75D - PH ZONING ORD AND CUP CALIFORNIA PALMS

Home Browse Search

Environmental Checklist For CEQA Compliance would add Transient/Residential Hotel as a conditionally permitted use within the General Commercial district of the NHSP. C. No Impact. The proposed project is located in an urbanized setting and no locally designated species or natural communities are known to exist in the project area. The site is not part of any habitat conservation plan or natural community preservation plan. Therefore, no impacts would occur. X. Mineral Resources A. No Impact. There are no areas designated in the Surface Mining and Reclamation Act of 1975 (SMARA) or existent oil fields within the City of Santa Ana (City of Santa Ana 1998:A-44); therefore, no impacts would occur. XI. Noise A. Less Than Significant with Mitigation Incorporated. The proposed project would result in significant adverse impacts to interior spaces due to exceedance of the noise standards set forth by the City of Santa Ana. Mitigation Measures N-1 through N-4 will reduce impacts to below a level of significance. The following summarizes the results presented in the California Palms Focused Noise Study prepared by Synectecology. Exterior Noise The proposed project would include the conversion of a motel to a transient/residential hotel. The use would be considered as ahigh-density residential use and the City sets a maximum limitation of 70 decibels of A-weighted sound level (dBA) Community Noise Equivalent Level (CNEL) for habitable exterior spaces. CNEL is defined as the average A-weighted noise level during a 24-hour day, obtained after addition of 5 decibels in the evening from 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. and after addition of 10 decibels to sound levels measured in the night between 10:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. Habitable exterior spaces are spaces outside of a dwelling that can be used for living, sleeping, eating, or cooking (i.e. pool and BBQ areas). As noted in the Noise Study (Synectecology 2005:5), the most prevalent source of noise at the project site is from traffic traveling along Harbor Boulevard. The CNEL was inferred to be about 58 to 59 dBA in exterior habitable spaces. At buildout of the City of Santa Ana General Plan, traffic along Harbor Boulevard is projected to increase from about 42,000 ADT to 47,000 ADT. This increase would raise future noise levels by 0.5 dBA CNEL. Future noise levels in the habitable areas would be raised accordingly, but would remain under 60 dBA CNEL (Synectecology 2005:13). Impacts to exterior habitable areas as a result of noise would be less than significant. Interior Noise Monitoring in Room 462 located along Harbor Boulevard indicates an existing, in- room CNEL of approximately 50.7 dBA. This level would be raised by about 0.5 dBA to approximately 51.2 dBA CNEL at buildout. Based on a 45 dBA CNEL interior standard, the impact of noise on the proposed land use would be significant California Palms May 2007 Initial Study/Mitigated Negative Declaration 3-24 75 D-81 J85 0296.0]