2014-069 - Final Environmental Impact Report No. 2014-01

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HARBOR BLVD. MIXED USE TRANSIT CORRIDOR PLAN FINAL FIR CITY OF SANTA ANA 5. Environmental Analysis LAND USE AND PLANNING California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines, as it encompasses more than 500 residential units. Therefore, this section addresses the project's consistency with the applicable regional planning guidelines and policies. Regional Transportation Ilan /Sustarnable Communities Strategy On April 4, 2012, SCAG adopted the 2012 -2035 RTP /SCS: Towards a Sustainable Future. SCAG has placed a greater emphasis than ever on sustamability and integrated planning in the 2012 -2035 RTP /SCS. The 2012 -2035 RTP /SCS vision encompasses three principles that collectively work as the key to the region's future: mobility, economy, and sustamability. The 2012 -2035 RTP /SCS includes a strong commitment to reduce emissions from transportation sources to comply with Senate Bill 375, improve public health, and meet the National Ambient Air Quality Standards as set forth by the federal Clean Air Act. The 2012 -2035 RTP /SCS provides a blueprint for improving quality of life for residents by providing more choices for where they will live, work, and play and how they will move around (SCAG 2012). Compass Growth Vision In 2004, SCAG adopted the Compass Growth Vision (CGV), which is a response, supported by a regional consensus, to the land use and transportation challenges facing southern California. SCAG developed the CGV in an effort to maintain the region's prosperity, continue to expand its economy, house its residents affordably, and protect its environmental setting as a whole. The CGV is a framework that helps local jurisdictions address growth management cooperatively and also helps coordinate regional land use and transportation planning. In conjunction with the CGV, SCAG also adopted the Compass Blueprint 2% Strategy, which is the part of the 2004 regional growth forecast policy that attempts to reduce emissions and increase mobility through strategic land use changes. The 2% Strategy is a guideline for how and where the CGV for southern California's future can be implemented toward improving measures of mobility, livability, prosperity, and sustainability for local neighborhoods and their residents. Through extensive public participation and land use and transportation modeling and analysis, the program has resulted in a plan that identifies strategic growth opportunity areas (2% Strategy Opportunity Areas). These opportunity areas are roughly 2 percent of the land area in the southern California region. With the adoption of the 2012 RTP /SCS, the areas previously known as 2% Strategy Opportunity Areas were updated by SCAG and replaced with what are now called High Quality Transit Areas (HQTAs), which are a part of, and integrated into, the SCS portion (Chapter 4) of the 2012 RTP /SCS. An HQTA is generally a walkable transit village or corridor that is within a half mile of a well- serviced transit stop or a transit corridor with 15 minute or less service frequency during peak commute hours. The overall land use pattern of the 2012 RTP /SCS focuses jobs and housing in the region's designated HQTA (SCAG 2013). The majority of the project area is designated a HQTA (SCAG 2013). 5.8.2 Thresholds of Significance According to Appendix G of the CEQA Guidelines, a project would normally have a significant effect on the environment if the project would: October 2014 Page 5.% -3