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Cabrillo Town Center Project City of Santa Ana October 2, 2023 Page 3 of 6 significant effects of the project, but the project proponents decline to adopt the mitigation measure or alternative; or (D) Mitigation measures or alternatives which are considerably different from those analyzed in the previous EIR would substantially reduce one or more significant effects on the environment, but the project proponents decline to adopt the mitigation measure or alternative. (14 CCR § 15162.) If a later project is outside the scope of the program, then it is treated as a separate project and the lead agency must prepare an initial study to determine "whether the later project may cause significant effects on the environment that were not examined in the prior environmental impact report." (PRC § 21094(c); see Sierra Club v. County of Sonoma (1992) 6 Cal.AppAth 1307, 1320-21.) If there is a fair argument that the Project may result in new significant impacts, the agency must prepare an EIR, which can "tier" off the program EIR. (PRC § 21094; 14 CCR § 15168(c)(1).) The tiered EIR may "incorporate by reference the discussion in any prior [EIR] and [] concentrate on the environmental effects which (a) are capable of being mitigated, or (b) were not analyzed as significant effects on the environment in the prior [EIR]" (PRC § 21068.5.) DISCUSSION I. An EIR is required because of new information regarding significant indoor air quality impacts and new available mitigation measures since certification of the MEMU EIR. The City can only exempt the Project from further CEQA review if the Project is "within the scope" of the MEMU EIR, as determined by the criteria of Guidelines section 15162. (14 CCR § 15168(c)(2).) Pursuant to Guidelines section 15162, the Project is not within the scope of the MEMU EIR where new information since the certification of the 2018 SEIR demonstrates that "[t]he project will have one or more significant effects not discussed in the previous EIR or negative declaration," (14 CCR § 15162(a)(3)(A)) or that mitigation measures "which are considerably different from those analyzed in the previous EIR would substantially reduce one or more significant effects on the environment, but the project proponents decline to adopt the mitigation measure" (14 CCR § 15162(a)(3)(D)). Alternatively, a subsequent EIR is required under Guidelines Section 15162 when the same standards are met. Under those standards, an EIR or subsequent EIR is required because the indoor air quality impacts from formaldehyde could not have been known when the 2007 or 2018 EIRs were certified and because of new mitigation measures available to mitigate the Project's indoor air quality impacts. A. The Project's significant impacts to human health from indoor emissions of formaldehyde as well as the mitigation measures available to reduce that impact are new information that could not have been known prior to 2019. Certified Industrial Hygienist, Francis Offermann, PE, CIH, has conducted a review of