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Santa Ana General Plan Update <br />CEQA Findings of Fact and Statement <br />Of Overriding Considerations -19- October 2021 <br />III. ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW AND PUBLIC PARTICIPATION PROCESS <br />In conformance with CEQA, the State CEQA Guidelines, and the City of Santa Ana CEQA <br />Guidelines, the City conducted an extensive environmental review of the proposed project. <br /> The City of Santa Ana concluded that a PEIR should be prepared, and the Notice of <br />Preparation (NOP) was released for a 30-day public review period from February 26, 2020, <br />through March 27, 2020. The NOP was posted at the Orange County Clerk’s Office on <br />February 26, 2020. The notice was published in the Orange County Register, a newspaper of <br />general circulation. Under CEQA, a lead agency may proceed directly with preparation of a <br />PEIR without preparation of an Initial Study if it is clear that a PEIR will be required (State <br />CEQA Guidelines § 15060[d]). The City of Santa Ana made such a determination for this <br />project and did not prepare an Initial Study. <br /> Completion of a scoping process, in which the public was invited by the City of Santa Ana to <br />participate. The scoping meeting for the PEIR was held on March 5, 2020, at 6:00 p.m. at the <br />Santa Ana Police Community Room at 60 Civic Center Plaza in Santa Ana. The notice of a <br />public scoping meeting was included in the NOP distributed on February 26, 2020. <br /> Preparation of a Draft PEIR by the City of Santa Ana, which was made available for a 45- day <br />public review period (August 3, 2020, through September 16, 2020) and extended to October <br />6, 2020. The Notice of Availability (NOA) for the Draft PEIR was sent to all persons, agencies, <br />and organizations on the list interested persons, sent to the State Clearinghouse in <br />Sacramento for distribution to public agencies, and published in the August 3, 2020, Orange <br />County Register. The NOA was posted at the Orange County Clerk’s Office on August 3, 2020. <br />Copies of the Draft PEIR were made available for public review at the City of Santa Ana, <br />Planning Division Counter at 20 Civic Center Plaza, M-20, Santa Ana, CA 92701, and the City <br />of Santa Ana Public Library at 26 Civic Center Plaza, Santa Ana, CA 92701. The Draft EIR <br />was also available for review and download on City website: https://www.santa- <br />ana.org/general-plan. <br /> The Final PEIR contained comments on the Draft PEIR, responses to those comments, <br />revisions to the Draft PEIR, if any, and appended documents. The Final PEIR was released <br />for a 10-day agency review period prior to certification of the Final PEIR. <br /> At its November 9, 2020, public hearing, the Planning Commission voted not to certify the <br />Final PEIR and continue work on the GPU to a future date to allow additional time for outreach <br />to Santa Ana’s environmental justice (EJ) communities. <br /> The City performed an intensive, extended community outreach program conducted between <br />January and May 2021 as described in Section 2.4 of the Updated Draft PEIR (Volume II of <br />the Recirculated Final PEIR). <br /> Pursuant to Draft PEIR comments, the Planning Commission public hearing, and an <br />expanded EJ community outreach program, the City made the decision to prepare a