Laserfiche WebLink
Vista Charter Public Schools District Office and Outdoor Space Project <br />CEQA Exemption 15183 <br />Operations <br />Transportation Enerav Demand <br />Pursuant to the federal Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975, the National Highway Traffic <br />and Safety Administration is responsible for establishing additional vehicle standards and for <br />revising existing standards. Compliance with federal fuel economy standards is not determined <br />for each individual vehicle model. Rather, compliance is determined based on each <br />manufacturer's average fuel economy for the portion of their vehicles produced for sale in the <br />United States. According to the Vista Heritage Global Academy Expansion Trip Generation <br />Assessment prepared by Urban Crossroads and dated July 24, 2023, the proposed project would <br />generate 84 average daily trips without taking trip reductions from the existing uses as they are <br />currently vacant. As such, with the 84 average daily trips, the project would have a nominal <br />increase the County's automotive fuel consumption. The project does not propose any unusual <br />features that would result in excessive long-term operational fuel consumption. <br />The key drivers of transportation -related fuel consumption are commuting for work and many <br />personal choices on when to drive to the site for various purposes. Those factors are outside of <br />the scope of the design of the proposed project. However, the project would provide on -site <br />bicycle parking and promote the use of alternate mode of transportation. Additionally, an Orange <br />County Transportation Authority bus stop is located less than 0.1 miles to the west of the project <br />site. As such, this project would encourage and support the use of alternative modes of <br />transportation, thus reducing petroleum fuel consumption. <br />Therefore, fuel consumption associated with vehicle trips generated by the project would not be <br />considered inefficient, wasteful, or unnecessary in comparison to other similar developments in <br />the region. A less than significant impact would occur in this regard. <br />Building Energy Demand <br />Compliance with RR E-3 and E-4 would ensure project's compliance with the most current version <br />of the 2022 Title 24 Building Energy Efficiency Standards (commonly known as Title 24), which <br />provide minimum efficiency standards related to various building features, including appliances, <br />water and space heating and cooling equipment, building insulation and roofing, and lighting. <br />Additionally, the project would exceed the 2022 Title 24 standards. Compliance with the current <br />2022 Title 24 standards significantly reduces energy usage. As modeled in CaIEEMod and <br />detailed in Attachment A, the project would consume 124,742 kilowatt-hour of electricity and <br />177,425 kilo British thermal units of natural gas per year, which is nominal compared to regional <br />energy consumption. It should be noted that as a conservative analysis, existing uses on -site <br />were not modeled or deducted from project energy consumption. <br />Furthermore, the electricity provider, SCE, is subject to California's Renewables Portfolio <br />Standard (RPS). The RPS requires investor -owned utilities, electric service providers, and <br />community choice aggregators to increase procurement from eligible renewable energy <br />resources to 60 percent of total procurement by 2030, and 100 percent by 2045. Renewable <br />energy is generally defined as energy that comes from resources which are naturally replenished <br />within a human timescale such as sunlight, wind, tides, waves, and geothermal heat. The increase <br />in reliance of such energy resources further ensures that new development projects will not result <br />in the waste of the finite energy resources. Therefore, by using electricity from SCE, the project <br />would be in compliance with RR E-5. As a result, the project would ensure energy consumption <br />to be kept to a minimum through high efficiency lighting, energy efficient appliances, and on -site <br />renewable energy production. <br />Dec i y ouncil 26 — 84 1/16/202 e 24 <br />