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EIR No. 2020-01, GPA No. 2020-02, & AA No. 2020-01 — The Bowery Mixed -Use Development May 26, 2020 Page 2 Following the May 11, 2020 Planning Commission hearing, staff and the environmental consultant prepared a memorandum that addresses the two written communications sent by Lozeau Drury LLP and Mitchell M. Tsai. The memorandum is attached as Exhibit 1. In addition, the Planning Commission received a request from the City of Tustin requesting a two -week continuance to May 26, 2020 to allow City of Tustin staff additional time to review the final environmental impact report (EIR) and the EIR's responses to comments. On May 21, the City of Tustin provided additional comments on the Final EIR. A review of the May 21 letter indicates that the City of Tustin's questions are adequately answered by the Final EIR on pages 2-49 through 2-62 (Responses to Comments). Lastly, following Planning Commission questions, staff prepared the following clarifications to address onsite open space. Like most cities, Santa Ana does not have a development regulation requiring public parkland on residential developments, but instead, has onsite open space requirements to address active and passive recreation. When reviewing proposals for Specific Development zones, staff often compare proposed projects against the development standards found in other existing mixed -use documents. For reference, the City's Metro East Mixed -Use Overlay Zone (MEMU) and Harbor Mixed -Use Transit Corridor Specific Plan (SP-2) require the most amount of onsite open space, equivalent to 15 percent of the development lot area. The project's proposed open space will be provided onsite in a variety of means and equals approximately 39 percent of the development area (5.76 acres), including ground -level recreation areas, landscape areas, plazas, walkways, courtyards, paseos, balconies, roof amenity decks, community rooms, fitness, and other services. Of this acreage, 2.44 acres (17 percent of the entire site) will be publicly accessible open space located on the ground floor. This area includes the central paeso, plaza, walkways and landscape area. The remaining 3.32 acres will be private common open space areas for residents that will contain pools, courtyards, fitness areas, relief areas for pets, and other amenities typical to high -quality mixed -use developments found in Santa Ana and in Orange County. Of this 3.32 acres of private/resident area, 1.59 acres is provided through residential patios and balconies. During the 45-day comment period on the draft EIR, the cities of Tustin and Irvine sent letters expressing concerns with Santa Ana allowing new residential land uses near the cities' borders because residents in Santa Ana would result in additional strain on their parks. Subsequent to receiving these comments, the City prepared responses to comments in the Final EIR that highlight that the proposed development would contain sufficient onsite open space to serve the needs of its community. To add context to this figure, the Final EIR and the staff report illustrate that utilizing the City's goal of providing two (2) acres of public park and/or recreational area per 1,000 residents (SAMC Sec. 35-108), a project of this scale would typically require 4.2 acres of parkland to serve the new residents assuming an occupancy of 2,081 residents. As proposed, the project provides ample open space that exceeds the minimum required by many of the City's existing regulations. In addition, 81.88 acres of Santa Ana parkland exist within three miles of the project site and provide a variety of facilities that include sports fields, exercise equipment, picnic 75C-12