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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPresentation #28 - Transit Zoning Code Urgency Interim OrdinanceUrgency Interim Ordinance Item #28 Planning and Building Agency April 16, 2024 Slide 1 Transit Zoning Code 45-Day Industrial Moratorium Urgency Interim Ordinance Item #28 Planning and Building Agency April 16, 2024 Slide 2 Overview Recommended Action: Adopt an Urgency Interim Ordinance (Moratorium) by Four-Fifths Vote Area: Specific Development No. 84 (the Transit Zoning Code or “TZC”) Purpose: Address current and immediate threats to public health, safety, and welfare, due to the irreconcilable land use conflicts within the Transit Zoning Code and growing community complaints from recent severe incidents Urgency Interim Ordinance Item #28 Planning and Building Agency April 16, 2024 Slide 3 Urgency Interim Ordinance •A 45-day moratorium would go into effect immediately on the approval, commencement, establishment, modification, relocation, or expansion of industrial uses in the TZC while City staff immediately begins to research appropriate regulations and determine whether an extension pursuant to the Government Code is necessary. •The urgency ordinance shall have no further force and effect 45 days from the date of its adoption, unless, after a report on the first 45 days and a public hearing, the City Council members, again by four/fifths (4/5) vote, extend for an initial extension period of 10 months and 15 days. •Allows for City staff to analyze and prepare an evaluation of industrial business uses within the TZC to generate recommendations to determine whether industrial uses should be permitted in the zoning district, and, if not, proceed with an ordinance and zoning map amendment to the district. Urgency Interim Ordinance Item #28 Planning and Building Agency April 16, 2024 Slide 4 Background •On June 2010, the City Council adopted the TZC, establishing a transit-supportive, pedestrian-oriented development framework to support the addition of new mixed-use communities, transit infrastructure; and to preserve and reinforce the existing character and pedestrian nature of the City. •At the time of adoption, the General Plan designations of this area were changed to support mixed-use communities. –These General Plan land use designations immediately resulted in zoning inconsistencies and land use conflicts between the new General Plan land use designations and the industrial overlays. –These inconsistencies continued, even after the April 2022 General Plan Update. Urgency Interim Ordinance Item #28 Planning and Building Agency April 16, 2024 Slide 5 Background •The TZC established new zoning for all of the properties within TZC boundary for new mixed-use communities, except for those zoned Light Industrial (M1) or Heavy Industrial (M2). •Two overlay zones covering M1 and M2 properties allows for the ongoing operations of industrial uses in this area, with the option of future mixed-use development to be exercised at the discretion of the property owner. –Since 2010, industrial uses have remained, changed ownership, undergone expansions or intensifications. –Industrial activities have created numerous land use conflicts and disturbances with existing and new infill residential communities that affect surrounding residents. –Impacts include odors, dust, traffic, noise, vibrations, and other documented impacts. Urgency Interim Ordinance Item #28 Planning and Building Agency April 16, 2024 Slide 6 New General Plan, SB 1000, and EJ Policies •Adopted in 2022, Santa Ana’s current General Plan champions implementation policies, including 77 EJ actions that address air quality, noxious uses, water safety, residential lead exposure in the soil, and other environmental public health conditions. •City’s EJ Office established in the Planning Division’s Neighborhood Initiatives and Environmental Services (NIES) section, which has been tracking and monitoring ongoing land use conflicts in the City’s most impacted neighborhoods. •Over the past year, NIES section has worked on a process to create an EJ Action Committee of EJ cluster area residents, community-based organizations (CBOs), and County and City staff representatives, to guide implementation and resource investments to address further environmental harm and quality of life impacts. Urgency Interim Ordinance Item #28 Planning and Building Agency April 16, 2024 Slide 7 Code Enforcement Activity •Investigated over 33 commercial and industrial properties during the past nine months alone. –Site visits, and –Investigations by City Code Enforcement and Planning staff, as well as outside agencies such as SCAQMD and OCFA. •17 active open cases that have been issued Notice of Violations and administrative citations for the following types of violations: illegal storage, land use, zoning, property and landscape maintenance, unpermitted work, business license, and certificate of occupancy, and include issues of odors, dust, traffic, noise, vibrations, and other documented impacts. •The close proximity of active open industrial cases during a short period is creating a public nuisance that is harming public health, safety, and general welfare of residential neighborhoods from the concentration of open code enforcement cases nearby. Urgency Interim Ordinance Item #28 Planning and Building Agency April 16, 2024 Slide 8 Comprehensive Zoning Code Update •The City Council approved a contract with Moore, Iacofano, Goltsman, Inc. (MIG) on October 17, 2023. •MIG and City staff have conducted extensive community outreach, stakeholder