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Environmental Justice <br />The General Plan's Core Values reinforce the City's commitment to enabling all persons <br />to enjoy equal access to healthy environments, healthy foods, parks and recreational <br />facilities, and civic engagement opportunities. However, the City recognizes that <br />throughout its communities, some bear a disproportionate burden of pollution and <br />associated health risks. The concept of environmental justice (EJ) seeks to correct this <br />inequity by reducing pollution and increasing public investments in these communities <br />and ensuring their input is considered in decisions that affect them. <br />Environmental Justice in the General Plan <br />An EJ community is an area of the city where residents have the highest risk of exposure <br />to pollution in the air, water, and soil. This pollution may be caused by passing vehicles <br />or by the daily activities of businesses and institutions. Residents in these areas also tend <br />to be burdened by socioeconomic and health issues, such as higher rates of language <br />barriers, poverty, and asthma. Such areas also tend to experience lower rates of <br />investment and improvements from individuals, private companies, and public agencies. <br />Removing and addressing the root causes of EJ concerns in the built environment has <br />been made a high priority by the community and the City Council, especially as <br />experienced by low-income neighborhoods and vulnerable households throughout the <br />city. As such, that commitment has been memorialized in over 150 EJ-focused policies <br />and implementation actions within the City's General Plan. <br />Commitment to Addressing EJ Issues <br />To demonstrate the City's commitment to EJ, the City formed a new section, <br />Neighborhood Initiatives and Environmental Services (NIES), within the Planning and <br />Building Agency at the end of 2022 to focus on supporting Santa Ana's disadvantaged <br />communities through General Plan EJ policy and implementation work. In 2024, the NIES <br />team worked diligently to implement and address the EJ-related actions in the General <br />Plan. <br />NIES's accomplishments for the 2024 calendar year include: <br />G <br />Holding trainings to build the capacity of neighborhood associations and provide them <br />with resources to be more autonomous. <br />Rj Resource Allocation <br />Effectively leveraging community feedback by allocating resources to targeted programs, <br />including expanded lead testing and localized air quality monitoring, through successful <br />grant acquisition and agency partnerships. <br />15 <br />