ABOUT THE STUDY

The key objective of the Mobility and Infill Acceleration Study (MIAS) is the identification of strategies to reduce vehicle miles traveled (VMT) in Placer County, thereby benefitting air quality and providing other ancillary social benefits, particularly improvements in general community health. These strategies will focus on land use interventions (e.g., changes in density or intensity, changes in land use mix or type, changes in spatial organization) or transportation interventions (e.g., enhanced transit services and facilities, improved active transportation facilities). They will also account for factors that will enable, facilitate, or accelerate change (e.g., infrastructure availability, policy support, market incentives). While identification of these strategies addresses the “what” part of the equation, an equally important challenge is addressing the “where” part of the equation. To do that, the MIAS Project Team (both County staff and Consultant Team) has identified five “Infill Opportunity Areas” in the unincorporated county where intervention strategies and enabling actions could reduce VMT and provide the associated benefits. These five areas, which represent a range of settings and unique challenges and opportunities, are as follows:

North Auburn—Bell Road

North Auburn—Luther Road

Newcastle

Penryn Parkway

Granite Bay

The MIAS project will evaluate the suitability of various land use and transportation interventions in each of these opportunity areas, as well as actions that might facilitate or accelerate desired outcomes. Based on the findings of these evaluations, the County will identify opportunities for planning policies and programs that could apply in the opportunity areas, as well as elsewhere in the unincorporated county. The end result will be a set of recommendations for consideration in future Countywide General Plan and/or community plan updates.