Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutPC Resolution 2017-0018EXHIBIT A: Addendum – Final Environmental Impact Report for the Del Rio Road Commercial Area Specific Plan ADDENDUM TO FINAL ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT REPORT – Del Rio Road Commercial Area Specific Plan (Certified by the Atascadero City Council on June 26, 2012) 1.1 INTRODUCTION The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires public agencies to analyze and consider the environmental consequences of decisions to approve development projects that they exercise discretion. CEQA achieves this objective by requiring agencies to prepare Environmental Impact Reports (EIR’s) for projects with the potential to cause significant impacts on the physical environment. EIR’s are public documents that analyze environmental effects related to the planning, construction, and operation of a project, and indicate ways to reduce or avoid possible environmental damage. An EIR also discloses growth-inducing impacts, effects found not to be significant, significant cumulative impacts, and significant impacts that cannot be avoided, if any. The purpose of an EIR is to inform. EIR’s are not policy documents that recommend project approval or denial. As a lead agency, the City of Atascadero prepared an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the Del Rio Road Commercial Area Specific Plan, in compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) (Public Resources Code, section 21000 et seq.) and the State CEQA Guidelines (California Code of Regulations, Section 15000 et seq., as amended). The City Council certified the Final Environmental Impact Report (Final EIR) for the Del Rio Road Commercial Area Specific Plan at a public hearing on June 26, 2012. As noted in the Final EIR, the analysis in the Final EIR was at a “project” level of detail, which anticipated the potential impacts of future approvals to implement the project. Public Resources Code Section 21166 limits the ability of an agency to require an additional EIR, once one has been certified for a project. Section 21166 provides as follows: §21166. Subsequent or Supplemental Impact Report; Conditions. When an environmental impact report has been prepared for a project pursuant to this division, no subsequent or supplemental environmental impact report shall be required by the lead agency or by any responsible agency, unless one or more of the following events occurs: (a). Substantial changes are proposed in the project which will require major revisions of the environmental impact report. (b). Substantial changes occur with respect to the circumstances under which the project is being undertaken which will require major revisions in the environmental impact report. (c). New information, which was not known and could not have been known at the time the environmental impact report was certified as complete, becomes available. The CEQA Guidelines further refine the circumstances under which a supplemental or subsequent EIR may be required. Guidelines Section 15162 provides as follows: 15162. Subsequent EIRs and Negative Declarations. (a) When an EIR has been certified or negative declaration adopted for a project, no subsequent EIR shall be prepared for that project unless the lead agency determines, on the basis of substantial evidence in the light of the whole record, one or more of the following: (1). Substantial changes are proposed in the project which will require major revisions of the previous EIR or negative declaration due to the involvement of new significant environmental effects or a substantial increase in the severity of previously identified significant effects; (2). Substantial changes occur with respect to the circumstances under which the project is undertaken which will require major revisions of the previous EIR or negative declaration due to the involvement of new significant environmental effects or a substantial increase in the severity of previously identified significant effects; or (3). New information of substantial importance, which was not known and could not have been known with the exercise of reasonable diligence at the time the previous EIR was certified as complete or the negative declaration was adopted, shows any of the following: (A). The project will have one or more significant effects not discussed in the previous EIR or negative declaration; (B). Significant effects previously examined will be substantially more severe than shown in the previous EIR; (C). Mitigation measures or alternatives previously found not to be feasible would in fact be feasible and would substantially reduce one or more significant effects of the project, but the project proponents decline to adopt the mitigation measure or alternative; or (D). Mitigation measures or alternatives which are considerably different from those analyzed in the previous EIR would substantially reduce one or more significant effects on the environment, but the project proponents decline to adopt the mitigation measure or alternative. The City has received an application for a hotel use within the Del Rio Road Commercial Area Specific Plan. Hotel uses are allowed within the Commercial Retail (CR) zone, which is therefore allowed within the specific plan, if an Amendment to the Master Plan of Development is approved. Before acting on the proposed Amendment, the Planning Commission and the City Council must apply the standards outlined above to determine whether a subsequent or supplement EIR is required. After reviewing the facts and analyzing the circumstances. City staff has determined that a new EIR is not required because none of the circumstances described in CEQA Section 21166, as implemented by CEQA Guidelines Section 15162, would occur. Staff has prepared an Addendum to discuss these issues and the basis for this determination. 