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Santa Ana General Plan Update
<br />CEQA Findings of Fact and Statement
<br />Of Overriding Considerations -58- October 2021
<br />Finding. The City Council rejects the Reduced Intensity Alternative on the basis of policy and
<br />economic factors as explained herein. (See Pub. Resources Code, § 21061.1; CEQA Guidelines,
<br />§ 15364; see also City of Del Mar v. City of San Diego (1982) 133 Cal.App.3d 410, 417; California
<br />Native Plant Soc. v. City of Santa Cruz (2009) 177 Cal.App.4th 957, 1001; Sequoyah Hills
<br />Homeowners Assn. v. City of Oakland (1993) 23 Cal.App.4th 704, 715.) Specific economic, legal,
<br />social, technological, or other considerations, including provision of employment opportunities
<br />for highly trained workers, make infeasible this project alternative identified in the Final
<br />Recirculated PEIR.
<br />This alternative would result in similar impacts to 7 impact categories, reduce impacts to 12
<br />categories, and increase impacts to 1 category. Impacts would be similar for aesthetics,
<br />agricultural resources, biological resources, hazards and hazardous materials, hydrology and
<br />water quality, mineral resources, and wildfire. This alternative would decrease impacts to air
<br />quality, cultural resources, energy, geology and soils, greenhouse gas emissions, noise,
<br />population and housing, public services, recreation, tribal cultural resources, transportation, and
<br />utilities and services. It would be expected to increase land use and planning impacts relative to
<br />the GPU. As with the GPU, impacts to air quality, cultural resources, greenhouse gas emissions,
<br />noise, population and housing, and recreation would remain significant and unavoidable. Overall,
<br />impacts under this alternative would be decreased in comparison to the proposed project.
<br />The Reduced Density Alternative reduces the level of development for two of the five focus areas
<br />(55 Freeway/Dyer Road and South Bristol Street) relative to the GPU. No other changes to the
<br />GPU are made for this alternative. It is assumed to include the same General Plan policies and
<br />would not modify the circulation element or related improvements. Therefore, this alternative
<br />would attain many of the project’s objectives. It would not “optimize” high density housing and
<br />mass transit opportunities, and so was found not to attain objective No. 2. It would, however,
<br />achieve objectives Nos. 3 through 5, but to a lesser extent than the proposed GPU. With the
<br />reduced opportunities in the 55 Freeway/Dyer Road and South Bristol focus areas, it would not
<br />be as effective in providing affordable housing opportunities, and may not be as economically
<br />feasible in terms of funding community benefits. It would provide mixed-use opportunities that are
<br />bike and pedestrian friendly and provide opportunities for live-work, artist spaces, and small-scale
<br />manufacturing.
<br />2020 RTP/SCS Consistency Alternative
<br />(Reduced development for RTP/SCS population/housing consistency) This alternative was
<br />developed to evaluate an update to the General Plan that would be consistent with the population
<br />and housing projections used to develop the Southern California Association of Governments’
<br />(SCAG) most recent Regional Transportation Plan / Sustainable Communities Strategy
<br />(RTP/SCS)—Connect SoCal (adopted May 7, 2020). Connect SoCal is a long-range visioning
<br />plan that balances future mobility and housing needs with economic, environmental, and public
<br />health goals. The plan embodies a collective vision for the region’s future and is developed with
<br />input from local governments, county transportation commissions, tribal governments, nonprofit
<br />organizations, businesses, and local stakeholders in the counties of Imperial, Los Angeles,
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