Environmental Review of the General Plan

An integral component of the General Plan Update is the environmental review required by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) which will analyze potential environmental impacts from implementation of the updated General Plan. Because the General Plan is a long-range policy document, the associated environmental analysis will be programmatic in that it will not analyze a specific construction project, but will look at the overall impacts of the policy and land use direction provided in the General Plan.

Consistent with CEQA, the City as the lead agency must complete the appropriate environmental analysis prior to approval of a project.  More specifically, the City Council must certify an Environmental Impact Report prior to the adoption of the General Plan Update.

While there has been considerable work completed as part of the General Plan Update process over the last four years, we are now at a point in the process when it is appropriate for the environmental review process to initiate. The environmental review process will now occur concurrently with the development of the Draft General Plan so that both documents can be ready for concurrent review by decision makers over the next year!! This will allow the City to finalize the draft General Plan in a way that is responsive to the environmental analysis and culminate with certification of the EIR and adoption of the GP!

EIR Overview

An Environmental Impact Report (EIR) is a detailed analysis of the environmental effects of a plan or development project. The EIR identifies alternatives to the proposed project and presents ways to reduce or avoid environmental damage.

The Environmental Impact Report(EIR) will analyze the environmental effects of implementing the updated General Plan, including the impacts of future development patterns, infrastructure improvements, and policy changes.

The EIR is intended to be a program-level document that will analyze the effects of the proposed General Plan Update. Program EIRs generally analyze broad environmental effects of the program, with the acknowledgment that site-specific environmental review may be required for future actions. The purpose of a Program EIR is to allow the lead agency to consider broad policy alternatives and program-wide mitigation measures at a time when the agency has greater flexibility to deal with basic problems or cumulative impacts.

Upon completion of the draft EIR, the City will initiate a 45-day public comment period. Following this comment period, the City will prepare the Final Environmental Impact Report. This is followed by an additional 10 day public comment period. The final EIR will be presented for certification at the same time that the updated General Plan is presented for adoption. To receive updates on the EIR process and the General Plan update, please subscribe to our mailing list.