The Regional Development Impact Fee program, as adopted by the Transportation Agency Board of Directors and each of the jurisdictions, went into effect in August 2008. Prior to the adoption of the regional fee program, development proposals were evaluated on a case-by-case basis for cumulative impacts to the regional transportation network as part of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) review. This process resulted in, at times, lengthy negotiations with developers, and assessments were not consistently applied throughout the County. The purpose of establishing a county-wide Regional Fee program was to streamline the environmental review of new development, and establish a consistent methodology to assess in-lieu fees as a CEQA mitigation for new trips on the regional transportation system.

In 2013 and 2018, the nexus study for the regional fee program was updated, per the state’s Mitigation Fee Act. The 2018 update, approved by the Transportation Agency Board in September 2018, was based upon a set of regionally-significant projects identified and environmentally reviewed in the 2018 Monterey County Regional Transportation Plan and its accompanying CEQA Findings. The regionally-significant projects in the Regional Transportation Plan will be incorporated into the next analysis conducted as part of the Metropolitan Transportation Plan / Sustainable Communities Strategy. The Sustainable Communities Strategy demonstrates the land use and transportation measures used to meet the region's greenhouse gas emission reduction targets as established by the California Air Resources Board.

In December, 2018, pursuant to Senate Bill 743, the Office of Planning and Research adopted changes to the CEQA Guidelines that identified new metrics for transportation analysis, including Vehicle Miles Traveled (“VMT”) on a per capita, per employee, and net VMT basis. The prior metric utilized to evaluate the impact of projects was whether or not the project increased traffic Levels of Service above a locally-set threshold, defined according to a letter grade system of A (no traffic) through F (stop and go). The purpose of this change was to focus on reducing the creation of new trips and miles traveled rather than accommodating them with new travel lanes. The new VMT metrics went into effect on July 1, 2020. The Office of Planning and Research acknowledges that this change was intended to achieve general consistency with both the Caltrans statewide target for VMT reduction and the regional targets for greenhouse gas emissions reductions established under Senate Bill 375.

The Transportation Agency, through a contract with Kimley-Horn, has been assisting local jurisdictions with the development of vehicle miles traveled thresholds, screening maps and travel demand management strategies/trip reduction strategies to meet the requirements of Senate Bill 743.  Transportation Agency staff have also been exploring options for updating the regional fee program to maintain consistency with Senate Bill 743 and transition to an analysis of a development's vehicle miles traveled impacts rather than level of service.  The next update to the program is required to be completed by August 2023 and the Agency is proposing to begin this work next fiscal year.  During the April Committee meeting, Agency staff will present potential options and request feedback from jurisdictions on the implementation of their Senate Bill 743 mitigation tools and how the regional fee program could assist with new development meeting its mitigation requirements.