That the City Council APPROVE AND ADOPT RESOLUTION NO. ____ ENTITLED: A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF LA HABRA, CALIFORNIA, APPROVING GENERAL PLAN AMENDMENT 23-01 TO: (1) AMEND CHAPTER 2 (COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT) AND APPENDIX C (GLOSSARY OF TERMS) TO PROVIDE CONSISTENCY WITH THE HOUSING ELEMENT; (2) AMEND CHAPTER 7 (COMMUNITY SAFETY) AND ADD NEW APPENDICES D (CLIMATE CHANGE VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENT) AND E (HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL EQUITY ASSESSMENT) TO COMPLY WITH GOVERNMENT CODE SECTION 65302(G) AND SENATE BILL 1000 (2016) RELATED TO WILDFIRE AND EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS, CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION, AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE; AND (3) AMEND CHAPTER 8 (IMPLEMENTATION MANUAL) TO INCLUDE THE NEW POLICIES AND ADD NEW PROGRAMS AS PART OF THE UPDATES TO CHAPTER 2 (DEVELOPMENT) AND CHAPTER 7 (COMMUNITY SAFETY); AND MAKING A DETERMINATION THAT GENERAL PLAN AMENDMENT 23-01 IS EXEMPT FROM THE CALIFORNIA ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY ACT (CEQA) UNDER SECTION 15061(B)(3) (COMMON SENSE EXEMPTION) OF THE CEQA GUIDELINES. 

A General Plan is a comprehensive long-term blueprint that guides a city's development. In California, State law requires a city's general plan to include the following elements: land use, circulation, housing, conservation, open space, noise, and safety. The City of La Habra General Plan includes the following chapters and appendices, with the State-mandated elements included in each chapter identified in parentheses:

The La Habra General Plan was last comprehensively updated in 2014 and is available for public review on the City's website. Periodically, each of the above elements must be updated to comply with changing State law requirements. For instance, State law requires the Housing Element to be updated every eight years. Therefore, on September 19, 2022, after a lengthy multi-year public process, the City Council adopted the 2021-2029 (6th Cycle) General Plan Housing Element. As part of the adoption of the Housing Element, the City Council found that the document was substantially compliant with State law. The California State Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) later certified the City's Housing Element on April 21, 2023, following some non-substantive administrative changes. The adoption of the Housing Element triggered the amendments that are now the subject of GPA 23-01. The proposed amendments would modify Chapters 2 (Community Development), 7 (Community Safety), and 8 (Implementation Manual), and Appendix C (Glossary of Terms); and, add Appendices D (Climate Change Vulnerabilities) and E (Health and Environmental Justice Assessment), as further described below. 

 

On December 11, 2023, staff presented GPA 23-01 to the Planning Commission, after which the Commission approved a resolution recommending that City Council approve GPA 23-01. The staff report and minutes from the Planning Commission meeting are provided as Attachments 2 and 3. 

Chapter 7 (Community Safety) and Appendix D (Climate Change Vulnerabilities Assessment)

Chapter 7 of the General Plan establishes goals and policies that help to minimize the risks of personal injury, loss of life, property damage and environmental damage from natural and human-caused hazards. GPA 23-01 would amend Chapter 7 to comply with several State laws (i.e., Senate Bill (SB) 1035, Assembly Bill (AB) 747, SB 99, SB 1241, AB 2911) that are required to be implemented in conjunction with the update of the Housing Element. Attachment 6 shows the full red-line changes that are proposed to Chapter 7. To ensure compliance with the above changes in State law, staff authorized Placeworks Inc. to prepare a Climate Change Vulnerabilities Assessment (CCVA). The CCVA, provided as Exhibit E of the Draft Resolution (Attachment 1), identifies the City’s most vulnerable groups and community assets and discusses the potential impacts of extreme weather and natural disasters related to climate change. As a result of the findings of this report, staff proposes adding the CCVA as Appendix D to the General Plan and amending Chapter 7 to:

• Expand the Natural Hazards section to include new policies that will help avoid/minimize wildfire hazards associated with new development within the City’s Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone (VHFSZ), add new property maintenance fire preventative measures, ensure an adequate infrastructure (i.e., water supply, fire flow, fire breaks, etc.), and ensure ongoing compliance with the latest California Building and Fire Codes.
• Add three new goals (i.e., NH 4: Drought Reduction, NH 5: Heat Wave Resilience, NH 6: Reduction of Extreme Storm Hazards) and policies to the Natural Hazards section to ensure that La Habra is adaptive and resilient in responding to changing climate conditions such as drought, heat waves, and extreme weather.   
• Adopt a new goal (NH 7: Reduction of Human Health Hazards) and polices in the Natural Hazards section to address human health hazards and provide guidance on how to minimize exposure to vector-borne diseases such as, but not limited to, West Nile virus and influenza, and initiate new preparation and management measures. 
• Update the Disaster and Emergency Preparedness and Response section to include new policies to enhance the City's evacuation preparedness/capacity, improve outside agency coordination efforts, and ensure consistency with the La Habra Local Hazard Mitigation Plan (LHMP).

Chapter 7 (Community Safety) and Appendix E (Health and Environmental Justice Assessment)

GPA 23-01 would also amend Chapter 7 to comply with SB 1000 (2016), which requires cities to identify in their General Plan any disadvantaged communities that are located within their city. In doing so, cities are required to describe disadvantaged areas, including describing the unique pollution burdens and health risks the communities face. Community engagement in the identification process is also important for ensuring that a city has identified all disadvantaged communities within its planning area and for understanding the specific needs of each identified community. 

