SANDAG’s Regional Plan is a 30-year blueprint for making our transportation system faster, fairer, and cleaner in the near and long term. It considers how we will grow, where we will live, and how we will move around the region and is the guiding document for much of SANDAG’s work.
We are passionate about transportation, and we believe that mobility—the ability to travel quickly and easily—will drive future economic prosperity, enhance access to opportunities, and improve the overall quality of life for everyone. We’re working to make transportation faster by optimizing traffic flow, fairer by expanding access and affordable options to historically underserved communities, and cleaner by investing in green transportation that will improve air quality and meet climate action mandates.
Updates to the Regional Plan
The plan is updated every four years, allowing us to continually reassess the best way to enhance the quality of life for everyone in our region for generations to come.
Updates to the Regional Plan use a data-driven planning process and feedback from stakeholders to develop innovative solutions to our region’s transportation challenges. We have listened to and implemented significant input from our diverse communities, the Board and Policy Advisory Committees, working groups, and partner agencies. Recommendations provided by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) in their “Evaluation of the San Diego Association of Governments’ SB 375 2021 Sustainable Communities Strategy” also provide critical input.
The 2021 Regional Plan was adopted by the Board of Directors on December 10, 2021. In FY 2025, we will continue our robust engagement process to bring along all stakeholders at every stage of the process as we draft the 2025 Regional Plan and Environmental Impact Report.
Components of the Regional Plan
The Regional Plan is three documents in one: the Regional Transportation Plan (RTP), the Sustainable Communities Strategy (SCS), and the Regional Comprehensive Plan (RCP).
An RTP is a federal- and state-mandated planning document prepared by Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) and Regional Transportation Planning Agencies (RTPAs). SANDAG is the designed MPO and RTPA for the San Diego region. The plan describes existing and projected transportation needs, conditions, and financing affecting all modes of transportation over a planning period of at least 20 years.
An SCS is a state-mandated component of an RTP added by Senate Bill 375 in September 2008. It integrates transportation, land use, and housing into the planning process to reduce regional greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from cars and light trucks.
An RCP is a state-mandated planning document based on local general and regional plans that integrates land uses, transportation systems, infrastructure needs, and public investment strategies within a regional framework, in cooperation with member agencies and the public.
