Item 32 - Second Reading of Uncodified Ordinance Amendment No. 2024-07

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Ordinance No. NS-XXX Page 2 of 5 WHEREAS, Assembly Bill 2243 (AB 2243) was signed by the Governor on September 19, 2024, and will become effective on January 1, 2025, amending AB 2011 by modifying a number of eligibility criteria and development standards in state law to permit streamlined, ministerial approval processes for certain housing developments, one of which is removing the 500-foot freeway buffer; and WHEREAS, the removal of the 500-foot-freeway buffer from AB 2011 eligibility criteria and development standards by AB 2243 will result in a number of sites that were previously not eligible for AB 2011 streamline, ministerial approval and, thus, not contemplated, analyzed or included in NS-3045 or NS-3047 (Ordinances) to now qualify for AB 2011 streamlining unless the exempt parcels lists included in the Ordinances are amended; and WHEREAS, AB 2011, as amended by AB 2243, will permit affordable housing in high-risk zones in close proximity to freeways and will result in potential conflicts with the General Plan Land Use Element and environmental justice policies aimed at avoiding the locating of sensitive receptors in close proximity to uses that pose a hazard to health; and WHEREAS, the City’s General Plan Land Use Element allows for residential development in certain parts of the City identified in its land use map with the appropriate infrastructure improvements required to sustain high-quality housing and residential communities, while maintaining and preserving existing neighborhoods, commercial districts and established land use patterns; and WHEREAS, AB 2011 permits a local government to exempt a parcel from these types of streamlined approval before a developer submits a development application on the parcel if: (1) the local government identifies one or more alternative sites for residential development that meet certain environmental criteria; (2) the local government has permitted the alternative parcels not otherwise eligible for development pursuant to AB 2011 to be developed pursuant to AB 2011 streamlining, and that the alternative parc els are suitable for residential development as defined in State housing element law; (3) the local government has permitted the alternative parcels that are subject to AB 2011 streamlining to be developed at densities above the residential density require d in subdivision (b) of Section 65912.113 (100 percent affordable) or subdivision (b) of 65912.123 (Mixed-Income) of the Government Code; (4) the alternative development would result in no net loss of the total potential residential density in the jurisdi ction; (5) the alternative development would result in no net loss of the potential residential density of housing affordable to lower income households in the jurisdiction; and (6) the alternative development would affirmatively further fair housing; and WHEREAS, the City of Santa Ana had identified the parcels listed in Attachment 1 and Attachment 2 to this ordinance as parcels exempt from streamlined review pursuant to Government Code sections 65912.114 or 65912.124 by adoption of Resolution No. 2023-037, Urgency Ordinance No. NS-3045 and Ordinance No. NS-3047; and WHEREAS, the parcels identified in Attachment 3 to this ordinance, as previously adopted and now updated, met all of the required environmental criteria as shown in