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The alternatives identified for evaluation in the EA /DEIR were based on public comments, as well <br />as technical analyses, as detailed in the Alternative Analysis Report (under separate cover and <br />available by request or on the City's website at http : / /santaanatransitvision.com. The <br />alternatives analysis process included a comprehensive review of potential technology and <br />alignment options. A wide range of public transit options were defined and investigated as <br />candidate technologies. The initial alignment options were based on the need to establish an <br />east -west transit corridor in the Study Area, and to improve the Study Area's regional transit <br />connectivity by providing direct connections to existing and planned transit services (Metrolink <br />and OCTA fixed route and Bus Rapid Transit [BRT] services) at SARTC and at the northeast <br />corner of Harbor Boulevard and Westminster Avenue in the City of Garden Grove. <br />A reasonable range of alternatives has been evaluated as part of the environmental process, <br />beginning with a robust alternatives analysis and using a screening process to provide a limited <br />range of alternatives in the EA /DEIR. The alternatives analysis is described in detail beginning on <br />page 2 -29 of the EA /DEIR. Several alternatives, in addition to those previously discussed, <br />including BRT routes along Santa Ana Boulevard and Civic Center Drive, were considered in the <br />initial alternatives analysis but were ultimately screened out because they did not fully satisfy <br />the purpose and need or project goals and objectives and were less cost effective in terms of <br />both capital and operations and maintenance costs per rider than Streetcar Alternatives 1 and 2. <br />Section 15126.6(e)(2) of the CEQA Guidelines requires that an environmentally superior <br />alternative be identified among the selected alternatives. If the No Build Alternative is identified <br />as the environmentally superior alternative, the identification of the next best environmentally <br />superior alternative must be identified. As described in the EA /DEIR and the REA /FEIR, the No <br />Build Alternative has been found to have the least amount of environmental impacts and is the <br />environmentally superior alternative. Of the remaining alternatives, the TSM Alternative is the <br />CEQA environmentally superior alternative because no impacts were identified in the EA /DEIR. <br />However, the City hereby finds that the TSM Alternative would not achieve the proposed <br />project's basic objectives and thereby rejects this alternative. <br />Santa Ana - Garden Grove Fixed Guideway Project REAIFEIR P a g el A <br />January 2015 <br />75A -62 <br />