Cumulative Impacts
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,. ì \ \ \ . - TRASMITTAL To: Date: THE COUNCIL OCT 2 3 2007 From: " ( THE MAYOR .- TRASMITD FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION. PLEASE SEE ATTACHED. .. ..;d . IÝ ./ /" ANONIO R. VILLARQOSA ~ Mayor ~ITY OF LOS ANGELE~ í COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT RICHARD L. BENBOW CALIFORNIA GENERAL MANAGER DEPARTMENT 1200 W. 7TH STREET LOS ANGELES, CA 90017 ANTONIO R. VILLARAIGOSA MA VOR Council File: 06-3219 Council District: All Contact Persons: Clifford Weiss, 744-9364 Robert Valdez, 744-9334 October 18, 2007 Honorable Antonio R. Villaraigosa Mayor, City of Los Angeles Room 303, City Hall Attention: June Lagmay, Legislative Coordinator COMMITTEE TRANSMITTAL: REQUEST ADOPTION OF THE FINDINGS OF THE FINAL ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT REPORT FOR THE LOS ANGELES STATE ENTERPRISE ZONE DEADLINE FOR ACTION The designation for the Los Angeles State Enterprise Zone (LA SEZ) was conditionally granted to the City effective December 15, 2006. The State agency regulating the Enterprise Zone Program, the California Department of Housing and Community Development, has informed the City that the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) and all other required documents must be submitted by December 15,2007. Failure to submit the documents by that date could result in the City not receiving the final designation for the LA SEZ. For that reason, it is imperative that this transmittal and the Final EIR be approved at the earliest possible date. RECOMMENDATIONS The General Manager of Community Development Department (CDD) respectfully requests that the Mayor and City Council: 1. Certify that the final EIR has been completed in compliance with California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA); that the City Council reviewed and considered the information contained in the final EIR prior to approving the project; the final EIR reflects the City Council's independent judgment and analysis; and that the documents constituting the record of proceedings in this matter are located in Council File No. 06-3219 in the custody of the City Clerk and in the files of the Economic Development Division of the CDD. AN EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY - AFFIRMATIVE ACTION EMPLOYER Final EIR for the LA SEZ Page 2 2. Find that the LA SEZ would not, in and of itself, result in any specific known or projected development projects; therefore, impacts to resource areas within the LA SEZ would not occur as a direct result of the implementation of the Zone and no mitigation measures are required. 3. Approve the creation of the LA SEZ and authorize the General Manager of the CDD or his designee, to submit the Los Angeles SEZ Final EIR to the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) as required by State regulation. 4. The Mayor concurs with the actions of the City CounciL. FISCAL IMPACT Approval of the above recommendations will have no impact on the City's General Fund. The Final EIR was completed using Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds. No additional expenditures on this project are anticipated. SUMMARY State regulations require completion of an EIR prior to the awarding of a final designation for new State Enterprise Zones. A conditional designation was awarded to Los Angeles for the LA SEZ effective December 15, 2006. The final EIR is required to be approved by the local jurisdiction and transmitted to the HCD by December 15, 2007. Failure to abide by this requirement could result in the State declining to award the final SEZ designation. The attached final EIR was completed by the firm Jones & Stokes, an agency on the list of approved environmental contractors for the Department of Public Works, Bureau of Engineering (BOE). The City Council and Mayor previously approved use of $200,000 for this project. The final EIR was completed in conformance with all CEQA regulations. The EIR found that the LA SEZ would not, in and of itself, result in any specific known or projected development projects; therefore, impacts to resource areas within the LA SEZ would not occur as a direct result of the implementation of the Zone. No mitigation measures are required. DISCUSSION i. Background of the SEZ Application Process Three of the City's five SEZ's expired in October 2006: the Mid-Alameda Corridor, Central City and East Valley Zones. The City submitted three applications for new designations to cover those expiring SEZ areas, plus an area stretching from Hollywood through the Wilshire corridor east and south to the Downtown area. Only the Hollywood application received enough points in the competitive statewide selection process to qualify for a conditional SEZ designation. The City and State HCD arrived at a means of qualifying three application areas by physically joining them together, thereby creating one application area, subsequently named the LA SEZ. Final EIR for the LA SEZ Page 3 The LA SEZ conditional designation was deemed effective