Regional housing: public postsecondary education: changes in enrollment levels: California Environmental Quality Act.

Senator Cabaldon frames a measure that embeds public higher education enrollment dynamics into California’s regional housing and transportation planning processes, weaving university enrollment forecasts into sustainable communities strategies and housing-element methodologies.

The bill would require regional planning to identify areas within each region sufficient to house the population, explicitly accounting for changes in enrollment levels at University of California and California State University campuses within the region. It directs metropolitan planning organizations to identify capacity for housing growth in light of projected enrollment shifts, net migration, and employment growth, and to consider the distribution of students among jurisdictions and the potential for transport and nonvehicle trip efficiency by students to campuses, including off-campus facilities. It would also require the Regents of the University of California and the Trustees of the California State University to provide, no more than six months before developing the housing-allocation methodology for a given cycle, a forecast of enrollment changes within the region and, upon request, trip and travel data. The Department of Finance would be tasked with incorporating these enrollment changes into anticipated regional household growth used for housing needs planning.

In the housing allocation framework, the bill would require councils of governments or their subregions to incorporate the distribution of university students across jurisdictions and to consider transit- and non-vehicle trip efficiency for campus-related travel when developing methodologies for distributing existing and projected housing needs. It would also obligate the public universities to furnish enrollment forecasts and travel data to the state and local planning authorities, and would create a process for public participation and documentation of how each enrollment- and campus-related factor was incorporated into the methodology. The measure would impose a state-mandated local program to implement these expanded duties.

The bill adds a new environmental-approval provision governing campus-led projects, allowing UC and CSU to omit a “no project” environmental review alternative under certain conditions if they have provided enrollment forecasts used to prepare the most recent housing-needs methodology and if the project is consistent with applicable campus enrollment plans or regional transportation strategy acceptance. It adds related amendments to the housing-element and regional-planning statutes to formalize enrollment-forecast considerations and data-sharing obligations, and to require ongoing reporting and alignment with greenhouse gas reduction targets established by the state.