IRVINE : Residents to Debate Transportation Law
A proposed law aimed at getting businesses to reduce the number of car trips by their employees will go before the public several times this week at City Hall.
Five public meetings have been scheduled today through Wednesday to let residents and business owners in the city hear about and discuss the merits of the proposed law.
If the City Council passes the proposal as written, it would be the strictest set of rules yet in Southern California to get workers out of their private cars and into car pools or other methods of transportation, said Douglas C. Reilly, executive director of the Irvine Transportation Authority. The law, which would apply to businesses with 25 or more employees, would affect about 80% of the city’s workers, Reilly said.
Current South Coast Air Quality Management District laws require Southern California businesses with 100 or more employees in one location to try to persuade their workers to use car pools, buses, bicycles or any other method to get to work rather than their private cars.
Those businesses must write a plan showing how they will cut the number of cars driven to work by about 34% in one year. They also must appoint a person to coordinate the effort.
Irvine’s proposed law would, over a period of years, phase in those same requirements to businesses employing 25 or more, Reilly said.
The city came up with the idea because of an earlier commitment to reduce traffic in the Irvine Business Center, an employment hub near John Wayne Airport. Also, Reilly said, state and local requirements eventually will require nearly every city in the region to formulate a similar transportation plan like the one being proposed in Irvine.
The first hearing on the proposed law, scheduled for 10 a.m. today, will be aimed at businesses with 100 or more employees. A meeting for the general public will be held at 7 p.m.
Tuesday, a meeting for developers and building owners will take place at 8 a.m. On Wednesday, employers with fewer than 100 employees may attend meetings at 8 a.m. and at 6 p.m. All meetings will be held at the Irvine Civic Center.
The city sent out 9,000 letters to all registered business in the city announcing the meetings, Reilly said. The public meetings will be a good chance for people who would be affected by the proposed law to learn about it, he said.
