Placer County Mobility and Infill Acceleration Study

Green DOT teamed with Lagomarsino Planning and Management and Hansford Economic Consulting to produce the Placer County Mobility and Infill Acceleration Study (MIAS). The key objective of the Placer County MIAS was the identification of strategies to reduce vehicle miles traveled (VMT) in Placer County, thereby improving air quality and providing other ancillary social benefits, particularly improvements in general community health. These strategies focused on land use interventions (e.g., changes in density or intensity, changes in land use mix or type, changes in spatial organization) and transportation interventions (e.g., enhanced transit services and facilities, improved active transportation facilities). The strategies also accounted for factors that looked to enable, facilitate, or accelerate change (e.g., infrastructure availability, policy support, market incentives). While identification of these strategies addressed the “what” part of the equation, an equally important challenge was to address the “where” part of the equation. To do that, the Green DOT and the MIAS Project Team 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 represented 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 evaluated 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 identified opportunities for planning policies and programs that could apply in the opportunity areas, as well as elsewhere in the unincorporated county. The study resulted with a set of recommendations for consideration in future Countywide General Plan and/or community plan updates.