To comply with this legislation and inform staff about potential amendments to the General Plan, staff authorized Placeworks Inc. to prepare a Health and Environmental Justice Assessment (HEJA). The HEJA identifies the Disadvantaged Communities within La Habra, as well as environmental and population issues faced by those residents. GPA 23-01 proposes to include the HEJA as Appendix E to the General Plan (see Exhibit F of the GPA 23-01 Draft Resolution under Attachment 1 to view the assessment). 

State law requires the use of California’s Communities Environmental Health Screening Tool (CalEnviroScreen) for identifying Disadvantaged Communities. Indicators used to identify these communities include population characteristics and/or environmental pollution and other hazards that can lead to negative health effects, exposure, or environmental degradation. In defining “disadvantaged,” CalEnviroScreen uses data on both population and environmental characteristics from each census tract in a community. CalEnviroScreen combines and weighs the score of both indices for each census tract and then ranks that census tract versus all other census tracts in California. Census tracts that score a percentile of 75 percent or greater are considered Disadvantaged Communities. In addition, census tracts that are lower income and disproportionately burdened with pollution (but do not meet the 75th percentile threshold) may also be considered to be disadvantaged under State law. Ten of the seventeen census tracts within the City of La Habra are considered disadvantaged using the CalEnvironScreen criteria. These census tracts are located in the central/eastern portion of the city, within an area generally bound by Whittier Boulevard to the north, Palm Street to the east, Imperial Highway to the south and Beach Boulevard to the west. A map of this area is provided as Figure 7-13 (Disadvantaged Communities in La Habra) of Chapter 7 (Community Safety) of the Draft Resolution (Attachment 1).  The HEJA provides more detailed information about this analysis and the CalEnviroScreen results.

As required by SB 1000, staff solicited the public’s input by distributing a questionnaire at public events and holding public workshops during the preparation of HEJA and the proposed amendments to Chapter 7. Responses to the questionnaires revealed that residents have concerns regarding the lack of sidewalks, bicycle trails, and trees within the city; air pollution from vehicles, traffic, and industrial uses; housing conditions; limited access to healthy foods; and, the opportunities for public engagement in the City's decision-making processes. Workshop participants also provided feedback and requested the City to consider providing local transit service for elderly residents, promoting the Move More, Eat Healthy Plan, promoting pedestrian-oriented site designs, improving community engagement, addressing the lack of affordable grocery stores, planting more trees throughout the city, encouraging public art installations, and addressing the loss of Northgate Market as a local/cultural gathering point for the central portion of the city, since its relocation from its former location on La Habra Boulevard to its new Whittier Boulevard location.  As a result, the goals below are proposed to be included in the General Plan in Chapter 7.
 
Chapter 8 (Implementation Manual)

The purpose of Chapter 8 is to reflect how the goals and policies within the La Habra General Plan will be carried out. Under GPA 23-01, staff is proposing to add a policy to establish objective design standards in Chapter 2 (Community Development) and add proposed policies under Chapter 7 (Community Safety) pertaining to natural and human health hazards, climate resilience and emergency/disaster preparedness. While the policies related to natural and human health hazards can be carried out by existing programs that meet the same objective, the goals and policies proposed to address environmental justice necessitate new programs to achieve health and environmental justice. Therefore, a new Health and Environmental Justice Program Summary will be added to the Implementation Manual. Attachment 7 shows the full red-line changes that are proposed to the Implementation Manual. 

Agency Notices

Pursuant to Government Code Section 65352(b), a 45-day outside agency comment period of the amendments was distributed to local tribes, adjoining cities, school districts, utility companies and agencies that serve the City of La Habra. The outside agency comment period commenced on Friday, October 6, 2023, and ended on Monday, November 20, 2023. During the comment period staff received a comment from Andrew Salas, Chairman, of the Gabrieleno Band of Mission Indians – Kizh Nation, indicating that the tribe agreed with the General Plan update and requests consultation for all future projects.

Conclusion

The proposed General Plan amendments help to further implement the Housing Element and fulfill the following General Plan goals: Goal LU 1: Growth and Change, Goal LU 5: City Sustained and Renewed, Goal LU 6: City Fair and Equitable, which enable sustainable growth, community safety, and a fair and equitable city for all residents. The amendments are being proposed for the benefit of the public’s interest and are not intended to be detrimental to the public's health, safety, and welfare, as stipulated for all General Plan amendments per the La Habra General Plan. 

On December 11, 2023, staff presented GPA 23-01 to the Planning Commission. No public comments were received regarding the proposed general plan amendments. After deliberation, the Planning Commission voted 3-0, with two Commissioners absent, to recommend approval to the City Council.  The Planning Commission staff report and minutes are provided as Attachments 2 and 3, respectively.

The costs associated with processing GPA 23-01 were funded by the Planning Division's annual budget, the City's General Plan Update Fee and through SB-2 and LEAP grants from the State of California. The consulting firm, PlaceWorks Inc., assisted staff with work on GPA 23-01, as well as the previously-approved Housing Element, through a $299,541 service agreement contract, which was approved by the City Council on February 18, 2020.

GPA 23-01 supports the following General Plan Land Use goals:

GPA 23-01 meets the following Fiscal Year 2023-2024 City Council Objectives under Goal 6 - Development Activity and Business Assistance: