SUBJECT
Title
A RESOLUTION SUBMITTING THE ANNUAL REPORT OF THE COUNTY’S MAINTAINED ROADS - 2025, TO THE STATE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION AND RELATED CEQA FINDING (DISTRICTS: ALL)
Body
OVERVIEW
The County of San Diego (County) Department of Public Works (DPW) is responsible for ensuring County-maintained roads in the unincorporated region are safe, reliable, and well-maintained to serve the public and help ensure safe and thriving communities. The annual report that totals road mileage of County-maintained roads is used by the State to calculate the annual distribution of gas tax funds to counties and cities statewide. State gas tax funding is key to ensuring DPW can annually fund operations, maintenance, and new capital projects for the County-maintained roadway network and the other services DPW provides.
The California Streets and Highways Code requires the County to annually submit to the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) any additions or exclusions of mileage of County-maintained roads. The last County annual update to Caltrans was approved by the Board of Supervisors (Board) on April 9, 2025 (3) and certified by Caltrans shortly after. Since the last certification, the total mileage of County-maintained roads has increased by 0.15 centerline miles through amendments to various segments. The changes resulted from administrative corrections, new construction, improvements, and annexations affecting 54 road segments. Of those, 28 road segments were constructed by private developers and accepted by the County into the roadway network.
Today’s request is to adopt a resolution to submit the County’s annual report of road mileage to Caltrans. Upon Board approval, the Resolution will be submitted to Caltrans to certify the newly reported road mileage to the State Controller. Every year, Caltrans distributes the gas tax to local governments. Total road mileage determines the County’s share of State gas tax funding. Gas tax supports the maintenance of the county-maintained roadways and associated infrastructure. Not submitting the County’s Annual Report of the Maintained Roads would jeopardize funding for this critical need. These changes have already been finalized throughout the year, and the Resolution is to formally report those finalized changes to the State.
RECOMMENDATION(S)
CHIEF ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER
1. Find that the proposed action is not subject to review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) pursuant to Sections 15060 and 15378 of the State CEQA Guidelines, as the action does not meet the definition of a “project.” Specifically, the action constitutes a general administrative activity that does not involve commitment to a specific project and will not result in a physical change in the environment.
2. Adopt a Resolution entitled: A RESOLUTION OF THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS OF THE COUNTY OF SAN DIEGO SUBMITTING THE ANNUAL REPORT OF THE COUNTY’S MAINTAINED ROADS - 2025, TO THE STATE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION.
EQUITY IMPACT STATEMENT
The review and updating of the County of San Diego’s annual roadway mileage supports the ability to receive the correct amount of allocated State gas tax funding. This funding is used to maintain Department of Public Works (DPW) operations and fund improvement projects that benefit the public within the unincorporated areas of the region. When evaluating projects, DPW uses the Healthy Places Index and CalEnviroScreen 4.0 in the project prioritization process to ensure our most vulnerable and underserved populations are prioritized. DPW uses a project prioritization ranking process to identify and implement projects to ensure an equitable distribution of projects with a focus on improving underserved communities.
SUSTAINABILITY IMPACT STATEMENT
The proposal to transmit the County of San Diego’s (County) annual report of road mileage to Caltrans has economic and social sustainability benefits. This action supports the sustainability initiatives of the County by correctly accounting for all mileage in the County-maintained road system, which allows the County to receive the correct amount of allocated State gas tax funding. This funding can be used for roadway maintenance and improvements that use sustainable practices. The Department of Public Works (DPW) currently uses 25% reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) in asphalt concrete resurfacing operations. This effort has already recycled more than 350,000 tons of old, deteriorated pavement into new asphalt concrete roads, which furthers the County’s sustainability goals of increased recycling and providing just and equitable access to County services to everyone in the region.
FISCAL IMPACT
There is no fiscal impact associated with these recommendations. There will be no change in net General Fund costs and no additional staff years. Failing to submit the County’s Annual Report of Maintained Road mileage would jeopardize funding for public works infrastructure like roadways, culverts, sidewalks, and traffic signals.
