Item 23 - Appeal Application Nos. 2020-03 and 2020-04 — Central Pointe Mixed-Use Development

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Appeal Application Nos. 2020-03 and 2020-04 — Central Pointe Mixed -Use Development January 19, 2021 Page 5 and will mitigate impacts below the level of significance. Analysis of Appeals Pursuant to Section 41-645 an appeal from a decision of the Planning Commission can be made by an interested party, individual or group. Two appeal applications were received appealing the Planning Commission's decision to approve Site Plan Review No. 2020-04, as conditioned. Appeal No. 2020-03 - The Supporters Alliance for Environmental Responsibility (SAFER) The SAFER appellant is requesting that the City Council overturn the Planning Commission's decision based on failure to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) by failing to prepare a supplemental or tiered EIR for the project for the following reasons: a. The SAFER appellant contends that City improperly relied on the Metro East Mixed -Use Overlay Program EIR in approving the Central Pointe Project. Staff Response — In approving the Central Pointe Project, the Planning Commission found that it was adequately evaluated in the previously certified MEMU EIR prepared for the MEMU Overlay. SAFER contends that this was an error, because the MEMU EIR "was a programmatic EIR, not a project -level EIR," asserting that the project has never been analyzed under CEQA. SAFER is incorrect. A Program EIR is a type of EIR allowed under the California Environmental Quality Act that is used to evaluate a plan or program having multiple components or actions that are related either geographically, through application of rules or regulations, or as logical parts of a long-term plan. Subsequent activities called for by the Program EIR are compared against the Program EIR and, when consistent with the Program EIR, may be approved without the need for further environmental review. Once a project is approved, CEQA does not require that it be analyzed anew every time another discretionary action is required to implement the project. Quite the opposite, where an EIR has previously been prepared for a project, CEQA expressly prohibits agencies from requiring a subsequent or supplemental EIR, except in specified circumstances provided in Public Resource Code 21166 and CEQA Guidelines Section 15162. Specifically, an agency may not require a subsequent or supplemental EIR unless: (1) Substantial changes are proposed in the project which will require major revisions of the previous EIR due to the involvement of new significant environmental effects or a