Southern California Association of Governments: Los Angeles, California

SERVICES USED ON THIS PROJECT INCLUDE:
	Environmental Compliance

Sapphos Environmental Inc. was retained by the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) to assist in data-modeling updates for the Las Virgenes / Malibu subregion. The objective of the data-modeling updates for the Las Virgenes / Malibu subregion was to provide SCAG with an updated shapefile that reflected the most recent changes to general plan land use elements of each jurisdiction in the subregion, including the most up-to-date unique land use codes and detailed descriptions by jurisdiction, residential and nonresidential densities, the dates that each land use element was adopted, and the expected dates when the next update of the land use element will be adopted. The jurisdictions within the Las Virgenes / Malibu subregion include the Cities of Westlake Village, Agoura Hills, Calabasas, Hidden Hills, and Malibu, and the County of Los Angeles.

It was important to ensure that the data were accurate and up-to-date; that the data matched with SCAG land use and density classifications; that the process for the data update was well documented, including a data dictionary and spatial metadata; and that the shapefile was in the SCAG-approved coordinate system of UTM, NAD 83, meters. The general plan land use shapefile was street-centerline based and had a topological data structure. Sapphos Environmental, Inc. coordinated with each partner jurisdiction to obtain their most recent versions of the land use element of their general plans. Land use elements from each city were scanned and georeferenced to overlay the original SCAG shapefile. The new land use codes were compared with the original SCAG shapefile, and spatial boundaries and land use code attributes were checked. In addition, land use codes from each city were compared with the 13 SCAG land use codes. Each city land use designation was given a SCAG land use designation. Fields in the attribute table were populated based on each city’s general plan land use element: FIPS code, median density, low density, high density, SCAG land use code, and year adopted. After the land use elements were collected and analyzed, Sapphos Environmental, Inc. worked with SCAG to reconcile the unique land use codes from each jurisdiction with SCAG generalized land use codes and to reconcile SCAG residential and nonresidential density designations with the density designations of the partner jurisdictions in the Las Virgenes / Malibu subregion. To complete the project, Sapphos Environmental, Inc. used ArcGIS software from Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI). The use of ArcGIS facilitated the creation of an initial geodatabase with topological relationships that include street centerline data at the top of the geodatabase topology hierarchy.