3B Public Hearing 2007 0904 - Laserfiche WebLink

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1'''''.1111 I V'VI'L.I\ L..1-1 '....0 -.... ~....... ........-...._....... . ---/--- RUTAN ~ ."TTOP:~~Y~ "'T 1./\"<<-" Mayor and Members of the City Council of the City of San Leandro . August 29, 2007 Page 4 Population and Housing . New jobs and increased population created by the TOD Strategy will increase the demand for affordable housing in San Leandro. Unfortunately, San Leandro has not met the affordable housing goals established in its latest Housing Element. To the extent that the project will increase the demand for an already insufficient supply of affordable housing, the project is inconsistent with the City's Housing Eiement and General Plan. These effects should have been analyzed in the EIR. . In addition, to the extent that the residential land uses are increasing beyond that authorized in the City's General Plan, the City is required to demonstrate how the land use element and the transportation element remain appropriately correlated. As this has not been discussed in the Em, the EIR is flawed. . According to the EIR, the TOD Strategy suggests that by 2015 there will be 724,767 square feet less of non-residential job generating land uses as a result of the pr0ject, while resulting in a 439 more residential units than the total envisioned under the General Plan. This is likely to create or exacerbate a significant jobslhousing imbalance, the effects of which were not analyzed in the EIR. . Comments submitted by the organization known as COR, dated July 19, 2007, which were included in the Final EIR, are incorporated by reference into this letter. Public Services . As noted in the EIR, the TOD Strategy would intensify the density of development within the TOD Strategy Area, adding approximately 3,431 new residential units with an estimated population of 8,749 people, approximately 718,240 square feet of office and 120,870 square feet of retail space over the next 20 years, and could adversely affect the provision of fire and police services. The EIR essentially concludes that the overall impacts are too speculative, and that as a result the impacts are considered less than significant. The EIR also indicates that the TOD strategy does not represent "an actual project involving physical development," which appears at odds with the project description of adding thousands of homes to the Strategy Area. The asserted speculative nature of the impacts from the project does not justify, under CEQA, the conclusion that associated impacts are considered less than significant. . The EIR indicates that the project will add 639 new school students within the strategy area, creating a project capacity deficit of 563 students. Page 4.10-21 indicates that this project deficit of classroom space would be a significant impact. The EIR then references Mitigation Measure PUB-I, which contains nothing more than goals and policies, and. indicates that the significance after mitigation is "significant and unavoidable." CEQA requires consideration and implementation of actual mitigation 2901023592-00 13 839931.01 ,08129.'07