Final Environmental Impact Report (FEIR) Exhibit B Additional Responses to Comments and Revisions Chapter 8.1 Introduction CEQA Process for the Project A Draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR), pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) (Public Resources Code [PRC], Section 21000 et seq.), was prepared by the City of Santa Clara (City) to disclose the potential environmental effects of the City Place Santa Clara Project (Project). The Draft EIR, issued for public review on October 9, 2015, includes a description of the Project, an assessment of its potential effects, a description of mitigation measures to reduce significant effects that were identified, and consideration of alternatives that could address potential significant environmental impacts. The Draft EIR was released on October 9, 2015 for a 45-day review period, ending on November 23, 2015 (and subsequently extended to December 7, 2015). During this review period, the document was reviewed by various State, regional, and local agencies, as well as by interested organizations and individuals. Comment letters on the Draft EIR were received from 22 agencies, 9 organizations, and 8 individuals. The Final EIR, which includes the Draft EIR and the Responses to Comments document, responds to written comments on the Draft EIR that were raised during the public review period, and contains revisions intended to correct, clarify, and amplify the Draft EIR. The responses and revisions in this document substantiate and confirm or correct the analyses contained in the Draft EIR. No new significant environmental impacts, no new significant information, and no substantial increase in the severity of an earlier identified impact have resulted from responding to comments. CEQA requires public review only at the Draft EIR stage. In this case, although not required by CEQA, the lead agency elected to provide an opportunity for the public to review and comment on the Final EIR prior to making a decision on the Project, as expressly allowed under Section 15089(b) of the CEQA Guidelines. The Final EIR was released for a 10-day public review period on April 19, 2016. During the 10-day public review period, letters were received from 8 public agencies, 5 organizations, and 2 individuals. As set forth in Section 15089(b) of the CEQA Guidelines, if an opportunity for public review of a Final EIR is provided, the review should focus on the Final EIR's responses to comments on the Draft EIR, including any inadequacies in the responses to comments. Pursuant to Section 15088(a) of the CEQA Guidelines, lead agencies may provide, but are not required to provide, responses to comments received after a Draft EIR review period (including comments received during a Final EIR review period). Accordingly, this Exhibit provides clarification and further documentation to support the analysis and conclusions presented in the Final EIR based on the comments that were received during the Final EIR comment period. As set forth in Section 15089(b) of the CEQA Guidelines, if public review of a Final EIR is provided, the review should focus on the Final EIR's responses to comments on the Draft EIR. Further, Section 15088 of the CEQA Guidelines stipulates that responses should pertain to major or significant environmental issues raised by commenters. Therefore, comments that express an opinion about the merits of the Project or Project alternatives rather than raise questions about the adequacy of the responses to comments or the Draft EIR analysis are not examined in detail in this document. In addition, this document does not provide a response regarding financial concerns or Project design that would not have a physical environmental impact. City Place Santa Clara Project B.l-1 June 2016 Final Environmental impact Report ICF 00333.14 City of Santa Cia ra Introduction How to Use This Exhibit This document addresses comments received after the release of the Final EIR and consists of five sections: • Chapter B.1 - Introduction. Reviews the purpose and contents of this Responses to Comments document. • Chapter B.2 - Responses to Individual Comment Letters. Provides responses to comment letters that were received from two public agencies, the City of San Jose and the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA), after the release of the Final EIR. • Chapter B.3 - Responses to General Comments. Provides a response to general comments that were raised in multiple comment letters received after the release of the Final EIR. As discussed above, as allowed under CEQA, this chapter responds only to those general comments that require further explanation or comments that were not previously submitted to the City. All comments that were addressed in the Responses to Comments document and Final EIR are not readdressed or reproduced. Comments that express an opinion about the merits of the Project or Project alternatives rather than raise