Breakfast Briefing: Rating  System for Transportation

STARS: SCCRTC’s ‘LEED’ Equivalent

The Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission (SCCRTC) is assisting in development of a new project planning and evaluation tool similar to the leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) process used to evaluate building projects. The Sustainable Transportation Access Rating System (STARS) is a scorecard-type system being developed by a team of transportation professionals in Portland, OR and other Pacific Northwest communities.

George Dondero, SCCRTC Executive Director, and members of the SCCRTC staff will discuss this system at a Chamber Breakfast Briefing June 15, describing how it might affect Santa Cruz County Transportation planning. Currently in the development stage, STARS will be used to inform the design of the Highway 1 High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) Lane project (http://www.sccrtc.org/hov.html )/  The STARS work on this project is expected to be completed in 2011.

STARS will incorporate an array of sustainability measures at the project level with the goal of quantifying and evaluating:

·         Improvements in access for people and goods

·         Optimization of the benefit-to-cost ratio of potential project strategies

·         Reductions in climate impacts and energy use

Join us Tuesday, June 15, from 7:30 to 9:00 a.m. at the Santa Cruz Chamber, 611 Ocean Street, Suite 1. Cost of $15 for Chamber members, $25 for non-members. A light breakfast is included.

Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission - "STARS" Environmental Impact Analysis of Transportation Projects

Breakfast Briefings are held each month with a wide range of topics from the local economy, local issues and state-wide influences on the local level.