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Sample Letter: Better Transportation Planning (SB 375)

The Honorable [Your Assemblymember]
State Capitol
Sacramento, CA 95814

Dear Assemblymember:

I’m writing to urge you to support Senate Bill 375 (Steinberg), which focuses on improving California’s housing and transportation planning in order to reduce fossil fuel consumption and conserve farmlands and habitat. This legislation is vitally important to accomplishing goals set forth in last year’s Global Warming Solutions Act (AB 32), because greenhouse gas emissions associated with land use are the single largest sector of emissions in California.

The California EPA reports that better land use planning, which includes creating alternative choices for transportation, will achieve the largest emission reductions of any global warming remedy. SB 375 provides a path for better planning by providing incentives to develop housing closer to where people work and go to school, allowing them to reduce vehicle miles traveled (VMT) every year.

SB 375 would:

• Require the regional governing bodies in the state’s major metropolitan areas to adopt “preferred growth scenarios.” The scenarios promote planning that includes smart growth principles, making it easier for people to drive less.
• Create an incentive for the preferred growth scenario to be implemented by awarding transportation funding only for projects that are consistent with the preferred growth scenario.
• Require more sophisticated transportation planning that will more accurately account for the impacts of land use choices on transportation. Current plans don’t take into account the environmental benefits and VMT reductions from development projects that reduce sprawl.

It’s clear that California is growing. Even conservative models predict population growth to be 7 to 11 million new residents by the year 2025. To accommodate this growth we need more housing—but we must build it intelligently.

Please support SB 375 and help California accommodate our growing population and address global warming at the same time.

Sincerely,

Your Name
Your Registered Voting Address
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