Item 41 - Amendment Application No. 2022-01 and Appeal Nos. 2022-01 and 2022-02

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Comment on Garry Avenue Business Park Project Planning Commission Agenda Item 2 (Amendment Application No. 2022-01; Conditional Use Permit No. 2022-14) October 10, 2022 Page 4 of 7 effects precludes an exemption. (Wildlife Alive v. Chickering (1976) 18 Cal.3d 190, 204.) Here, the City has issued a notice of exemption alleging that the proposed Project is exempt from CEQA review under Section 15183. However, as discussed below, this exemption is improper, and instead, a full CEQA analysis, such as an EIR, must be prepared for this Project. DISCUSSION I. THE PROJECT WILL HAVE SIGNIFICANT IMPACTS PECULIAR TO THE PROJECT THAT WERE NOT ANALYZED AS SIGNIFICANT EFFECTS IN THE GENERAL PLAN EIR AND THESE IMPACTS REQUIRE FURTHER ANALYSIS UNDER CEQA Section 15183 of the California Environmental Quality Act allows a project to avoid environmental review if it is "consistent with the development density established by existing zoning, community plan, or general plan policies for which an EIR was certified ... except as might be necessary to examine whether there are project -specific significant effects which are peculiar to the project or its site." (14 CCR § 15183 (emphasis added).) The intention of this section is to "streamline[]" CEQA review for projects and avoid the preparation of repetitive documents. Even when a project is "consistent with the development density established by existing zoning, community plan, or general plan policies for which an EIR was certified,", environmental review is still required for various types of impacts, including those "peculiar to the project or parcel on which the project would be located," those which "were not analyzed as significant effects in a prior EIR," "are potentially significant off -site impacts and cumulative impacts which were not discussed in the prior EIR," or "[a]re previously identified significant effects which, as a result of substantial new information which was not known at the time the EIR was certified, are determined to have a more severe adverse impact than discussed in the prior EIR." (14 CCR sec. 15183.) Section 1518(f) of the CEQA Guidelines states that a Project's environmental effects are not peculiar to a project if "uniformly applied development policies or standards have been previously adopted" which serve to mitigate environmental impacts, "unless substantial new information shows that the policies or standards will not substantially mitigate the environmental effect." (Emphasis added). Therefore, the standard set forth by CEQA for this analysis is substantial evidence. Here, there is substantial evidence demonstrating that the Project will have project - specific significant impacts that were not addressed in the General Plan EIR, and therefore must be addressed through CEQA review now. II. THE PROJECT WILL HAVE PROJECT -SPECIFIC SIGNIFICANT EFFECTS WHICH WERE NOT ADDRESSED IN THE PREVIOUS GENERAL PLAN UPDATE EIR.