President’s Report – Year in Review: 2021-2022
This report summarizes the accomplishments of SCAG during President Clint Lorimore’s term covering the period 2021-2022. The featured accomplishments highlight the agency’s extensive work to identify and address the needs of the region and promote sustainability, prosperity, and quality of life improvements for all Southern Californians.
Download the President's Report - Year in Review: 2021-2022.
American Community Survey Data in Southern California
A First Look at 2016-2020
After delays due to the pandemic’s impact on survey response rates, the U.S. Census Bureau released the long-awaited American Community Survey (ACS) 2016-2020 5-Year sample on March 17, 2022. While the release is the first to include survey results from 2020, SCAG is not expecting to get complete 1-year data for 2020. Only select data sets are available, and none are available for geographies smaller than states.
Wilmington Freight Mitigation Study
SCAG, in collaboration with the City of Los Angeles, Port of Los Angeles, and Caltrans, commissioned this transportation planning study to achieve two primary objectives: (1) assess the impacts of increased truck travel on a disadvantaged community in the Wilmington area of Los Angeles and (2) recommend both traffic and general land use mitigations to improve the quality of life for residents in this community.
The Wilmington Freight Mitigation Study focused on the traffic impacts associated with the permanent closure of two private railroad crossings at Lomita Boulevard between Eubank Avenue and Alameda Street in the City of Wilmington, California. The study area, bounded by Lomita Boulevard to the north, Drumm Avenue to the east, Pacific Coast Highway to the south, and Sanford Avenue to the west, already experiences high truck traffic due to the surrounding industrial land uses and proximity to the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. The closure of the rail crossings potentially further exacerbates this condition by changing the truck travel patterns from a direct connection to Lomita from Alameda to various alternative routes.
For a more in-depth look into what drove the study process and exactly how it was developed, please see the full report available below.
2021 Regional Briefing Book
Released in conjunction with the 12th Annual Southern California Economic Summit, held virtually on Dec. 2, 2021, this year’s Regional Briefing Book provides an overview of the SCAG region economy today, as well as an outlook for the counties. There is also an assessment and discussion on incorporating equity in SCAG’s long-term planning, as well as preliminary research into what drives good jobs in U.S. regions to help develop measures and strategies to promote good jobs in Southern California.
Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) Potential in the SCAG Region
Promoting accessory dwelling units (ADUs) construction is an increasingly viable option for addressing the region’s housing needs. To support ADU planning, SCAG has collaborated with Cal Poly Pomona’s Department of Urban and Regional Planning to identify parcels with potential for detached ADUs based on physical capacity using criteria from recently amended State law and parcel-level geospatial data from SCAG. The 6th cycle housing element requirements involve estimating ADU development potential, removing barriers to their development, and programs incentivizing ADUs including affordable rental ADUs.
This project comprehensively examines the physical ADU capacity of sites in the six-county SCAG region, focusing only on detached ADUs. ADU eligibility and physical capacity under a range of local policy scenarios have been incorporated into the Housing Element Parcel (HELPR) tool to enable users to screen sites based on this study’s criteria. Part of SCAG’s regional data platform, the HELPR tool allows users to explore and analyze over five million parcels in the SCAG region based on updated, curated versions of parcel-level land use data in light of recent housing element requirements.
Download the Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) Potential in the SCAG Region report.
President’s Report – Year in Review: 2020-2021
This report summarizes the accomplishments of SCAG during President Rex Richardson’s term covering the period 2020-2021. The featured accomplishments highlight the agency’s extensive work to identify and address the needs of the region and promote sustainability, prosperity, and quality of life improvements for all Southern Californians.
Download the President's Report - Year in Review: 2020-2021.
Racial Equity: Baseline Conditions Report
In July 2020, SCAG’s Regional Council made a commitment to advancing justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion throughout Southern California. For the region to become healthy, livable, sustainable, and economically resilient, SCAG needs to dramatically improve outcomes for low-income families and people of color. To that end, SCAG’s core function, its planning work, must directly address the long‐standing systemic and institutional barriers that have fostered inequities in health, wealth, and opportunities. SCAG staff are developing an Early Action Plan to help facilitate the consistent integration of equity into its planning work. The purpose of this report is to highlight past transportation and housing policies and practices that yielded the inequitable conditions that exist today and provide a preliminary baseline assessment of racial equity in Southern California to inform future planning. These inequitable conditions fall into categories aligned with the goals of SCAG’s long-range plan, Connect SoCal: economy, healthy/complete communities, mobility, and environment.
Download the Racial Equity: Baseline Conditions Report (March 24, 2021 Revision).
Regional Briefing Book
SCAG’s Economic Summit began in the wake of the Great Recession as a convening to expand the region’s economic base and to determine priorities for the region that help businesses, public agencies, and communities improve economic vitality.
However, 2020 has brought increased recognition that improving economic health and achieving equity will require broader approaches that address social, economic, and environmental factors that influence the economy in the wake of recent events, including those related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Relatedly, there are a growing number of emerging initiatives which provide the building blocks to address systemic institutionalized racial inequities. Many challenges remain to address racial disparity within an inclusive economic development strategy.
This briefing book represents a first step toward a more comprehensive framework for an inclusive economic recovery.
It is comprised of five parts: 1.) State of the SCAG Region Economy & Outlook; 2.) Modeling the Economic Impacts of COVID-19 Through FY 2021; 3.) Centering Racial Equity as a Driver for Economic Recovery; 4.) Conclusions & Next Steps; 5.) Appendix: County Insights
Download the Regional Briefing Book, December 2020
Last-Mile Freight Delivery Study
The purpose of the Last-Mile Freight Delivery Study is to increase understanding of last-mile delivery issues for the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) and its member cities by examining the relationship between last-mile access conditions, the delivery of goods, and the role of last-mile delivery in the overall transportation system.
The study serves as a foundational approach and assesses the use of curb areas for deliveries, and the magnitude of other curb uses competing for curb space in the study area of the City of Los Angeles. It provides findings based on field data collection, analyses, and stakeholder discussions.
Recommendations are included for blocks in case study areas, pilot project concepts, policy considerations, and a Toolbox of Strategies for cities throughout the SCAG region to utilize when faced with their own unique delivery challenges.
Extreme Heat & Public Health Report
This report covers the public health ramifications of extreme heat, as well as vulnerabilities, best practices, and policies, plans, and strategies in place in the SCAG region. The report also touches on interventions and strategies, heat response plans and adaptation and mitigation strategies outside of the SCAG region, and recommendations.
Download the Extreme Heat & Public Health Report.