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<br />Verny Carvajal <br />October 6, 2020 <br />Page 6 <br /> <br /> <br />65300.5 (requiring “internally consistent” General Plan); Sierra Club v. Kern County <br />Board of Supervisors (1981) 126 Cal.App.3d 698, 704. Such revisions could provide that <br />the HOO continues to apply to projects above the pre-Update density, even if that density <br />is allowed by right under the Update. Alternatively, the City could increase the <br />ordinance’s inclusionary requirements, so that sufficient affordable housing is built even <br />if the HOO applies to fewer projects. <br /> <br />The Update’s upzoning and its obstruction of the HOO will combine to displace <br />present community members. Much of the housing development in the upzoned areas is <br />likely to consist of market-rate housing unaffordable to lower-income residents. This is <br />likely to increase prices of existing lower-cost housing in the surrounding neighborhoods. <br />Rising rents and costs of living will displace people, potentially necessitating housing <br />construction elsewhere. As the DPEIR acknowledges, such construction is potentially a <br />significant environmental impact under CEQA. DPEIR at 5.13-10; 14 Cal. Code Regs. <br />Appendix G, § XIV(b). <br /> <br />The DPEIR, however, reasons that the proposed Update “would provide more <br />housing opportunities than currently exist” and concludes that “implementation of the <br />[Update] would not displace people and/or housing,” leading to “no impact.” DPEIR at <br />5.13-14 (Impact 5.13-2). This analysis fails to take any account of the mismatch between <br />the affordability of housing under the Update and the means of the City’s present <br />residents. The DPEIR must reconsider its analysis of these impacts in light of the <br />Update’s failure to provide sufficient affordable housing. <br /> <br />III. The DPEIR does not sufficiently analyze the Update’s environmental justice <br />impacts. <br />The DPEIR also fails to adequately consider the Update’s environmental justice <br />impacts. S.B. 1000 requires local governments to include an environmental justice <br />element in their general plan (or integrate environmental justice goals and policies into <br />other elements). Gov. Code § 65302(h). This discussion must identify “disadvantaged <br />communities” in the jurisdiction and identify ways to reduce health risks and other <br />impacts on those communities, as well as improvements and programs that address their <br />needs. Id. Government Code section 65302(h)(1)(A) requires general plans to “[i]dentify <br />objectives and policies to reduce the unique or compounded health risks in disadvantaged <br />communities by means that include, but are not limited to, the reduction of pollution <br />exposure, including the improvement of air quality, and the promotion of public facilities, <br />food access, safe and sanitary homes, and physical activity.” The Update does not include <br />a stand-alone environmental justice element, instead asserting that environmental justice