4 - Laserfiche WebLink

Draft Housing Element, EIR, and General Plan Amendments Planning Commission 3 of 11 Certification by the State HCD reviews each housing element prepared by individual jurisdictions across the State and determines its compliance with State law. If HCD issues a finding that the Housing Element is in substantial compliance with State law, it is referred to as “certification” of the Housing Element. At the direction of the City Council, the City submitted its draft Housing Element for review by HCD on August 16, 2022. HCD completed its review and provided a comment letter to the City on November 14, 2022. Additionally, staff met twice with HCD to discuss its comments in more detail and gain clarity. Staff prepared a response HCD’s comments and proposes a series of changes to the Draft Housing Element in response. An updated Housing Element responding to HCD’s comments will need to be resubmitted to HCD for final certification. It will be submitted upon adoption of the document by the City Council. However, the City’s resolution for adoption will make all of the requisite findings to document the Housing Element’s compliance with State law and self-certify the Housing Element until such a time when HCD can complete its final certification. DISCUSSION California Environmental Quality Act The City determined that a Program Environmental Impact Report is necessary to evaluate environmental impacts of the 6th Cycle Housing Element Update pursuant to California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines Section 15168. The EIR is the informational document that identifies the potential environmental impacts of the Housing Element, the mitigation measures for these impacts, and potential impacts that cannot be mitigated and are therefore unavoidable. The City prepared and circulated a Draft EIR (DEIR) on October 20, 2022, and the document was made available for public comment through December 5, 2022. The EIR focuses on changes to land use designations to accommodate residential uses for sites identified in the Housing Element Update and evaluates the potential environmental impacts of those land use and zoning changes. It also focuses on the implementation of policies and programs included in the Housing Element Update. Less than significant impacts are identified across several impact areas including Aesthetics, Energy, and Wildfire. Potentially significant impacts were identified for Air Quality, Biological Resources, Geology and Soils, Hazards and Hazardous Waste, and Noise. However, in each case, mitigation measures are specified that would reduce potential impacts to a less than significant level. The DEIR identifies significant and unavoidable impacts in both Transportation and Utilities and Service Systems. In terms of Utilities and Service Systems, the significant and unavoidable impact relates to projected water supply. Regarding Transportation, the significant and unavoidable impact relates to VMTs. Many of the potential sites for rezoning are located in areas which are expected to generate a home-based VMT per resident above the relevant threshold of significance.