AgdaPkt 2020-11-09 Joint SA PFA - Laserfiche WebLink

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Ms. Lindy Chan, Principal Planner City of Redwood City, Planning Services July 13, 2020 Page 3 Guidelines § 15002(a)(1) and (a)(4).) In line with this goal, the preparer of an EIR must make a genuine effort to obtain and disseminate information necessary to the understanding of impacts of project implementation. (See, CEQA Guidelines § 15151; Sierra Club v. State Board of Forestry (1994) 7 CalAth 1215, 1236.) An EIR must describe existing environmental conditions in the vicinity of the proposed project from both a local and regional perspective, which is referred to as the "environmental setting." (CEQA Guidelines § 15125.) This description of existing environmental conditions serves as the "baseline" for measuring the qualitative and quantitative changes to the environment that will result from the project and for determining whether those environmental effects are significant. (Id.; see also, CEQA Guidelines § 15126.2(a); Neighbors for SmartRail v. Exposition Metro Line Constr. Auth. (2013) 57 C4th 439, 447.) District facilities are a critical part of the Project location's environment, and should be considered throughout the Draft EIR impact categories. As noted, the Project's Parcels A-E and Parcel F are located a mere few blocks southeast of the District's Sequoia High School and Administrative Offices, along El Camino Real. The Project is proposed within the District's Sequoia High School Attendance Boundary, which includes several neighborhoods northeast and southwest of the Project. The proposed Project will be located in between Sequoia High School and the area in which a substantial portion of the District's staff and students that attend Sequoia High School reside, along the main road used by those staff members, students and their families to travel to and from school and the District Office. The Project is located on a road and in a neighborhood that has been heavily impacted by traffic, traffic exhaust, and fumes due to increased development.' The Draft EIR purports to describe the Project's environmental setting in each of the five environmental impact categories that are analyzed in the Draft EIR. (Draft EIR at ES -3.) However, none of the five impact categories include any reference to the District, Sequoia High School, or the District Office. The Draft EIR does not discuss the location of Sequoia High School or its close proximity to the proposed Project. The Draft EIR likewise fails to describe or address the current vehicular and pedestrian paths of travel used by District staff, students and their families to get to and from school or the District Office, in the context of a neighborhood that has already been severely impacted by traffic. Without consideration of these factors, it is impossible for the lead agency and public to assess whether there are any impacts posed by the Project on the District's students, families, and staff, and whether those impacts are significant. As discussed below, the District anticipates that the Project will pose significant impacts in these areas. This omission follows on the Initial Study prepared in July 2019. The Initial Study's description of the environmental setting as it pertains to the District was inadequate in that it assumed that the District's Sequoia High School is located 1.5 miles northwest of the Project site. Thus, the Initial Study misstates the distance between the proposed Project and the District's Sequoia High School by over 100%, underestimating any potential environmental impacts to the District caused by the Project. The Initial Study also violates CEQA Guidelines section 15125 in that it failed to appropriately consider the District's overall facilities capacity. The District's overall enrollment currently exceeds the District's overall facilities capacity, as noted in the "School Fee Justification 2 Redwood City General Plan (October 11, 2010) at Figure BE -14; pp. BE -106 and BE -131.