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Implementation of this alternative would not meet the project proponent's goal [or the <br />expansion of the existing newspaper printing and distribution facility and would <br />negatively impact the ability of the Register to provide its product in Orange County. <br />The demand for newspapers is expected to continue to exist and to grow, based on <br />forecasted growth in population for Orange County. Under this alternative, the Register <br />would be unable to satisfy this demand. <br /> <br />In addition, the expected benefits of the proposed project would not occur under this <br />alternative. These benefits include the generation of over .5~0 new jobs in the City of <br />Santa Aha, accrual of increased property taxes to the City of Santa Aha, significant <br />improvement to the transportation infrastructure and benefits to the sini~le family <br />residential areas located to the east of the Register property. <br /> <br />ALTERNATE PRO3ECT SITE ALTERNATIVE <br /> <br />Finding <br /> <br />Specific economic, social or other considerations make infeasible the <br />mitigation measures or project alternatives identified in the EIR. <br /> <br />Facts in Support of the Finding, <br /> <br />The Register evaluated the potential for locating a printing and distribution facility in <br />south Orange County~ within the Rancho Santa Margarita Planned Community. This <br />alternative site would be expected to result in similar environmental impacts to the <br />proposed projects in the following impact categories: geology and soils; short term air <br />quality; air quality; noise; public safety; hazardous materials and risk of upset; and public <br />services and utilities. <br /> <br />As documented in the EIR, the impacts of the alternate site would be expected to be <br />greater than for the proposed project in the following impact categories: water quality; <br />long term and regional air quality and traffic and circulation. The impacts of the <br />alternate site would be expected to be less than for the proposed project in the following <br />impact categories: land use; population, employment and housing; and aesthetics. <br /> <br />This alternative would be expected to generally result in impacts similar to the proposed <br />project. However, this alternative would require the Register to acquire a greater land <br />area than needed for the facility because of the size of available parcels in the business <br />park; would result in greater project development costs due to extremely strict design <br />and development standards in the business park; and would result in significant impacts <br />on the operations of the Register due to the need to operate two production and <br />distribution facilities rather than one centralized facility. In addition, this alternative <br />could potentially result in greater air quality impacts, depending on the locations of <br />employee homes and on the need for daily trips between the Register's Grand Avenue <br />facility and the Rancho Santa Margarita facility. Therefore, although this alternative <br />meets the project objectives in providing the needed capacity for the production and <br />distribution functions, it would result in greater air quality impacts, and would be more <br />costly for the Register to implement, due to the increased facility implementation and <br />operating costs. <br /> <br />In addition, the expected benefits of the proposed project would generally occur under <br />this alternative, but these benefits would not accrue to, or benefit, the City of Santa <br />Aha. In particular, the generation of over 300 new jobs, increased property taxes and <br />improvements to the transportation infrastructure would occur in south Orange County <br />instead of Santa Aha. There would be no benefits to the single family residential areas <br />to the east of the Register. <br /> <br />22 <br /> <br /> <br />