Item 37 - EIR No. 2020-03 and GPA No.2020-06 Santa Ana General Plan Update

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December 7, 2021 Via Email Santa Ana City Council 20 Civic Center Plaza Santa Ana, CA 92701 Re: Santa Ana General Plan Update Open Space Element Dear Mayor Sarmiento and Councilmembers Phan, Penaloza, Lopez, Bacerra, Hernandez, and Mendoza, The Rise Up Willowick Coalition ("the Coalition") is comprised of residents from the City of Santa Ana, the City of Garden Grove ("the City"), and neighboring Orange County Cities as well as local organizations who want to ensure that the Willowick Golf Course property ("Willowick") is developed to meet the needs of current and future local residents and their vision of publicly accessible parkland, deep affordable housing, and community spaces. As the City Council considers adopting the draft General Plan Update ("the General Plan") today, the Coalition would like to make clear that it opposes the adoption of the Plan as it is proposed today. The reason being that the General Plan does not propose policies and programs that will effectively address the environmental justice ("EX) concerns Santa Ana residents and community groups have continuously raised for the past two years. For example, while the City proposes to keep the zoning of Willowick as open space, it does not adequately address how it plans to meet its current and projected park deficit. The City's Parkland Deficit One of these environmental concerns the City does not properly address is the deep parkland deficit in Santa Ana. The City's Municipal Code states that the City's parkland standard is a ratio of 2 acres of parkland per every 1,000 residents. The City has not met that standard. It currently has a parkland deficit of 154.44 acres, which means that for every 1,000 residents there are only 1.54 acres of parkland.' In the City's Recirculated Draft Program Environmental Impact Report for the General Plan, that deficit is projected to increase to 346.41 acres by the year 2045 based on the development and population increases the City anticipates the Plan's proposed policies will facilitate, or to 1.20 acres per every 1,000 residents.2 On October 6, 2021, RUW sent a letter ("the October 6th letter") to Mayor Sarmiento, City Council Members, Planning Commissioners, Planning Director Minh Tai, and Principal Planner Melanie McCann that stated that the Open Space policies the City was proposing to address the parkland deficit would not be effective. In that letter, the Coalition provided recommendations on ' Final Recirculated Draft Program Environmental Impact Report, Table 5.15 4, October, 2021, p. 5.15-28, 2 Ibid.