Located on the Central Coast of California, Santa Barbara County contains eight incorporated cities, and the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians, a federally recognized tribal government located in the Santa Ynez Valley. SBCAG intends to work collaboratively to complete a regional land use model update to be incorporated into the next update of SBCAG's Regional Transportation Plan-Sustainable Communities Strategy (RTP-SCS). The Land Use Model will replace the UPlan model.

The Land Use Model will support several on-going planning initiatives and priorities within the RTP-SCS, including:

A sketch-planning tool to support alternative growth scenarios and enhanced visualization techniques in public-decision making environments. This is a blueprint for forecasting the region’s future development pattern including: the ability to support the Regional Growth Forecast, Regional Housing Needs Allocation, and local jurisdictions’ Housing Element processes by incorporating estimates of housing demand and capacity.
A Regional Greenprint that addresses coordination amongst local, regional and state conservation and natural resource agencies to identify resource and farmland areas in the county that will be limited from further residential and commercial development in the Sustainable Communities Strategy.
Support of SBCAG’s Regional Travel Demand Model; the Land Use Model output data will serve as input data for the SBCAG Regional Travel Demand Model.

SBCAG will leverage its role as the Metropolitan Planning Organization / Regional Transportation Planning Agency (MPO/RTPA) to facilitate coordination at the local and regional level for this project. This will be accomplished primarily through on-going coordination with the project working group – SBCAG’s Technical Planning Advisory Committee (TPAC). TPAC will review and assist with the project by providing existing data (where applicable), reviewing deliverables, and providing valuable insight and local knowledge.

In summary, SBCAG seeks consultant services to acquire a Land Use Model, to build the Land Use Model, to replicate existing conditions in Santa Barbara County, and to update the Regional Greenprint. The consultant will ensure the Land Use Model provides for seamless connectivity between the land use model and SBCAG’s Regional Travel Demand Model and will train staff on the operations and maintenance of the new land use model. The final product will meet SBCAG’s requirements under Senate Bill 375 (Steinberg, 2008). (collectively referred to as “project”.)