questions about the adequacy of the responses to comments or the Draft EIR analysis are not examined in detail in this document, in accordance with the CEQA Guidelines. • Chapter B.4 -Additional Revisions to the Draft EIR. Provides a comprehensive listing of new text changes that have been made to the Draft EIR that are in addition to those that were made in Chapter 5, Revisions to the Draft EIR, of the Final EIR. These additional changes have resulted from responding to comments received after the release of the Final EIR or staff-initiated changes. New text that has been added to the Draft EIR is indicated with underlining. Text that has been deleted is indicated with strikethrough. The base text that is being edited represents text from the Draft EIR as revised in Chapter 5 of the Final EIR. • Chapter B.S- Comment Letters. Contains the compiled comment letters that were received after release of the Final EIR, with the exception of those comment letters provided in Chapter 8.2. The comment letter responses are included in Chapter 8.3, as explained above. City Place Santa Clara Project B.l-2 June 2016 Final Environmental Impact Report ICF 00333.14 City of Santa Clara Introduction Table B.l-1. List of Commenters and Location of Responses Location of Comment Commenter (Date) Letter Public Agencies City of San Jose, The Sohagi Law Group, PLC, Margaret M. Sohago (letter dated April 29, B.2 2016) Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, Jeannie Bruins (letter dated May 5, 2016)/ B.2 Nuria Fernandez (letter dated April 29, 2016)/VTA Talking Points for Public Presentation (public hearing on April26, 2016) San Joaquin Regional Rail Commission, Stacey Mortenson (letter dated May 4, 2016)/ B.2 Altamont Corridor Express, Corrine M. Winter (email dated March 21, 2016) Santa Clara Unified School District, Mark Allgire (letter dated April 28, 2016) B.5 County of Santa Clara Department of Environmental Health, Jim Blarney (letter dated B.S April29, 2016) Santa Clara Valley Water District, Usha Chatwani, P.E., CFM (letter dated April29, 2016) B.S San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board, Terry Seward (letter dated May B.5 9, 2016) Organizations Sierra Club, Committee for Green Foothills, Friends of Cal train and Santa Clara Valley B.S Audubon, Gita Dev, Alice Kaufman, Adina Levin, and Shani Kleinhaus (letter dated March 21, 2016) Greenbelt Alliance, Matt VanderSluis (letter dated April 25, 2016) B.S Irvine Company, Carlene Matchniff (letter dated April 26, 2016) B.S Friends of Caltrain, Adina Levin (email dated May 9, 2016) B.S Sierra Club, Gita Dev and Gladwyn D'Souza (letter dated May 9, 2016) B.5 Individuals Sudhanshu Jain (no date) B.2 Jan Hintermeister (no date) B.5 City Place Santa Clara Project B.l-3 June 2016 Final Environmental impact Report ICF 00333.14 City of Santa Clara Introduction This page intentionally left blank. City Place Santa Clara Project June 2016 B.l-4 Final Environmental Impact Report ICF 00333.14 Chapter 8.2 Responses to Individual Comment letters Introduction Written comments received after release of the Final Environmental Impact Report (EIR) from the City of San Jose, the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA), San Joaquin Regional Rail Commission, Stacey Mortenson/Altamont Corridor Express (ACE), and Sudhanshu Jain are reproduced in this section. These comments were provided to the City of Santa Clara by letter or via email. Responses immediately follow each comment letter. The italicized text in the beginning of each response provides a summary of each distinct comment. The comment letters and responses begin on the following page. City Place Santa Clara Project B.2-1 June 2016 Final Environmental Impact Report ICF 00333.14 City of Santa Clara Responses to Individual Comment Letters Letter from City of San Jose, The Sohagi Law Group, PLC, Margaret M. Sohagi (dated April 29, 2016) City Place Santa Clara Project June 2016 B.2-2 Final Environmental Impact Report ICF 00333.14 City of Santa Clara Responses to Individual Comment Letters Response to City of San Jose, The Sohagi Law Group, PLC, Margaret M. Sohagi (dated April 29, 2016) The Project is Consistent with the City of Santa Clara General Plan General Plan Consistency Requirements San jose asserts that the Project is inconsistent with the jobs/housing goals of the Santa Clara General Plan, and that the Project's proposed land use designation would result in an internally inconsistent General Plan. This issue is addressed in detail in Master Response 1 on page 3-1 of the Final EIR (3-1). The City agrees that a project must be consistent with the terms of the General Plan, though courts have made clear that "precise conformity" is not required, i.e., the project need not be "in rigid conformity with every detail" of the General Plan. To that end, courts afford cities "great deference" in determining whether a project under consideration is consistent with a General Plan.