interviews, and reviews of existing zoning-related codes and policies in Santa Ana. These early evaluations and interviews indicate that irreconcilable land use conflicts and land use inconsistencies in the TZC area are among the top, most pressing topics that must be addressed as part of the comprehensive Zoning Code Update. •Failure to immediately address ongoing irreconcilable land use conflicts that are the target of this moratorium will further exacerbate the ongoing demographic and environmental justice challenges that neighborhoods within the TZC like Logan and Lacy have grappled with since their founding, delaying an opportunity to address these issues for an indefinite period. Urgency Interim Ordinance Item #28 Planning and Building Agency April 16, 2024 Slide 9 CEQA and Fiscal Impact •The proposed ordinance is not subject to the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines Section 15060(c)(2), because the activity will not result in a direct or reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment Guidelines Section 15060(c)(3), because the activity is not a project as defined in Section 15378 of the CEQA Guidelines California Code of Regulations, Title 14, Chapter 3, because it has no potential for resulting in physical change to the environment, directly or indirectly and so is not a project •Notice of Exemption will be filed upon adoption of this urgent ordinance •There is no fiscal impact associated with this project Urgency Interim Ordinance Item #28 Planning and Building Agency April 16, 2024 Slide 10 Staff Recommendations 1.Adopt an urgency ordinance adopting a 45-day moratorium on the approval, commencement, establishment, relocation, or expansion of industrial uses within Specific Development No. 84 zoning district (the Transit Zoning Code) 2.Find that, in accordance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), the proposed action is not subject to the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act, pursuant to (Guidelines) Section 15060(c)(2) and Section 15060(c)(3) because the activity or project has no potential for resulting in physical change to the environment Urgency Interim Ordinance Item #28 Planning and Building Agency April 16, 2024 Slide 11 Discussion Urgency Interim Ordinance Item #28 Planning and Building Agency April 16, 2024 Slide 12 Santa Ana’s Disadvantaged Neighborhoods: Logan and Lacy (cont’d) •Rank at least 90% or higher in heavy air pollution attributed to indicators describing exposures to: Particulate Matter (PM) 2.5 Diesel Particulate Matter, Air Toxics Cancer Risk, Toxic Releases to Air, and Hazardous Water Proximity CalEnviroScreen 4.0 Highest Pollution Burden score of 90% and above for Lacy and Logan neighborhoods Urgency Interim Ordinance Item #28 Planning and Building Agency April 16, 2024 Slide 13 Fire Incident and Other Pollution Concerns •Video from August 29th showed high flames escaping the stack on the rooftop of the crematory facility, sounding a screeching noise nonstop for 10 minutes, and neighbors noticed a foul smell coming from the fire. •Other concerns, reported by neighbors, range from air pollution and smoke, toxic release exposures, idling trucks on residential streets, lead exposure, illegal storage, unpermitted uses, loud noise at night, and other property maintenance pose an immediate public health threat that is straining public resources to continuously investigate and address these matters Crematory Fire August 29, 2023 at 9:18 p.m. Urgency Interim Ordinance Item #28 Planning and Building Agency April 16, 2024 Slide 14 Santa Ana’s Disadvantaged Neighborhoods: Logan and Lacy •Lacy and Logan neighborhoods are more dense than the City as a whole. Combined population density is 15,531.7 persons per square mile, whereas the City’s is 12,471.5 people per square mile Highlights from the U.S. Census Bureau and ESRI forecasting data Logan Lacy Urgency Interim Ordinance Item #28 Planning and Building Agency April 16, 2024 Slide 15 Logan: A Historically Disadvantaged Community •Oldest Mexican and Mexican-American neighborhood of Santa Ana and one of the oldest barrios in Orange County •Originated as early as 1886 and was largely settled by 1900, before the practice of zoning was enshrined by Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co.in 1926 •Restrictions and covenants based on race during the first half of the 20th century limited Mexicans and those of Mexican descent to buy land in a few places like Logan •By early 1920’s, Logan neighborhood comprised residential, industrial, commercial, and related land uses, with issues further exacerbated by rail lines, fuel storage depots, and the construction of the Santa Ana Freeway between 1947 and 1956. Urgency Interim Ordinance Item #28 Planning and Building Agency April 16, 2024 Slide 16 General Plan Inconsistency with Present Land Uses •Numerous policies of the General Plan are inconsistent with the present, irreconcilable land use pattern of the TZC. Specifically, these policies include: Policy LU-1.1 (Compatible Uses), Policy LU-3.8 (Sensitive Receptors), Policy LU-3.9 (Noxious, Hazardous, Dangerous, and Polluting Uses), Policy LU-3.11 (Air Pollution Buffers), Policy LU-4.3 (Sustainable Land Use Strategies), Policy LU-4.6 (Healthy Living Conditions), Policy CM-3.2 (Healthy Neighborhoods), Policy EP-1.9 (Avoid Conflict of Uses), and Policy CN-1.5 (Sensitive Receptor Decisions), •Policies aim to correct past land use planning practices that have placed an unequitable environmental and health burden on certain neighborhoods now termed disadvantaged communities.