Agenda Packet_2023-03-21 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Environmental Justice The General Plan's Core Values reinforce the City's commitment to enabling all persons to enjoy equal access to healthy environments, healthy foods, parks and recreational facilities, and civic engagement opportunities. However, the City recognizes that throughout its communities, some bear a disproportionate burden of pollution and associated health risks. The concept of environmental justice (EJ) seeks to correct this inequity by reducing pollution and increasing public investments in these communities, and ensuring their input is considered in decisions that affect them. Environmental Justice in the General Plan An EJ community is an area of the city where residents have the highest risk of exposure to pollution in the air, water, and soil. This pollution may be caused by passing vehicles or by the daily activities of businesses and institutions. Residents in these areas also tend to be burdened by socioeconomic and health issues, such as higher rates of language barriers, poverty, and asthma. Such areas also tend to experience lower rates of investment and improvements from individuals, private companies, and public agencies. Removing and addressing the root causes of EJ concerns in the built environment has been made a high priority by the community and the City Council, especially as experienced by low-income neighborhoods and vulnerable households throughout the City. As such, that commitment has been memorialized in over 150 EJ focused policies and implementation actions within the City's General Plan. Commitment to Addressing EJ Issues To demonstrate the City's commitment to EJ, the City formed a new section, Neighborhood Initiatives and Environmental Services (NIES), within the Planning and Building Agency in October of 2022 to focus on supporting Santa Ana's disadvantaged communities through General Plan EJ policy and implementation work. NIES accomplishments for the 2022 calendar year include: Assisted with drafting noxious uses urgency ordinance approved by City Council on December 20, 2022, that requires noxious businesses, those that require a permit from a regional, state, or federal agency to emit, discharge, or store hazardous materials, located within 500 feet of a sensitive land use to obtain a conditional use permit (CUP) and created an amortization framework for those operators who are nonconforming by lacking a CUP, with immediate effect. The urgency ordinance was followed by a permanent ordinance to ensure long-term sustainability of these new regulations. Staff, at the direction of City Council, began exploring the feasibility of expanding distance criteria, is appropriate, to 1,000 feet in the near future. Formation of a new Neighborhood Initiatives and Environmental Services (NIES) section of the Planning Division and hiring a Principal Planner to oversee the new section. Taking steps to fill staff vacancies in the NIES section, to further enhance the services the section offers the community. Application submittal for a HUD Lead Technical Studies Grant. 14 City Council 8 — 21 3/21/2023