Item 26 - EIR No. 2020-03 and GPA No.2020-06 Santa Ana General Plan Update

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III. ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW AND PUBLIC PARTICIPATION PROCESS In conformance with CEQA, the State CEQA Guidelines, and the City of Santa Ana CEQA Guidelines, the City conducted an extensive environmental review of the proposed project. ■ The City of Santa Ana concluded that a PEIR should be prepared, and the Notice of Preparation (NOP) was released for a 30-day public review period from February 26, 2020, through March 27, 2020. The NOP was posted at the Orange County Clerk's Office on February 26, 2020. The notice was published in the Orange County Register, a newspaper of general circulation. Under CEQA, a lead agency may proceed directly with preparation of a PEIR without preparation of an Initial Study if it is clear that a PEIR will be required (State CEQA Guidelines § 15060[d]). The City of Santa Ana made such a determination for this project and did not prepare an Initial Study. ■ Completion of a scoping process, in which the public was invited by the City of Santa Ana to participate. The scoping meeting for the PEIR was held on March 5, 2020, at 6:00 p.m. at the Santa Ana Police Community Room at 60 Civic Center Plaza in Santa Ana. The notice of a public scoping meeting was included in the NOP distributed on February 26, 2020. ■ Preparation of a Draft PEIR by the City of Santa Ana, which was made available for a 45- day public review period (August 3, 2020, through September 16, 2020) and extended to October 6, 2020. The Notice of Availability (NOA) for the Draft PEIR was sent to all persons, agencies, and organizations on the list interested persons, sent to the State Clearinghouse in Sacramento for distribution to public agencies, and published in the August 3, 2020, Orange County Register. The NOAwas posted at the Orange County Clerk's Office on August 3, 2020. Copies of the Draft PEIR were made available for public review at the City of Santa Ana, Planning Division Counter at 20 Civic Center Plaza, M-20, Santa Ana, CA 92701, and the City of Santa Ana Public Library at 26 Civic Center Plaza, Santa Ana, CA 92701. The Draft EIR was also available for review and download on City website: https://www.santa- ana.org/general-plan. ■ The Final PEIR contained comments on the Draft PEIR, responses to those comments, revisions to the Draft PEIR, if any, and appended documents. The Final PEIR was released for a 10-day agency review period prior to certification of the Final PEIR. ■ At its November 91 2020, public hearing, the Planning Commission voted not to certify the Final PEIR and continue work on the GPU to a future date to allow additional time for outreach to Santa Ana's environmental justice (EJ) communities. ■ The City performed an intensive, extended community outreach program conducted between January and May 2021 as described in Section 2.4 of the Updated Draft PEIR (Volume II of the Recirculated Final PEIR). ■ Pursuant to Draft PEIR comments, the Planning Commission public hearing, and an expanded EJ community outreach program, the City made the decision to prepare a Santa Ana General Plan Update CEQA Findings of Fact and Statement Of Overriding Considerations -19- October 2021