Item 22 - Resolution Adopting Local CEQA Guidelines Resolution

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Local Guidelines for Implementing the California Environmental Quality Act (2023) AFFORDABLE HOUSING 2023 City of Santa Ana Local Guidelines 9-27 ©Best Best & Krieger LLP 9.04 HOUSING SUSTAINABILITY DISTRICTS. The Planning and Zoning Law requires a city or county to adopt a general plan for land use development within its boundaries. The general plan must contain seven mandatory elements, including a housing element. Existing law provides for various reforms and incentives intended to facilitate and expedite the construction of affordable housing. Senate Bill 73 authorizes a city, county, or city and county, including a charter agency, to establish by ordinance a housing sustainability district that meets specified requirements, including authorizing residential use within the district through the ministerial issuance of a permit. The agency is authorized to apply to the Department of Housing and Community Development for approval of a zoning incentive payment and requires the agency to provide specified information about the proposed housing sustainability district ordinance. The department is required to approve a zoning incentive payment if the ordinance meets the above-described requirements and the agency’s housing element is in compliance with specified law. A city, county, or city and county with a housing sustainability district would be entitled to a zoning incentive payment, subject to appropriation of funds for that purpose, and require that one-half of the amount be paid when the department approves the zone and one-half of the amount be paid when the department verifies that permits for the construction of the units have issued within the zone, provided that the city, county, or city and county has received a certificate of compliance for the applicable year. If the agency reduces the density of sites within the district from specified levels set forth in the Senate Bill 73, the agency would be required to return the full amount of zoning incentive payments it has received to the department. The bill also authorizes a developer to develop a project in a housing sustainability district in accordance with the already existing land use approval procedures that would otherwise apply to the parcel in the absence of the establishment of the housing sustainability district pursuant to its provisions, as provided. As it relates specifically to CEQA, a Lead Agency designating a housing sustainability district is required to prepare an EIR pursuant to Government Code section 66201 to identify and mitigate, to the extent feasible, environmental impacts resulting from the designation. The EIR shall identify mitigation measures that may be undertaken by housing projects in the housing sustainability district to mitigate the environmental impacts identified in the EIR. Housing projects undertaken in the housing sustainability districts that meet specified requirements, including if the project satisfies certain design review standards applicable to development projects within the district provided the project is “complementary to adjacent buildings and structures and is consistent with the [agency’s] general plan,” are exempt under CEQA. 9.05 INTERIM MOTEL HOUSING PROJECTS. “Interim motel housing projects” are statutorily exempt from CEQA. A project is exempt from CEQA as an “interim motel housing project” where the project consists of the conversion of a structure with a certificate of occupancy as a motel, hotel, residential hotel, or hostel to supportive or transitional housing and the conversion meets at least one of the following conditions: (1) the conversion does not result in the expansion of more than 10 percent of the floor area of any individual living unit in the structure; and (2) the conversion does not result in any significant effects relating to traffic, noise, air quality, or water quality.