2.0 Del Rio Road / US 101 Interchange / Del Rio Road & El Camino Real The certified Final EIR for the Del Rio Road Commercial Area Specific Plan included a traffic analysis originally completed in 2010 for the Specific Plan, and later updated in 2012. It was the 2012 traffic study to which mitigation measures were crafted and adopted as a part of the certified Final EIR. The Draft EIR contained mitigation measures that required intersection improvements at El Camino Real / Del Rio Road and improvements to the Del Rio Road / US 101 interchange. The Draft EIR analysis concluded the following:  The Del Rio Road / US Highway 101 interchange would have acceptable levels of service following completion of a large retail store on the Wal-Mart site;  The Del Rio Road / US Highway 101 interchange would have acceptable operations with baseline traffic (existing traffic, plus entitled projects with construction time frames of 2-3 years circa 2012) plus large retailer;  The Del Rio Road / US Highway 101 interchange would have unacceptable operations with existing traffic plus all proposed build-out of the Specific Plan uses (including Annex properties);  The Del Rio Road / US Highway 101 interchange would have unacceptable operations with baseline traffic plus all proposed build -out of the Specific Plan. The City received a comment letter from the Department of Transportation (Caltrans) in regards to proposed mitigation in the Draft EIR. Caltrans’ comments incl uded the following: Caltrans Letter to City – Del Rio Road Draft EIR 4/30/2012 Based on this comment letter received from Caltrans, the Final EIR included an errat um to mitigation measures with specific timing mechanisms for the completion of Del Rio Road / US Highway 101 interchange improvements. Therefore, the Final EIR contained mitigation measures that read as follows: MM TRANS-1d – Prior to issuance of each building permit for the project, the project applicant shall provide the City of Atascadero with proportional-share fees for the conversion of the intersection of Del Rio Road/US 101 Northbound Ramps to a single-lane modern roundabout with a minimum 150-foot-long, right-turn bypass lane on the westbound approach. The traffic impact fee shall be based on the size of the building subject to the building permit and shall be consistent with the proportional share methodology prepared by RCS as described in the “TIF Collection Process” discussion in Section 3.11, Transportation. The City of Atascadero shall collect the fees and shall be responsible for constructing the roundabout improvements. Implementation of the northbound and southbound roundabouts shall occur in tandem. The roundabout shall be in place no later than the issuance of the first certificate of occupancy for the Annex commercial uses. MM TRANS-1e – Prior to issuance of each building permit for the project, the project applicant shall provide the City of Atascadero with proportional-share fees for the construction of a five- legged, single-lane modern roundabout at the intersection of Del Rio Road/US 101 Southbound Ramps that incorporates Ramona Road as the fifth approach. The traffic impact fee shall be based on the size of the building subject to the building permit and shall be consistent with the proportional share cost methodology prepared by RCS as described in the “TIF Collection Process” discussion in Section 3.11, Transportation. The City of Atascadero shall collect the fees and shall be responsible for constructing the roundabout improvements. Implementation of the northbound and southbound roundabouts shall occur in tandem. The roundabout shall be in place no later than the issuance of the first certificate of occupancy for the Annex commercial uses. The City of Atascadero certified the Final EIR with this mitigation language. The mitigation was silent on the establishment of traffic thresholds (# of trips) for completion of improvements. The timing of the improvements was instead tied to specific development sites, therefore allowing Walmart to proceed and the Annex to wait for completion of interchange. Because the Annex portion did not contain a clear phasing, nor identify specific tenants, this portion of the Specific Plan included no clear metrics to base interchange performance models for the timing of improvements, tied to the amount of trips generated by the use. The City has been actively moving forward in the development process to construct interchange improvements, consistent with the Specific Plan, since 2013. Preliminary designs, including cost estimates and location of improvement s have been identified. City staff requested a supplemental traffic analysis for the proposed hotel amendment since the Specific Plan only included a traffic analysis based on commercial retail trips. This analysis was reviewed by the City Engineer, its consultant on the interchange roundabout for Highway 101 / Del Rio Road (for peer review purposes), and the Community Development Department. This supplemental traffic analysis examined the following scenarios:  The amount of existing plus baseline traffic (projects expected to be completed between 2016-2019) that have entitlements with the proposed hotel amendment in only;  The baseline traffic, plus a large big box development with ancillary commercial retail on the southern portion of the Specific Plan (formerly Walmart Site) measuring a total of 139,560 sf of commercial retail development, plus 44 high density multi-family units, plus the proposed hotel amendment project;  Baseline traffic, with hotel, Walmart uses, plus additional peak hour trips (100, 150, and 300 peak hour pm trips) from the Specific Plan Area or nearby uses. The supplemental study reviewed three key intersections:  Del Rio Road / El Camino;  Del Rio Road / US 101 Northbound Ramps;  Del Rio Road / US 101 Southbound Ramps; The supplemental traffic study assumed that development of the southern portion of the Specific Plan (Walmart portion), would complete the required roundabout consistent with project conditions of approval and the certified Final EIR Mitigation Measures. The supplemental traffic analysis concluded that a 120 -room hotel room would create 980 new daily trips and 72 PM peak hour trips and 64 AM peak trips. The PM