October 15, 2006. State regulations require as a condition for final designation, completion of a full EIR and approval by the applicant jurisdiction's legislative body. The regulations provided for a fixed period to complete the EIR and all other administrative requirements, but also included provision to grant extensions. Due to the anticipated length of time necessary to seek funding for the EIR consultant, execute a contract, and complete the work, the City sought and received from the HCD the maximum allowed extension, through December 15, 2007. To avoid the extensive time required to issue an RFP, review responses and obtain contract approval via the City Council and Mayor, CDD management determined that the most expeditious method of selecting a contractor would be to utilize one of the pre- approved contractor's on the list maintained by the Department of Public Works, Bureau of Engineering. The City Council and Mayor granted authority to utilize that list and pay the contractor with CDBG funds on February 16, 2007 (C.F. 06-3219). Following a lengthy period in which CDD sought PW Board approval to execute the contract, the environmental firm Jones & Stokes was selected from the list of pre- approved contractors to complete the EIR. The PW BOE issued a Notice of Award and Notice to Proceed with the project on May 4, 2007. II. EIR Process Jones & Stokes brought on board two sub-contractors; Ninyo & Moore for geologic and hazardous materials research, and Fehr & Peers/Kaku Associates for the required traffic studies. The project was difficult in a number of respects: a) the LA SEZ study area was huge, stretching 30 linear miles from Sylmar in the north to 135th Street in the south, encompassing 80 square miles; b) there were no specific construction, commercial development or infrastructure improvement projects associated with the implementation of the LA SEZ, so specific impacts were difficult to quantify; and c) Jones & Stokes had never undertaken an EIR with these parameters. A Notice of Preparation of an EIR was filed with the L.A. County Clerk on May 23,2007. Comments regarding the Notice were due to CDD by June 25, 2007. The Notice was also sent to the State Clearinghouse at the Governor's Office of Planning and Research to solicit state agency comments. A public Scoping Meeting was held at the CDD offices on May 31, 2007 at 4:00 p.m. Notice of the Scoping Meeting was published in local general circulation newspapers and community bulleting boards. No members of the public appeared at the Scoping Meeting. The Draft EIR was published and made available to the public on August 15, 2007. The availability of the report for public review and comment was made in a Notice published in local general circulation newspapers, including local ethnic periodicals such as La Opinion, the L.A. Sentinel, and the Korean Times. The document was also posted on the CDD website and provided to the Los Angeles Public Library and the offices of various City Council members. CEQA requires a 45-day period in which the public may comment on the draft EIR. The public comment period ended October 5,2007. /'--- Final EIR for the LA SEZ /, , Page 4 CDD received three responses to the Draft EIR from the following agencies: the Native American Heritage Commission, the California Public Utiities Commission, and the South Coast Air Quality Management District. None of the responses offered substantive objections to or comments about the draft EIR. Primarily, they all requested that the City inform them of specific future projects or developments resulting from the LA SEZ. No significant changes to the draft EIR were required to be made to the final EIR as a result of the comments. III. EIR Findings, Impacts and Alternatives Since the nature of the LA SEZ is an economic development incentive overlay zone, in which businesses have the option of applying for various State and local tax incentives, there are no specific construction or development projects that will result from the implementation of the Zone. There is an undefined potential for such development projects, but those would most likely require a separate EIR under CEQA regulations. The effect such future development would have on the SEZ area would be entirely speculative and not subject to analysis as part of this EIR process. Pursuant to Section 15145 of the CEQA Guidelines, the potential impacts are noted without additional assessment. The EIR included evaluation of the current status of the following impact areas: . Aesthetics and visual resources . Air quality . Biological resources . Cultural resources . Hydrology and water qualiy . Noise . Public services . Transportation and traffic CEQA regulations require that an EIR describe a range of reasonable alternatives to the project scope or location that could reasonable avoid or mitigate any significant environmental impacts while substantially attaining the basic goals of the project. CEQA requires analysis of a "No project" alternative. In this case, that would entail that no SEZ be designated for the impact area.