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Grand Avenue Widening Project Environmental Impact Report Section 8.0 SECTION 8.0 NO PROJECT ALTERNATIVE 8.1 DESCRIPTION OF THE NO PROJECT ALTERNATIVE The No Project Alternative assumes the project segment of Grand Avenue would retain the existing four lanes in a cross section that varies in width from 80 to 110 feet wide and that no widening, bike lanes or other physical improvements would be constructed. Under this Alternative, existing conditions on the project segment of Grand Avenue would continue. The resulting cross section would not be consistent with the Major Arterial designation for this segment of Grand Avenue in the City of Santa Ana General Plan Circulation Element or with the adopted Bikeway Master Plan. This Section describes the potential environmental impacts associated with the No Project Alternative, focussing on the potential impacts of this Alternative for each environmental parameter. The Initial Study (IS) identified several environmental parameters which could potentially experience significant adverse impacts if one of the widening alternatives is implemented. These parameters are land use and planning, population and housing, air quality, transportation, noise and cultural resources, as evaluated earlier in Section 3.0 (Existing Conditions, Impacts and Mitigation Measures) for the widening alternatives. The following Sections describe the potential impacts of the No Project Alternative for these same parameters. The existing conditions in the study area, the analysis methodology and thresholds of significance for each parameter were described earlier in Section 3.0. At the end of this Section, the parameters determined in the IS not to be impacted under the widening alternatives are evaluated for potential impacts under the No Project Alternative. 8.2 IMPACTS OF THE NO PROJECT ALTERNATIVE RELATED TO LAND USE /\u179 A\u►1l�CeJ The No Project Alternative does not include any widening of the project segment of Grand Avenue. Therefore, this Alternative would not result in any right-of-way takes on this segment of Grand Avenue. No mitigation is required. The Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) land use policies from the Region Comprehensive Plan and Guide were shown earlier in Table 3-3. The No Project Alternative was evaluated for consistency with each of these policies. As shown in Table 3-3, the No Project Alternative is consistent with each policy, except for Policy 3.03 and certain policies determined not to apply to this Alternative. Policy 3.03 is related to the timing of public improvements to implement regional growth policies. Because the No Project Alternative is not consistent with the City's General Plan Circulation Element, which is the City's plan for implementing transportation policies, it is not consistent with this SCAG policy. Mitigation to avoid this impact is the implementation of a widening alternative consistent with the Circulation Element. F: IPROJ ENVIGrand eirlNew Text - GrandlSection 8.0-new.doc Page 8-1