Census Tracts and Tribal Lands Identified as SB 535 Disadvantaged Communities for the Bay Area Regional Climate Action Planning Initiative Frontline Communities Map

Shapefile contains census tracts and polygons of Tribal Lands identified as Disadvantaged Communities per SB 535 for the five counties that are included in the Bay Area Regional Climate Action Planning Initiative Frontline Communities Map. The original shapefile was downloaded from the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA), SB 535 Disadvantaged Communities webpage. The “Clip” tool in ArcMap was used to select only those features which are located within the boundaries of the five Bay Area counties included in the Frontline Communities Map. No display filters were used to visualize the features in the final map. To learn more about the methodology behind the original dataset, please visit: https://oehha.ca.gov/calenviroscreen/sb535 The Frontline Communities Map is meant to help identify communities that are considered frontline communities for the purpose of the USEPA’s Climate Pollution Reduction Grant (CPRG) program’s planning effort, which is a five-county climate action planning process led by the Air District. USEPA refers to these communities as low-income and disadvantaged communities (LIDACs). Senate Bill (SB) 535 (De León) mandates that California use certain Cap-and-Trade auction proceeds to fund investments in “disadvantaged communities” (DACs). It charges the California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA) with the responsibility to designate DACs. In issuing previous designations, CalEPA relied upon the California Communities Environmental Health Screening Tool (CalEnviroScreen), a mapping tool developed by the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA). On October 13, 2021, OEHHA released a new final version of CalEnviroScreen, Version 4.0. CalEPA determined that the improvements and updates in Version 4.0 were sufficiently material to warrant new designations of disadvantaged communities, pursuant to SB 535 (DAC designations). After receiving public input at workshops and in written comments, in May 2022, CalEPA released its updated designation of disadvantaged communities for the purpose of SB 535. In this designation, CalEPA formally designated four categories of geographic areas as disadvantaged: 1. Census tracts receiving the highest 25 percent of overall scores in CalEnviroScreen 4.0 (1,984 tracts). 2. Census tracts lacking overall scores in CalEnviroScreen 4.0 due to data gaps, but receiving the highest 5 percent of CalEnviroScreen 4.0 cumulative pollution burden scores (19 tracts). 3. Census tracts identified in the 2017 DAC designation as disadvantaged, regardless of their scores in CalEnviroScreen 4.0 (307 tracts). 4. Lands under the control of federally recognized Tribes.