January 25, 2019
The common practice of restricting infill development based on its impact on roadway level of service (LOS) has for decades depressed green, efficient compact development and induced energy-intensive, costly sprawl. Now many cities are moving to reform their land-use review process to lessen the emphasis on LOS, and instead to focus on system-wide impacts from development, as measured in vehicle-miles traveled (VMT). One of those cities – Pasadena, Calif. – pioneered the move away from LOS in 2015 and now has several years applying it to projects. (Spoiler alert: That experience is mostly good.) One of the heroes in that reform effort is Pasadena’s DOT director, Fred Dock. He joined us for a webinar that retraces Pasadena’s footsteps in developing the new policy and provides an evaluation based on three years of implementation.