2020-065 - Adopting Environmental Findings of Fact

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The Wamer Redhill Mixed -Use Project CEQA Findings of Fad Overriding Considerations The City, after balancing the specific economic, legal, social, technological, and other benefits of the Project, has determined that the unavoidable adverse environmental impacts identified above may be considered acceptable due to the following specific considerations which outweigh the unavoidable, adverse environmental impacts of the Project, each of which standing alone is sufficient to support approval of the Project, in accordance with CEQA Section 21081(b) and CEQA Guideline Section 15093. The specific economic, legal, social, technological or other benefits of the Project are as follows: • The Project implements capital investment through construction of new buildings and offsite infrastructure improvements to enhance the City's economic and fiscal viability pursuant to the City of Santa Ana Strategic Plan. • The Project improves the jobs -housing balance, providing a beneficial effect of providing multi -family housing in a jobs -rich area so that employees can easily travel to employment opportunities. • The Project results in a potential reduction of vehicle miles traveled and the related traffic congestion, air quality, and greenhouse gas emissions compared with potential uses under the existing land use designation through the provision of housing and building space for commercial and restaurant uses near existing office uses and other sources of employment, and by improving the jobs -housing balance. • The Project provides additional housing to support the regionally forecasted increase in economic activities and employment increases. • The Project transforms an underutilized site with an economically viable development consistent with other regional redevelopment in the Tustin Legacy Specific Plan and Irvine Business Complex (IBC) and combines residential uses with community -serving commercial uses near employment opportunities, freeway access, and transit. • The Project implements the SCAG Regional Transportation Plan/Sustainable Communities Strategy (RTP/SCS) Land Use Policies related to population and housing by providing additional housing near employment centers. • Consistent with the General Plan and City of Santa Ana Strategic Plan, the Project facilitates the economic development of the City by creating an expanded employment base by creating building space for multiple businesses, providing new diverse employment opportunities and attracting new businesses by locating residences, which will house future costumers for the businesses. • The Project will redevelop a site that has buildings and improvements that are tailored to a specific tenant which no longer needs the site or buildings. The existing buildings and improvements would have limited demand in the current condition and would not result in the benefits of the capital investment the Project will bring. • The Economic and Fiscal Analysis (2019) prepared for the Project determined that due to greater construction costs and scale, the estimated one-time construction economic impacts the Project ($498 million) to the City of Santa Ana is greater than the impact of the construction of a typical industrial building allowed under the current land use and zoning ($76 million). This is particularly important during this COVID-19 pandemic when significant economic impacts are severely impacting cities, businesses and jobs. City of San May 2020