which the city or county adopted the resolution for that zone. |
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Finally, all infill opportunity zones must be established before December 31, 2009. This means that local governments must actually declare infill opportunity zone(s) and get transit-oriented developments built before the end of 2009 or they lose the ability to do so (unless the law is extended). Because the law sunsets so quickly, community advocates play an extremely important role in making sure that their local governments and developers are aware of all the potential benefits of infill opportunity zones before the law that enables these zones expires. |
 
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