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23 <br /> <br />As you can see in the excerpt above, when we compare the per service population emissions estimated <br />in the Addendum to the relevant SCAQMD threshold, the Project’s 2022 service population efficiency <br />value of 3.42 MT CO2e/SP/year exceeds the 2035 service population efficiency threshold of 3.0 MT <br />CO2e/SP/year. Thus, we find a significant GHG impact not previously identified in the Addendum. <br />According to CEQA Guidelines § 15064.4(b), if there is substantial evidence that the possible effects of a <br />particular project are still cumulatively considerable notwithstanding compliance with the adopted <br />regulations or requirements, a full CEQA analysis must be prepared for the project. The Addendum may <br />not ignore this analysis and application of routinely used GHG thresholds by claiming discretion in <br />deciding which thresholds it wishes to employ. As one court explained when setting aside an EIR where <br />commenters questioned the city’s use of a particular threshold, the discretion granted to lead agencies <br />are not “unbounded” and (emphasis added): <br />“[T]he fact that a particular environmental effect meets a particular threshold cannot be used as <br />an automatic determinant that the effect is or is not significant … a threshold of significance <br />cannot be applied in a way that would foreclose the consideration of other substantial evidence <br />tending to show the environmental effect to which the threshold relates might be significant.” East <br />Sacramento Partnership for a Livable City v. City of Sacramento (2016) 5 Cal.App.5th 281, 300, <br />303-304 (internal citations omitted). <br />Thus, the results of the above analysis provide substantial evidence that the proposed Project’s GHG <br />emissions are still cumulatively considerable notwithstanding its purported compliance with the FEIR, <br />Santa Ana CAP, and 2017 CARB Scoping Plan (as challenged herein). Therefore, an updated CEQA <br />analysis must be prepared for the Project, and mitigation should be implemented where necessary, per <br />CEQA guidelines. <br />(5) Updated Analysis Indicates Significant Impact <br />In an effort to adequately assess the Project’s GHG impact, we prepared a simple analysis using the <br />emission estimates provided in the SWAPE CalEEMod output files and compared them to the SCAQMD’s <br />2035 service population efficiency threshold. According to the CalEEMod output files, the amortized <br />construction of the Project would result in approximately 35.5 MT CO2e per year27 and operation of the <br />Project would result in a net emission increase of approximately 2,529.8 MT CO2e.28 <br />According to CAPCOA’s CEQA & Climate Change report, service population is defined as “the sum of the <br />number of residents and the number of jobs supported by the project.”29 According to the Addendum, <br />the Project would result in 629 new residents (Appendix C, pp. 135, 163, 188). The Addendum failed to <br />provide the estimated number of employees supported by the Project, so we estimated a value of 24 <br />new employees, based on the square footage of the proposed retail land use and USGBC’s Building Area <br /> <br />27 Amortized Construction = (393.31 + 653.88 + 16.82) / 30 = 35.5 MT CO2e <br />28 Net Operational = Area + Energy + Mobile + Waste + Water = (56.95 + 713.72 + 1,661.83 + 57.94 + 39.32) = <br />2,529.76 MT CO2e <br />29 CAPCOA (Jan. 2008) CEQA & Climate Change, p. 71-72, http://www.capcoa.org/wp- <br />content/uploads/2012/03/CAPCOA-White-Paper.pdf.