Description: Senate Bill (SB) 743, signed into law on 9/27/2013, provides opportunities for California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) exemption and streamlining to facilitate transit-oriented development. Specifically, certain types of projects within the “transit priority areas” could benefit from a CEQA exemption if it is also consistent with an adopted specific plan and the regional Sustainable Communities Strategy. In addition, aesthetic and parking impacts of certain infill projects within a transit priority area shall not be considered significant impacts on the environment. The State Office of Planning and Research (OPR) is required to develop guidelines for streamlined CEQA analysis for transportation impacts of projects within transit priority areas (draft by July 1, 2014). Finally, SB 743 also provides congestion management plan relief for a larger infill opportunity zone. SB 743 focuses the CEQA exemption and other streamlining opportunities in areas with good transit access, i.e. “Transit Priority Areas (TPAs).”As defined in SB 743, “Transit Priority Area” means an area within one-half mile of a major transit stop that is existing or planned, if the planned stop is scheduled to be completed within the planning horizon included in a Transportation Improvement Program adopted pursuant to Section 450.216 or 450.322 of Title 23 of the Code of Federal Regulations. To assist in identifying the transit priority areas, SCAG identifies the major transit stops and their surrounding areas in one-half mile radius distance. Major transit stops are extracted from 2012 planned year data in the 2012-2035 RTP/SCS Amendment #1. The definition of major transit stops is as follows: Major transit stop A site containing a rail transit station, a ferry terminal served by either a bus or rail transit service, or the intersection of two or more major bus routes with a frequency of service interval of 15 minutes or less during the morning and afternoon peak commute periods (CA Public Resource Code Section 21064.3). It also includes major transit stops that are included in the applicable regional transportation plan. Please note that this map is still in draft form and may undergo changes as SCAG continues to update its transportation network. Updates to this information will be forthcoming as information becomes available.