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

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City Response to Comment Letter Lozeau Drury, dated October 10, 2022 Comment 1: This comment states that the City has incorrectly determined that the Project is exempt from further environmental review pursuant to Section 15183 of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines and that the City's consistency determination fails to provide evidence that the Project does not require further analysis and mitigation under CEQA. The comment asserts that additional environmental review is required because: (1) there are project -specific significant effects which are peculiar to the project or its site, and (2) the Project would result in any new significant effects not discussed in the GPU EIR; and since the Project is not exempt from CEQA, an initial study must be prepared to determine the appropriate level of CEQA review required. Response 1: The comment is introductory in nature, provides general comments, and does not include any substantial evidence relating to any environmental impact that requires preparation of additional CEQA documentation or that would require changes to the CEQA Guidelines Section 15183 Community Plan Exemption Checklist. No further response is warranted. Comment 2: This comment provides a summary of the proposed Project and legal case law text general regarding CEQA requirements and states that the City exempted the Project from CEQA entirely, the first step of the CEQA process applies, and that a project may never be exempted from CEQA if there is a "fair argument" that the project may have significant environmental impacts due to "unusual circumstances." In addition, the comment states that the exemption for the proposed Project is improper, and instead, a full CEQA analysis, such as an EIR, must be prepared for this Project. Response 2: The comment is introductory in nature, provides general comments and CEQA exemption information, and does not include any substantial evidence relating to any environmental impact and the proposed Project that requires preparation of additional CEQA documentation or that would require changes to the CEQA Guidelines Section 15183 Community Plan Exemption Checklist. No further response is warranted. Comment 3: This comment states that the Project will have significant impacts peculiar to the Project. The comment provides text related to exemptions from CEQA Guidelines Section 15183 and states that 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. Response 3: The comment is general in nature, provides general comments, and does not include any detail related to the CEQA document prepared for the Project or substantial evidence relating to new or increased environmental impacts. No further response is warranted. Comment 4: This comment states that the Project will have project specific significant effects that were not addressed in the General Plan Update EIR. The comment states that the air quality impacts of the Project as proposed could not have been foreseen at the time the General Plan was prepared, and that emissions for the proposed Project must be modeled using a program such as CaIEEMod, and project -specific input parameters must be measured against applicable thresholds, and that a screening -level HRA must be prepared to determine the risk posed to nearby residential receptors, as well as propose mitigation as necessary. The comment states that this represents potential project -specific significant effects that were not addressed in the previous General Plan EIR, and therefore, the City must review these impacts under CEQA. Exhibit 13 Page 1 of 7