Title
Public Hearing to consider Resolutions Recommending that the City Council Certify the Alameda General Plan Final EIR, Adopt Findings and the Mitigation Monitoring and Reporting Plan, and Approve Alameda General Plan 2040
Body
To: Honorable President and
Members of the Planning Board
From: Andrew Thomas,
Planning, Building & Transportation Director
executive summary
Three years ago, the City of Alameda (City) and the Alameda Planning Board began work on a comprehensive update of the Alameda General Plan. Over the course of the last two years, the Planning Board has held over 14 public meetings, public forums and public hearings to prepare the first comprehensive update of the City’s General Plan in 30 years.
At this time, staff is recommending that the Planning Board conclude its work on the General Plan update and recommend that the City Council certify the Final EIR, adopt findings and the Mitigation Monitoring and Reporting Program, and approve Alameda General Plan 2040 (Exhibit 1) as amended by the Addendum List (Exhibit 2). Both the draft Alameda General Plan 2040 and the Final General Plan Environmental Impact Report (FEIR) are available at <https://www.alameda2040.org/>.
background
State law requires the City of Alameda to maintain a General Plan that is an “integrated, internally consistent and compatible statement of policies for the adopting agency.” (Government Code section 65300.5.) To be an effective, internally consistent set of policies to guide decision making, a General Plan must be up to date and address current planning issues and challenges facing the community. The last comprehensive update of the Alameda General Plan occurred almost 30 years ago. The first sentence of the 1991 Alameda General Plan states: “The General Plan establishes the City of Alameda’s development policies for the period 1990-2010.” Neither the 1991 Land Use Element, nor the 1991 Conservation Element include any policies related to climate change or sea level rise. The 1991 Land Use Element does not address the housing or the needs of the unhoused, but it does prohibit multifamily housing in conflict with 2014 Housing Element policies, which allows multifamily housing to comply with State Law.
A General Plan should be a “living document” that the community and the Planning Board constantly evaluate and adjust. State Law allows the City to amend each mandatory element of its General Plan up to four (4) times a year, except as provided in Government Code section 65358(c)-(d). When new issues arise with the new General Plan, the Planning Board may hold a public hearing and recommend that the City Council amend the General Plan to address the issue or deficiency. State law also requires an annual review of the General Plan, which is conducted every year by the Planning Board. The annual review provides an opportunity to identify issues and amendments necessary to keep the General Plan up to date, internally consistent, and effective.
Finally, State Law also requires that the Alameda community, the Planning Board, and the City Council complete an update of the Housing Element by the end of 2022. To successfully complete the Housing Element on time, the Board must begin focusing its meeting time and public hearings on the Housing Element update effort.
Due to the age and deficiencies of the current General Plan and the requirements of State Law, the City Council authorized work to begin on a comprehensive General Plan update in 2018. The Planning Board began holding public hearings on aspects of the General Plan update in 2019.
In August of 2020, staff completed the first draft Alameda General Plan 2040 for public review and comment, and set up the General Plan website (<https://www.alameda2040.org/>) where updates, documents, and surveys could be easily accessed by the public.
In 2020, the Alameda Planning Board held four public forums to solicit public comment and discussion about the first draft. Approximately 75-80 people attended each of the forums, and over 1,700 individuals, over 25 organizations, and five different City boards and commissions provided written comments and suggestions for improvements to the first draft Plan.
In spring 2021, staff published the second draft General Plan (March 2021 version), which incorporated comments and requested revisions from the Planning Board, the public, and other boards, community groups and commissions.
On March 22, 2021, the Planning Board considered the draft Plan and the schedule of Planning Board meetings to complete the Plan.
On April 26, 2021, the Planning Board held a public hearing to consider the scope of the EIR.
On May 6, 2021, staff published the Draft EIR evaluating the potential environmental impacts of the draft General Plan 2040.
On May 10, 2021, the Planning Board held a joint public hearing with the Transportation Commission to review the draft General Plan.
On June 14, 2021, the Planning Board held a joint public hearing with the Historical Advisory Board to review the draft General Plan.
On June 25, 2021, the required 45 day public comment period ended on the Draft EIR and staff began work on the Final EIR.
On July 12, 2021, the Planning Board held a public meeting to review the list of recommended amendments to the March 2021 draft General Plan.
