(A) Findings. The City Council hereby finds, determines and declares as follows:
(1) The city holds the right to make and enforce all laws and regulations not in conflict with general laws, and the city holds all rights and powers established by state law.
(2) The Planning Commission conducted a duly noticed public hearing on March 15, 2017 at which time a resolution was approved to initiate and recommend to the City Council that this section be adopted. The City Council held duly noticed public hearings on November 28, 2017 and December 12, 2017, and heard the item on January 23, 2018 at which time all interested persons were allowed to address the Council regarding adoption of this section.
(3) The city received a grant from the Strategic Growth Council for the purposes of drafting a Downtown Specific Plan.
(4) The Association of Bay Area Governments has identified downtown Antioch as a Priority Development, a designation intended for areas where investment, new homes and job growth are encouraged.
(5) Cal. Gov’t Code Title 7, Division 1, Chapter 3, Article 8. Specific Plans [§§ 65450-65457] enables the development, adoption, and implementation of Specific Plans in the State of California.
(6) Antioch Municipal Code Title 9, Chapter 5, Article 33: Specific Plans further describes the process for development, adoption, and implementation of Specific Plans in the city.
(7) The City Council finds that the Downtown Specific Plan is consistent with the Antioch General Plan.
(B) The Downtown Specific Plan is hereby adopted.
(C) CEQA.
(1) The 2003 General Plan approval was supported by an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) that described the potential environmental impacts of implementation of the Plan. This EIR addressed the potential impacts of development of downtown Antioch, referred to as Rivertown in the General Plan. The analyzed impacts correlated to downtown Antioch resulted from the increased residential density envisioned by the General Plan and the associated traffic, air quality, and similar development-related impacts. The proposed Downtown Specific Plan increases density over the existing condition, but at a much reduced rate than the General Plan. As a result, the Downtown Specific Plan represents a reduction in anticipated environmental impacts when compared to the General Plan.
(2) Because of this condition, the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) allows for an Addendum to the EIR that was certified with adoption of the General Plan - a new plan-specific EIR is not warranted. A new EIR would have been required only if the Downtown Specific Plan was reasonably expected to generate new or increased impacts that exceed those analyzed by the General Plan EIR.
(Ord. 2135-C-S, passed 2-13-18)