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2014 -2021 SANTA ANA HOUSING ELEMENT AND PUBLIC SAFETY ELEMENT UPDATES CITY OF SANTA ANA 1. Introduction to public parkland and open space. The Civic Center in Santa Ana is Orange County's main center of government. The Santa Ana River runs north to south through the northwestern part of the City. 1.2.2 Surrounding Land Use The City is a 99 percent built -out community in urbanized Orange County, bordered by a mix of land uses. The surrounding Cities of Orange, Garden Grove, Fountain Valley, Costa Mesa, and Irvine all contain a variety of residential, commercial, industrial, and open space uses. These surrounding land uses are shown in Figure 2, Local Vicinity and Figure 3, Aerial Photograph. 1.3 PROJECT DESCRIPTION The City of Santa Ana's General Plan Housing Element (Housing Element) details the City's eight -year strategy for enhancing and preserving the community's character; sets forth strategies for expanding housing opportunities for the City's various economics segments; and provides the primary policy guidance for local decision malting related to housing. The Housing Element provides the implementation strategies for effectively addressing the housing needs of Santa Ana residents through the planning period that ends in 2021. The City of Santa Ana has seen significant changes in its housing market and housing conditions during the last two decades. Housing prices tripled from 1998 to 2007 and then significantly declined with the market recession. During that time, apartment rents also continued to increase steadily. As an urban center, the revitalization of housing and neighborhoods is also a critical concern. The Housing Element recognizes the community's housing needs and the complexity of programs needed to address existing housing stock and future needs. The vision, goals, policies, and programs are designed to maintain quality housing near community amenities, diversity in housing stock, opportunities to provide housing assistance, and adequate housing for residents with special needs. The Housing Element Update would also meet state - mandated regional housing needs goals, support the City's long -term economic development, and work with other City goals and policies to further the City's long -term vision as "Downtown Orange County." The update to the City's General Plan Housing Element consists of an updated determination of housing needs within the City and revisions to policies and programs the City would implement to address those needs. The draft 2014-2021 Housing Element identifies adequate sites for potential residential /mixed -use development that could accommodate the Regional Housing Need Assessment (RHNA) by 2021. The discretionary "project" for this Initial Study is the Housing Element, not the individual, subsequent housing development projects or required General Plan Amendments, and /or zone changes needed to implement the respective projects. This Initial Study, therefore, is not required to provide a detailed evaluation of the subsequent projects or provide mitigation for the impacts that may be associated with implementation of those projects. This Initial Study, does, however, provide an overall evaluation of the impacts that would likely occur to successfully implement the proposed Housing Element. Each individual development project, General Plan Amendment, and /or zone change required to implement the Housing Element would be subject to its own subsequent review and processing under CEQA. Page 2 • The Planning Center I DC&E 75A -24 Decmbnr2013