6 - GPA19-01; AA19-01_651 W SUNFLOWER AVENUE

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Legacy Sunflower Apartments Page 73 Mitigated Negative Declaration – March 14, 2019 with mandatory applicability to all communities, but rather as advisory exposure levels below which there would be no risk to a community from any health or welfare effect of noise. In 1981, EPA administrators determined that subjective issues such as noise would be better addressed at lower levels of government. Consequently, in 1982 responsibilities for regulating noise control policies were transferred to State and local governments. State State of California General Plan Guidelines 2017 Though not adopted by law, the State of California General Plan Guidelines 2017, published by the California Governor’s Office of Planning and Research (OPR) (OPR Guidelines), provides guidance for the compatibility of projects within areas of specific noise exposure. OPR Guidelines identify the suitability of various types of construction relative to a range of outdoor noise levels and provide each local community some flexibility in setting local noise standards that allow for the variability in community preferences. The OPR Guidelines include a Noise and Land Use Compatibility Matrix that identifies acceptable and unacceptable community noise exposure limits for various land use categories. California Environmental Quality Act The California Environmental Quality Act Guidelines (Appendix G) establishes thresholds for noise impact analysis. Two of these standards apply to what is referred to as a "substantial increase" in ambient noise levels. The City does not have a definition of a substantial increase, nor does CEQA establish a numerical value for this threshold. Noise generated by transportation sources propagates differently than noise generated by point sources. Therefore, for purposes of this analysis, the following thresholds were used to evaluate the project's potential to result in substantial increases in ambient noise levels. Traffic Noise Threshold The Federal Interagency Committee on Noise (FICON) developed guidance to be used for the assessment of project-generated increases in noise levels that consider the ambient noise level (FICON 1992). The FICON recommendations are based on studies that relate aircraft noise levels to the percentage of persons highly annoyed by aircraft noise. Although the FICON recommendations were specifically developed to assess aircraft noise impacts, these recommendations are often used in environmental noise impact assessments involving the use of cumulative noise exposure metrics, such as the average-daily noise level (CNEL) or hourly logarithmic average noise levels (Leq). For example, if the ambient noise environment is quiet (<60 dBA) and the new noise source greatly increases the noise levels, an impact may occur if the noise criteria may be exceeded. Therefore, for this analysis, FICON identifies a readily perceptible 5 dBA or greater project -related noise level increase is considered a significant impact when the noise criteria for a given land use is exceeded. In areas where the ambient noise levels range from 60 to 65 dBA, a perceptible noise level increase of 3 dBA is appropriate for most people. When the ambient noise level exceeds 65 dBA, any increase in community noise of 1.5 dBA or greater is considered a significant impact if the noise criteria for a given land use is exceeded, since it likely contributes to an existing noise exposure exceedance. Table 15 below provides a summary of the potential noise impact significance criteria, based on guidance from FICON. 6-95