On September 1, 2021 staff published the Final EIR response to comments (Exhibit 3) received on the adequacy of the Draft EIR, as required by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
DISCUSSION
Alameda General Plan 2040 is the product of an extensive and inclusive community process to craft policies and proposed actions necessary to address major issues facing the Alameda community over the next 20 years, and has resulted in a comprehensive, internally consistent, and forward thinking blueprint for meeting the community’s long-term vision for the future.
The General Plan update could not have been completed without the extended commitment and leadership of the Alameda Planning Board over the past three years to ensure that the draft Plan is inclusive of the views of all Alamedans while addressing the difficult issues facing the community. Under the Planning Board’s guidance, the community has tackled a wide variety of difficult and sometimes sensitive issues in the preparation of this plan.
At this time, staff believes the Planning Board and the Alameda community must shift their attention and resources to the Housing Element update. The work that has been completed over the last three years has created a strong policy foundation for the City’s next milestone - completion of a state certified Housing Element by December 2022. Alameda General Plan 2040 provides policy direction for where and how to address the community’s housing needs over the next 20 years in Alameda. Now the Planning Board and the community must start the much more detailed and specific analysis of how Alameda will accommodate its Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) for the next 8 year RHNA cycle (2023-2031). This work will require much more detailed and specific decision making regarding specific properties, specific residential densities, and specific numbers of units on a particular site or in a specific neighborhood. The Housing Element update will benefit from the work that has been completed in the preparation of Alameda General Plan 2040.
Based on the comments and direction received since the publication of the second draft in March, City staff has compiled a list of recommended revisions to the 2nd draft General Pl. The recommend revisions are shown in Exhibit 2 and were originally presented to the Planning Board on July 12, 2021. To assist review by commenters and the Planning Board, staff has highlighted text in Exhibit 2 that has been changed since July 12, 2021 in response to Planning Board or public comments. Of particular note are the changes made to the land use classifications on pages 14 and 15 of Exhibit 2. These changes ensure that all land use classifications focus on desired uses and development intensity (as measured by Floor Area Ratio). Final decisions regarding permissible residential densities and zoning changes necessary to address the RHNA will be addressed in the Housing Element of the General Plan.
Environmental Review
Adoption of a General Plan is an action that is subject to CEQA. The City of Alameda prepared a Draft EIR disclosing all of the potentially significant environmental impacts associated with Alameda General Plan 2040. The purposes of the EIR are to provide decision makers, public agencies and the public with detailed information about the effect that the Alameda General Plan 2040 will have on the environment, describe and analyze any significant environmental effects of the General Plan update, list ways in which the significant effects of the General Plan update might be minimized, and identify project alternatives that might reduce the environmental impacts.
The City followed the noticing and public disclosure processes required by CEQA to ensure that the public was informed of the preparation of the analysis and able to review and comment on the adequacy of the analysis. The result of these efforts are the Draft EIR released in May 2021 and the Final EIR released on September 2, 2021.
The Final EIR (Exhibit 3) provides a written response to each of the comments received on the adequacy of the environmental analysis and describes any changes recommended to the Draft EIR in response to those comments. Some of the letters, which are all included in the Final EIR, also address policy issues in the General Plan. In some cases, staff did provide a brief response to the policy concerns, even though responses to policy concerns are not required by CEQA in a Final EIR.
As required by CEQA, the recommended mitigations identified in the Draft EIR should be adopted as part of the project. In this case, the recommended mitigation measures were reformatted as General Plan policies to be adopted as part of the General Plan. Those additional policies are shown in Exhibit 2 and described in the draft resolutions recommending certification of the Final EIR and adoption of the mitigation monitoring and reporting program. (See Exhibit 4.)
RECOMMENDATION
That the Planning Board hold a final public hearing and adopt:
1. Resolution recommending that the City Council certify the Final EIR, adopt findings, and adopt the Mitigation Monitoring and Reporting Program.
2. Resolution recommending that the City Council approve Alameda General Plan 2040 as amended by the Addendum List (Exhibit 2).
Respectfully Submitted by:
Andrew Thomas
Planning, Building, and Transportation Director
Exhibits:
1. Alameda General Plan 2040 (March 2021 Draft). Available on the City of Alameda General Plan website (<https://www.alameda2040.org/>)
2. Addendum List
3. Final EIR
4. Resolution recommending certification of Final EIR and adoption of MMRP
5. Resolution recommending approval of Alameda General Plan