peak trips and total number of trips are significantly lower with a hotel use versus the originally proposed commercial retail development. The supplemental traffic study also identified performance measures for the Del Rio Road / US Highway 101 interchange, in addition to the Del Rio Road / El Camino Real intersection. The traffic supplemental determined:  Existing traffic plus the proposed project (hotel amendment), all study intersections would operate above LOS C for the El Camino Real / Del Rio Road and acceptable levels for the US 101 / Del Rio Road interchange per Caltrans standards. This scenario assumes no development in the southern portion of the Specific Plan (formerly Walmart portion), and existing signalized intersection would remain;  Baseline traffic (which includes development on the southern portion of the Specific Plan) plus the proposed project (h otel amendment), all study intersections would operate above LOS C for the El Camino Real / Del Rio Road and acceptable levels for the US 101 / Del Rio Road interchange per Caltrans standards. This scenario assumes that the Del Rio Road / El Camino Real intersection would be converted to a 4-leg roundabout, consistent with the certified Final EIR mitigation measure MM Trans 1 -a and 1-b, as well as, the Master Plan of Development Conditions of Approval;  Baseline traffic, plus the hotel, plus additional trips, concludes that a total of 150 PM peak trips are available before the US 101 / Del Rio Road interchange degrades into an “unacceptable” level of operations, triggering the need for a 5-legged roundabout, consistent with Final EIR MM Trans 1-d and 1-e. Therefore, based on the supplemental traffic analysis findings, the addendum to the certified Final EIR for the Del Rio Road Commercial Area Specific Plan proposes the following mitigation measures modification. Added language is in bold underline, and removed verbiage in strikeout format: Modifications to Del Rio Road Final EIR Mitigation Measures MM TRANS-1d – Prior to issuance of each building permit(s) for the project, the project applicant(s) shall provide the City of Atascadero with proportional-share fees for the conversion of the intersection of Del Rio Road/US 101 Northbound Ramps to a single-lane modern roundabout with a minimum 150-foot-long, right-turn bypass lane on the westbound approach. The traffic impact fee shall be based on the size of the building subject to the building permit and shall be consistent with the proportional share methodology prepared by RCS as described in the “TIF Collection Process” discussion in Section 3.11, Transportation. The City of Atascadero shall collect the fees and shall be responsible for constructing the roundabout improvements. Implementation of the northbound and southbound roundabouts shall occur in tandem. The roundabout shall be in place no later than the issuance of the first certificate of occupancy for the Annex commercial uses. The improvements shall be in place no later than the issuance of the first certificate of occupancy for any new commercial development constructed following the occupancy of Wal-Mart store, the 120 room hotel within the Annex portion and additional land uses that result in no more than 150 PM peak trips. MM TRANS-1e – Prior to issuance of each building permit for the project, the project applicant(s) shall provide the City of Atascadero with proportional-share fees for the construction of a five-legged, single-lane modern roundabout at the intersection of Del Rio Road/US 101 Southbound Ramps that incorporates Ramona Road as the fifth approach. The traffic impact fee shall be based on the size of the building subject to the building permit(s) and shall be consistent with the proportional share cost methodology prepared by RCS as described in the “TIF Collection Process” discussion in Section 3.11, Transportation. The City of Atascadero shall collect the fees and shall be responsible for constructing the roundabout improvements. Implementation of the northbound and southbound roundabouts shall occur in tandem. The roundabout shall be in place no later than the issuance of the first certificate of occupancy for the Annex commercial uses. The improvements shall be in place no later than the issuance of the first certificate of occupancy for any new commercial development constructed following the occupancy of Wal-Mart store, the 120 room hotel within the Annex portion and additional land uses that result in no more than 150 PM peak trips. The certified Final EIR concluded that in order to mitigate impacts created by the completion of the Del Rio Road Commercial Area Specif ic Plan, a new 5-legged roundabout would be needed at the US 101 / Del Rio Road interchange. This impact would remain the same, with the proposed amendment in use, when taken in conjunction with the project approvals of the Specific Plan. The supplemental traffic analysis, with the additional information provided by the applicant, shows that there are no "new significant environmental effects or substantial increase in the severity of previously identified significant effects." (Section 15162(a)(1).) 2.1 Application of CEQA Guideline Section 15612 Is there substantial evidence in the record revealing that there have been substantial changes proposed in the project which will require major revisions of the previous EIR due to the involvement of new significant environmental effects or a substantial increase in the severity of previously identified significant effects as a result of the MP Annex, LLC’s proposed Hotel Use? No, there is no evidence suggesting that substantial changes to the project have been proposed. As noted above, the previous EIR analyzed the impacts of the Specific Plan Amendment with commercial retail uses throughout the majorit y of the project. The proposed Master Plan of Development Addendum would include a 120 room hotel, when compared to the 16,850 sf of retail. With the supplemental traffic analysis identifying uses in both the Specific Plan area, as well as, an update to the baseline traffic