BUSINESS IMPACT STATEMENT
N/A
Details
ADVISORY BOARD STATEMENT
The Resolution Submitting the Annual Report of the County’s Maintained Roads - 2025 (Resolution) is an informational item to report the Annual Report of the total mileage of the County of San Diego’s Maintained Roadway System to the State Controller at the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans).
BACKGROUND
The County of San Diego (County) Department of Public Works (DPW) is responsible for ensuring the County-maintained roads in the unincorporated county are safe, reliable, and well-maintained to serve the public and help ensure safe and thriving communities. DPW uses the Land Use and Environment Group Enterprise Asset Management System (LEAMS) to track roadway information, including the total mileage of County-maintained roads. LEAMS relies on Geographic Information System (GIS) data for accurate tracking, certifying, and reporting changes in County-maintained road mileage. The California Streets and Highways Code requires the County to annually submit to the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) any additions or exclusions of the mileage for County-maintained roads. Total road mileage is one factor the State uses annually to calculate the statewide distribution of gas tax funds, which are levied on each gallon of gas sold in the State and used for roadway maintenance and improvements. The last certified report to the State Controller listed 1,956.30 centerline miles as the total mileage for County-maintained roads at the end of 2024.
County road mileage can be increased or decreased for a variety of reasons, including, but not limited to, new roads built and accepted through private development projects, existing roads improved to County standards and accepted by the County, or roads where the County has vacated ownership. Changes to County-maintained roads in 2025 were the result of administrative corrections, new construction, improvements, or annexations impacting 54 road segments. Of those, 28 road segments were constructed by private developers and accepted by the County into the road network. All development projects that made improvements to County-maintained roads were approved by the County’s Planning & Development Services (PDS). The road changes to the annual additions and exclusions for calendar year 2025 are listed in Attachment B. The total mileage of County-maintained roads is now 1,956.45 centerline miles as of December 30, 2025. The new distribution of County-maintained miles in each Supervisorial District is as follows:
|
Distribution of County-Maintained Roads by Supervisorial District |
|
Supervisorial District |
2024 Centerline Miles |
2025 Centerline Miles |
Change |
|
1 |
135.26 |
135.47 |
0.21 |
|
2 |
861.67 |
861.67 |
0.00 |
|
3 |
96.36 |
96.36 |
0.00 |
|
4 |
171.97 |
172.06 |
0.09 |
|
5 |
691.06 |
690.90 |
-0.16 |
|
Totals* |
1,956.30 |
1,956.45 |
0.15 |
* Discrepancies are due to rounding to the nearest decimal place
Upon Board’s adoption of the resolution to submit the County’s annual report of road mileage to Caltrans, DPW will submit the adopted resolution, California Road System Index Map, the archived Highway Planning Survey maps, and the updated complete tabulation of the County-maintained road system, including these changes, to Caltrans for certification of the newly reported road mileage to the State Controller.
ENVIRONMENTAL STATEMENT
The proposed action includes the approval of a resolution to submit a report on County-maintained roads to the California Department of Transportation. The report addresses additions to, or exclusions from, the County-maintained road system. Because this action involves the transmittal of an informational report and constitutes a continuing administrative activity that does not involve commitment to a physical project, it is not subject to review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) pursuant to Sections 15060(c)(3) and 15378(b) of the State CEQA Guidelines. Any future discretionary actions resulting from the information contained in this report will be subject to separate review under CEQA.
LINKAGE TO THE COUNTY OF SAN DIEGO STRATEGIC PLAN
Today’s proposed action supports the Empowerment initiative in the County of San Diego’s (County) 2026-2031 Strategic Plan with the objective of providing Transparency and Accountability by maintaining program and fiscal integrity through reports, disclosures, and audits. County record keeping of nearly 2,000 centerline miles of local roads in the San Diego region helps fulfill this initiative by providing transparent and accountable data of the centerline miles that the County maintains and reports to the State of California for the appropriate allocation of the gas tax.
Respectfully submitted,
Dahvia LYNCH
Deputy Chief Administrative Officer
ATTACHMENT(S)
A. A Resolution of the Board of Supervisors of the County of San Diego Submitting the Annual Report of the County's Maintained Roads - 2025, to the State Department of Transportation
B. Changes to the Annual Report of the County’s Maintained Roads - 2025