Cultivating Cooperation without Control: A Study of California's MPO-Driven Smart Growth Programs

Abstract

California’s Sustainable Communities and Climate Protection Act of 2008 (SB375) establishes a new framework for the metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) that plan and allocate federal funding for regional transportation investments in California. MPOs must plan for transportation investments that would support land use and development patterns to reduce automobile reliance and transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions; this plan is called the Sustainable Communities Strategy (SCS). MPOs themselves have no direct control, however, over land use and development patterns. SB375 anticipates that they will instead leverage the federal transportation funds at their disposal to incentivize local land use decisions compatible with their SCS (and ultimately SB 375 GHG reduction goals). Four longstanding MPO-driven programs to encourage smart growth in the state’s four largest metropolitan regions are examined to determine whether such incentives are likely to achieve the desired results.

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