scenario, impacts and mitigation are unchanged: a new interchange will be needed for build-out of the Specific Plan. The Amendment to the mitigation measure further refines the intent and timing of the language, which is to ensure that development of the Specific Plan does not degrade the interchange into unacceptable levels. The proposed clarification allows for a portion of the Annex property development to proceed, with the City collecting additional monies that specifically go towards improving the Del Rio Road / US 101 interchange. Therefore, no substantial change in the project has been proposed. Is there substantial evidence in the record revealing that there have been substantial changes with respect to the circumstances under which the project is undertaken which will require major revisions of the previous EIR due to the involvement of new significant environmental effects or a substantial increase in the severity of previously identified significant effects as a result of the MP Annex LLC’s proposed hotel use within the Specific Plan? No, there is no evidence suggesting that there have been substantial changes with respect to the circumstances under which the project is undertaken which will require major revisions to the previous EIR. At the time of the certification of the EIR, commercial-retail uses were envisioned for the majority of the proposed Specific Plan. The additional traffic supplemental analysis reveals that no new significant environmental effects would result from the substitution of a hotel, and there will be no increase in the severity of any previously identified significant effects. Nonetheless, it is important to note that there has been no change at this time from the circumstances analyzed in the EIR. Is there substantial evidence in the record revealing that there is new information of substantial importance related to the MP Annex LLC’s hotel use proposal, which was not known and could not have been known with the exercise of reasonable diligence at the time the previous EIR was certified that shows: (1) the project will have one or more significant effects not discussed in the EIR, (2) significant effects previously shown will be substantially more severe that shown in the previous EIR, (3) mitigation measure or alternatives previously found to be infeasible would in fact be feasible, or (4) there are considerably different mitigation measure or alternatives from those analyzed in the previous EIR that would substantially reduce one or more significant effects? No, there is no evidence suggesting that there is new information of substantial importance relating to new significant effects or the severity of previously identified significant effects, or new alternatives or mitigation measures or the efficacy of previously considered alternatives or mitigation measures. At the time of the certification of the previous EIR, retail uses were envisioned for the Annex portion. This analysis reveals that no new significant environmental effects would result from construction of a hotel, instead of a commercial retail uses, and there will be no increase in the severity of any previously identified significant effects. As a consequence of this conclusion, it can be concluded that no new mitigation measures or alternatives need be analyzed. Nonetheless, it is important to note that there has been no change at thi s time from the circumstances analyzed in the EIR. 3.0 BASIS FOR DECISION TO PREPARE AN ADDENDUM CEQA Guidelines Section 15164 explains when an addendum to an EIR is required: (a) The lead agency or a responsible agency shall prepare an addendum to a previously certified EIR if some changes or additions are necessary but none of the conditions described in Section 15162 calling for preparation of a subsequent EIR have occurred. (b) An addendum to an adopted negative declaration may be prepared if only minor technical changes or additions are necessary or none of the conditions described in Section 15162 calling for the preparation of a subsequent EIR or negative declaration have occurred. (c) An addendum need not be circulated for public review but can be included in or attached to the final EIR or adopted negative declaration. (d) The decision-making body shall consider the addendum with the final EIR or adopted negative declaration prior to making a decision on the project. (e) A brief explanation of the decision not to prepare a subsequent EIR pursuant to Section 15162 should be included in an addendum to an EIR, the lead agency's required findings on the project, or elsewhere in the record. The explanation must be supported by substantial evidence. Although the project description and timing has been refined, an addendum is appropriate because there have been minor technical additions and new information and because none of the conditions described in Section 15162 calling for preparation of a subsequent EIR have occurred. More specifically, the project will reduce the level of anticipated retail development, therefore reducing peak hour vehicle trips. These occurrences do not constitute substantial changes to the project or the circumstances due to the involvement of new significant environmental effects or a substantial increase in the severity of previously identified significant effects. Similarly, neither subsequent considerations nor statutory changes constitute new information that would show new effects or substantially more severe effects. Likewise, there are no known mitigation measures that would in fact be feasible or that would substantially reduce significant effects, that the project proponent has declined to adopt. Furthermore, there have been no other changes, evidence or new information which would require revisions to the previous EI R. Because none of the criteria in Section 15162 has been met, an addendum is appropriate. 1 Attachment 1: Threshold for Roundabout Interchange Letter 2 Attachment 2: Annex Hotel Traffic Memorandum Attachment 1: Threshold for Roundabout Interchange Letter Attachment 2: Annex Hotel Traffic Memorandum