Pasadena to Preview Its First Environmental Justice Element for Transportation Advisory Commission

The Pasadena Transportation Advisory Commission will receive a staff presentation Sept. 24 on the city’s work to prepare its first Environmental Justice Element, a new General Plan element meant to address disparities in pollution, housing, food access and public services across Pasadena neighborhoods.

State law drives the work. In 2016, Gov. Brown signed the Planning for Healthy Communities Act, Senate Bill 1000, directing cities to adopt an environmental justice element or fold such policies into their general plans. The law took effect in 2018 and requires local governments to identify disadvantaged communities and address environmental justice.

To pinpoint neighborhoods carrying the heaviest environmental, social and economic burdens, staff are using two screening tools, CalEnviroScreen and the Healthy Places Index. The state treats census tracts scoring 75 or higher on CalEnviroScreen as environmental justice communities. A preliminary boundary has been mapped and could shift with community input, the department says. A survey in English and Spanish has drawn about 355 responses.

The presentation, an information item, will be delivered by the Planning & Community Development Department. As an advisory body, the commission takes no binding action; the element itself would move through the Planning Commission and the City Council, which retains final authority over whether to adopt it.

Need to Know: The Transportation Advisory Commission meets Thursday, Sept. 24, at 4 p.m. in the Grand Conference Room S038, in the basement of City Hall, 100 North Garfield Avenue, in Pasadena. The meeting is open to the public. For more, call (626) 744-7311 or visit https://www.cityofpasadena.net/commissions/agendas/. Residents can also weigh in at a Neighborhood Walk and Roll on Oct. 3 at Robinson Park Recreation Center; register at bit.ly/EJwalkshop2.