Growth Visioning for the Westside Cities of Los Angeles County, California: Land Use and Transportation Factors Influencing Congestion and Jobs-Housing Imbalances

Sprawl is a significant concern in southern California, where continuous growth on undeveloped land contributes to heavy congestion, poor air quality, long travel times, and costly infrastructure development. By 2030, the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) anticipates an additional 6 million people living in the six-county region of Los Angeles, Riverside, Ventura, San Bernardino, Imperial, and Orange Counties. To plan for this growth in a way that does not deteriorate the region's quality of life, SCAG is working with its 14 subregions on a growth visioning project called the Southern California Compass. Complementary growth visioning efforts have been conducted by SCAG subregions including the westside cities of Beverly Hills, Culver City, Santa Monica, West Hollywood, and a number of unincorporated communities in western Los Angeles County. This study describes the westside cities' growth visioning project and focuses on performance measures, community aspirations, and strategies to accommodate projected growth in a manner specific to the subregion. Performance measures developed with population, household, and employment projections revealed a high jobs-housing ratio and high inbound and outbound commuter traffic levels. Projected growth scenarios will further strain housing, transportation, and community services. Information from performance measures and community input was combined to identify policy options to potentially accommodate growth in the westside cities subregion, in line with the SCAG growth visioning principles of mobility, livability, prosperity, and sustainability.