SB 375 requires the State’s 18 metropolitan areas, including the Bay Area, to develop strategies to reduce transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions. The law requires that the current Regional Transportation Plan (RTP), Plan Bay Area, include a Sustainable Communities Strategy (SCS) which promotes compact, mixed-use commercial and residential development. To meet the goals of SB 375 more of the future development is planned to be walkable and bikable and close to public transit, jobs, schools, shopping, parks, recreation and other amenities.
To help achieve the goals of the SCS, the nine Bay Area counties have gone through a self identification process where they have voluntarily designated Priority Development Areas (PDAs) in their jurisdictions that can accommodate a majority of their future growth. The purpose of a PDA Investment and Growth Strategy is to ensure that CMAs understand the opportunities and barriers to develop PDAs in the region - in particular-what transportation investments should be made to best achieve and support the PDA’s housing goals. The Napa County PDA development strategy will be a living document to assist in priority-setting for transportation funding such as the One Bay Area Grant (OBAG) program, which supports and encourages development in the region’s PDAs. Recognizing the diversity of Napa County’s PDAs will require different strategies than other parts of the Bay Area.
The PDA process requires an inventory of the the current conditions within the PDA, documentation of any planning that has already occurred, and identification of the planning and capital needsthe PDA. There are two identified PDAs in Napa County, one in the City of Napa and one in the City of American Canyon, each with particular development potential and site specific needs. Both Napa County PDAs include various levels of planning for development and growth, such as specific plans, area plans, master plans, redevelopment plans, or more detailed section of general plans that have been adopted by the city council, and related California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) review.
Due to time constraints and available data, the recent update (2021) to the Napa PDA Investment and Growth Strategy document focuses primarily on the existing conditions of the PDAs within Napa County and what future transportation infrastructure and strategies are needed to help PDAs meet its goals. The plan is intended to guide Congestion Management Agencies, such as NVTA, to monitor more closely land use policies and development within its jurisdictions to help achieve the goals of Plan Bay Area such as reduction of Green House Gases (GHGs) and encouraging transit rich developments proximal to affordable housing. Topics addressed in this PDA assessment may include: current development status, pipeline projects, investment strategies, community support, transportation assets, bike and pedestrian infrastructure, incentives to attract market development, etc. The PDA Investment and Growth Strategy Update is due to MTC by May 31, 2022 as part of the OBAG 3 process. NVTA completed a Draft Update to the PDA Investment and Growth Strategy which was open for comment and accepted and filed by the NVTA Board at its January 19, 2022 meeting.