2000 Grant Recipient Information
California

Community and Environmental Transportation Acceptability Process (CETAP)
Riverside County, California

Abstract

Riverside County, located within the southeastern sector of the Greater Los Angeles metropolitan area , is embarking on, a comprehensive, innovative effort to address serious traffic congestion, habitat conservation, open space, transportation and land-use issues. The process, known as the Riverside County Integrated Planning (RCIP) process, is bringing together an array of stakeholder groups around three integrated and coordinated activities: the preparation of a new Riverside County General Plan; the development of the Western Riverside County Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan (MSHCP), and the Community and Environmental Transportation Acceptability Process (CETAP). CETAP is targeted at identifying and preserving rights-of-ways for needed transportation corridors in the western portion of the County, irrespective of mode. We are requesting $1 million through the TCSP Pilot Program to support the completion of the CETAP portion of this implementation planning effort.

The development of all three efforts are being conducted simultaneously and while not unique as stand alone efforts, together they provide significant opportunities to incorporate real world trade offs necessary to balance habitat, open space, development and transportation corridor decisions.

Riverside County is the fastest growing large county in California, and one of the fastest growing within the United States. The Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) projects that our population will double from 1.4 million to 2.8 million over the next 20 years. This is equal to the current population of the State of Iowa and greater than the individual populations of over half of all the States in the Nation.

The population of Riverside County is 62% White, 29% Hispanic, 5.3% African American and 3.7% Asian and has an increasingly high percentage of elderly people. The median household income of $46,500 is lower than elsewhere in the Los Angeles region and lower than the State median of $52,600. Faced with this rapid growth and diversity of population, Riverside County is struggling to preserve its distinctive sense of place, the habitats in hills and mountains, its wetlands and riparian area, and the over 100 rare, threatened, sensitive and endangered species found here.

In essence what we are doing with the Integrated Planning Effort is "breaking the mold" and replacing it with a brand new model. The benefits include:

Traditional Approach

• Separate linear planning process
• Asphalt (roads) first
• Government driven
• Responds to special interest
• Conflict inevitable
• Reactive
• Timeframe: Decades
• Compromises quality of life
• No cost sharing

Riverside County Approach

• Integrated process
• Environment first
• Stakeholder driven
• Supported by data and science
• Consensus building
• Proactive
• Timeframe: Years
• Enhances quality of life
• Local, state, federal responsibility

The CETAP work will provide significant data to assist Riverside County in its long-range decisions regarding transportation, land use, biological resources and related issues. It is anticipated that up to four key corridors will be identified for detailed evaluation. A working paper will be developed defining problems, issues, and conditions specific to each of the corridors. After development of evaluation criteria to assess transportation alternatives within each corridor, specific alternatives will be analyzed. The final products for CETAP will include Design Concept Reports for up to four projects or corridors with sufficient detail to establish grade and alignment right-of-ways and areas of potential effect. Final Project Study Report documents will be prepared for the preferred alternative and incorporated in a Tier I Environmental Impact Report/Environmental Impact Statement (EIR/EIS).

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