Reso23-14 Reso 0048 PC23-14 PC Reso Recommending Certification of the SEIR GP & DTPP

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Findings and Statements Required by the California Environmental Quality Act Redwood City DTPP Plan-Wide Amendments 9 ESA / 202100421.01 Subsequent Environmental Impact Report May 2023 Impact PH-2: Implementation of the DTPP Plan-Wide Amendments would not displace substantial numbers of existing people or housing, necessitating the construction of replacement housing elsewhere. The proposed DTPP Plan-Wide Amendments would not directly displace any dwelling units. Moreover, the proposed amendments would not substantially increase development potential within the amended DTPP area, particularly in light of the fact that, the only addition to the existing development caps would be to increase the office cap by 80,000 square feet, specifically reserved for small office projects (20,000 net new square feet or less). The SEIR analyzes the potential for total new office development up to 1,167,100 square feet and 830 new residential units in the amended DTPP area. However, as noted above under Section III, DTPP Plan-Wide Amendments and Environmental Review, all increases in the office development cap beyond the 80,000 square feet noted above, and all increases the permitted number of residential units would be considered subsequently by the City, as part of consideration of specific subsequent development projects. The six Gatekeeper Project sites—the most likely sites to undergo development in the near term —do not contain residential units and instead are occupied by one- and two-story office/retail buildings that would likely be removed to accommodate new development at higher densities/intensities. Accordingly, effects of direct displacement would be less than significant, and the proposed DTPP Plan-Wide Amendments would not result in new or more severe impacts than the impacts identified in the DTPP Final EIR. With respect to indirect displacement, this could result from a jobs/housing imbalance if, for example, increased employment, particularly of high-salary positions, were to attract a substantial number of new residents to the amended DTPP area or to Redwood City generally, increasing competition for available housing stock. However, jobs-housing balance is generally most effectively addressed at a regional or sub-regional level, because not every community can demonstrate self-contained jobs-housing equivalency in light of the large number of factors that influence where people live and work. Moreover, the amended DTPP area, at 183 acres, encompasses only 1.5 percent of Redwood City’s land area. While the assumed development to be added under the proposed DTPP Plan-Wide Amendments would have a greater ratio of jobs to employed residents than does Redwood City as a whole, this area that has historically housed many of Redwood City’s jobs. In contrast, there are large areas of the City and region that are exclusively residential. Additionally, the SEIR assumes that, and analyzes the impacts of, the addition of some 830 new housing units to downtown. From a CEQA perspective, the relevant inquiry is whether there are reasonably foreseeable secondary, physical effects of any potential indirect displacement, such as additional VMT, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and air pollutant emissions as displaced residents are forced to locate replacement housing elsewhere and have longer commutes. However, attributing a certain amount of indirect displacement to a specific project, such as the proposed DTPP Plan-Wide Amendments, and then attributing its secondary impacts, would be speculative and thus is beyond the requirements of CEQA. For these reasons, the impact related to potential indirect displacement would be less than significant, and the proposed DTPP Plan-Wide Amendments would not result in new or more severe impacts than the impacts identified in the DTPP Final EIR. (Draft SEIR, pp. 5-13 to 5-15.)