As California brings the gas-powered car era to a close, let's remember: It was just awful enough, at just the right moment, to inspire a revolution in land use regulation.

What's in the future: A lot of talk about low-VMT and high-VMT zones, renewed discussion of TDM, maybe some VMT banks -- and, yes, still a lot of LOS analysis, just not under CEQA.

The annual state planners' conference -- being held right now in Pasadena -- appears to be bigger than ever. >>read more

A developers' group is promoting a new piece of legislation that would postpone implementation of SB 743 – the bill that would change traffic analysis to vehicle miles traveled in environmental review – for a year. The bill has apparently revealed a split among developers who say they focus on infill projects.

Sponsored by Assemblymember Cristina Garcia (D-Norwalk), who was elected in November, Assembly Bill 779 would postpone implementation of SB 743 until 2017. A lobbying group called the Infill Builders Federation is sponsoring a bill that, depending on its final form, would postpone the implementation of SB 743. Supporters insist that they embrace VMT but say that the two years are needed to help developers prepare for the switch and to work out what they see as kinks in the law. (The City of Pasadena has already implemented most of the provisions of SB 743.)