As part of the State’s Cap and Trade Program, the California Strategic Growth Council (SGC) has released its call for projects for Cycle 2 of the Affordable Housing & Sustainable Communities (AHSC) Program. The program estimates having $320 million available in 2015/16. Background information may be found at the SGC website. 

The AHSC program focus is to promote projects that:

• Result in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and vehicle miles travelled through land use, housing, transportation, and agricultural land preservation practice that support infill and compact development; and
• Increase accessibility of housing, employment centers and key destinations through low-carbon transportation options such as walking, biking and transit.

Given the condensed application timeline, restrictiveness of AHSC project eligibility, and complexity of emission calculations, SACOG is providing technical assistance to eligible applicants in the region. The scope of this technical assistance includes providing feedback during the development of concept proposal ideas, information about AHSC scoring critera and SACOG’s ranking methodology, and guidance and modeling for greenhouse gas emissions reduction quantification using CalEEMod and the Transportation and Connectivity methods.

Additional resources for AHSC applicants include:

• Maps of the potential AHSC project areas for Transit-Oriented Development (TOD), Integrated Connectivity Projects (ICP), and Rural Innovation Project Areas (RIPA) .
• List of Round 2 projects invited to submit a Full Application (5/24/2016).