Item 26 - Public Hearing Vista Heritage Charter School (601 North Fairview Street)

Home Browse Search

Vista Charter Public Schools District Office and Outdoor Space Project CEQA Exemption 15183 5. Findings As discussed in Section 3.0, the City of Santa Ana intends to pursue a CEQA exemption for the proposed project pursuant to CEQA Guidelines Section 15183. As stated in CEQA Guidelines Section 15183(d), the exemption requires a project to meet the following conditions: 1. The project is consistent with: a. A community plan adopted as part of a general plan, b. A zoning action which zoned or designated the parcel on which the project would be located to accommodate a particular density of development, or c. A general plan of a local agency, and 2. An EIR was certified by the lead agency for the zoning action, the community plan, or the general plan. The General Plan Update and GPU EIR were adopted and certified by the Santa Ana City Council in 2022. The project site is located within the General Plan Update West Santa Ana Boulevard Focus Area. This portion of the City was historically a more industrial area; the General Plan Update intends to transition the area from a group of auto -oriented neighborhoods, businesses, and institutions into a series of transit -oriented neighborhoods that support and benefit from future streetcar stops. Additionally, the industrial portion of the focus area (where the project site is located) is envisioned and designated Industrial/Flex (FLEX) to promote new opportunities, including new clean industrial/manufacturing, maker -type spaces, and other uses that are more compatible with the surrounding residential areas than traditional industrial uses. The project site has a land use designation of Industrial/Flex-Low (FLEX-1.5), which is intended for office/industrial flex spaces, small-scale research and development, clean manufacturing, and live -work uses. The proposed project would redevelop a former automotive repair building into a school district office, which is a permitted use under the FLEX-1.5 designation and considered in the analysis of the GPU EIR. Additionally, the General Plan Update encourages adaptive reuse of existing industrial buildings within this focus area, which would be achieved with implementation of the project. As such, the GPU EIR adequately anticipated and analyzed the impacts of this project, identified applicable mitigation measures necessary to reduce impacts of the project, and the project implements the applicable mitigation measures. The project, therefore, qualifies for an exemption from additional environmental review as set forth in CEQA Guidelines Section 15183. Overall, the project qualifies for the exemption because the following findings can be made: a) The project is consistent with the development density established by existing zoning, community plan or general plan policies for which an EIR was certified. Based on General Plan Update Land Use Element Figure LU-1, Land Use Map, the project site is designated Industrial/Flex-Low (FLEX-1.5). The FLEX-1.5 designation allows a maximum 1.5 FAR and/or 30 dwelling per acre, with a maximum building height of three stories. The proposed project would renovate the approximately 5,837-square foot former automotive repair building as the Vista Charter Public Schools district office. The project site is approximately 0.9-acre. Thus, the project would result in a 0.15 FAR. Additionally, the building would maintain its existing building height of approximately 19.3 feet. Thus, the proposed project would be consistent with the site's FLEX-1.5 designation development density established by the General Dec i y ouncil 26 -118 1/16/202 e 58