3 - The Bowery_PUBLIC COMMENT (SAFER)

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The Bowery Mixed-Use Project CEQA Comment May 11, 2020 Page 12 Smith, p. 4. It would be an abuse of discretion for the City to approve the EIR because the traffic analysis fails to include relevant information, as discussed above, which precludes informed decision making and informed public participation. By failing to disclose the full extent of the Project’s traffic impacts, the EIR fails as an informational document. C. THE PROJECT WILL HAVE A SIGNIFICANT IMPACT ON POPULATION AND HOUSING BECAUSE IT WILL DISCLOSE 200 HOMELESS PEOPLE, RESULTING IN THE NEED FOR NEW HOUSING. CEQA requires the lead agency to determine whether the “environmental effects of a project will cause substantial adverse effects on human beings, either directly or indirectly.” Pub Res. Code § 21083(b)(3), (d). CEQA Guidelines Appendix G, Section XIV provides that a project will have a significant impact on population and housing if it will “[d]isplace substantial numbers of existing people or housing, necessitating the construction of replacement housing elsewhere.” Here, 30,000 square feet of the Project site is currently being used as a homeless shelter, housing 200 homeless. DEIR, 5.11-3. By converting the homeless shelter into market rate housing, the Project will displace up to 200 people, who by definition have no other housing. The DEIR claims that the Project would not displace substantial numbers of existing people or housing, necessitating the construction of replacement housing elsewhere. DEIR, 5.11-11. The DEIR supports this conclusion based solely on the statement that “Santa Ana is working on various homeless shelter solutions, including the purchase of a permanent homeless shelter site, that are anticipated to be available for the existing persons on the Project site prior to construction of the proposed Project.” Id. This statement does not constitute substantial evidence to support the DEIR’s conclusion that the Project will not have a significant impact. While Santa Ana may be working on “various homeless shelter solutions,” this is not evidence that up to 200 homeless people will be displaced as a result of the Project, and those 200 people will require housing elsewhere. Moreover, if the City is looking to purchase a permanent homeless shelter site, it will need to construct replacement housing on that site, constituting a significant impact under CEQA. The City’s conclusion that the Project will not have a significant impact stemming from displacement of up to 200 homeless people violates CEQA because it is not supported by substantial evidence.