Background

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; the State-mandated elements included in each chapter are identified in parentheses:

• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Chapter 2: Community Development (Land Use, Conservation, Open Space, Housing)
• Chapter 3: Mobility (Circulation)
• Chapter 4: Infrastructure (Circulation, Conservation)
• Chapter 5: Community Services (Open Space, Safety)
• Chapter 6: Conservation/Natural Resources (Conservation, Open Space)
• Chapter 7: Community Safety (Noise, Safety)
• Chapter 8: Implementation Manual
• Appendix A: Addressing Climate Change
• Appendix B: Addressing Healthy Communities
• Appendix C: Glossary of Terms

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 State law requirements. For instance, State law requires the Housing Element to be updated every eight years. Therefore, on September 19, 2022, the City Council adopted the 2021-2029 (6th Cycle) General Plan Housing Element, after a lengthy multi-year public process. 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 the subject of GPA 23-01.

Chapter 2 (Community Development) and Appendix C (Glossary of Terms)

GPA 23-01 would revise Chapter 2 and Appendix C to be consistent with the City's 2021-2029 Housing Element and implement the following Housing Programs identified in Section D (Housing Programs) of Chapter 5 (Housing Plan) of the Housing Element: B5 (Mixed Use Development), B6 (Residential Design Standards and Process), B8 (Zoning Code and General Plan Amendments), D3 (Homeless Services), and D7 (Group Homes and Housing for Disabled People). Attachments 2 and 3 show the full red-line changes that are proposed to Chapter 2 and Appendix C. The amendments are similar to the Zone Changes, recently reviewed by the Planning Commission, and include: 

• Updating definitions/terms, within Chapter 2 (Community Development) and Appendix C (Glossary of Terms), pertaining to the number of families, housing type, and household sizes. For instance, the term “single-family” will be updated to "single-unit" to be more inclusive and avoid scrutinizing living arrangements.

• Revising density and floor area ratio standards to accommodate a greater variety of housing developments within mixed-use land use designations, specifically, staff is proposing to:
  • Eliminate the minimum of 20% nonresidential uses cap and the one-acre site lot size;
  • Apply a maximum floor area ratio of 1.5 to all mixed-use land use designations;
  • Clarify the maximum permitted densities within all the mixed-use land use designations; and
  • Revise the City's General Plan Land Use map to accurately reflect the maximum permitted densities.

• Adding the following policy under Goal LU 4 (A Quality Community) to further convey the City's commitment to implementing objective design standards:
  • LU 4.5 Objective Design Standards. Adopt objective development and design standards for all multi-unit residential and mixed uses in accordance with Government Code Section 65913.4

• Senate Bill (SB) 1035 (2018), which requires cities to address climate change adaptation and resilience and include new information relating to natural hazards.

• SB 99 (2019) and Assembly Bill (AB) 747 (2019), which require cities to identify and evaluate the capacity, safety, and viability of emergency evacuation routes under potential emergency scenarios (i.e., fire, flood, earthquake, etc.).

• SB 1241 (2012) and AB 2911 (2018), which require cities to address fire risks and strengthen policies for areas designated as Very High Fire Severity Zones (VHFSZ). In La Habra, these areas are generally at the city's southern border with Fullerton as shown in Figures 7-1, 7-6 and 7-7 of the proposed updated Chapter 7.

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 the disadvantaged communities with particularity, including describing the unique pollution burdens and health risks the communities face. Community engagement in the identification process is important for ensuring that the local government has identified all disadvantaged communities within its planning area and for understanding the specific needs of each community. 

State law requires cities to comply with SB 1000 upon the amendment of two or more General Plan elements. Therefore, the above changes to Chapter 2 and Chapter 7, in combination with the update of the Housing Element, requires the City of La Habra to comply with SB 1000. 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, provided as Attachment 6 to this staff report, identifies the Disadvantaged Communities within the City, as well as environmental and population issues faced by those residents. GPA 23-01 proposes to include the HEJA as Appendix E of the General Plan.

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 weights 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. The CalEnviroScreen results are shown in Exhibit 1 below. The California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) updates the CalEnviroScreen tool, as new data becomes available; the area shown in yellow in the exhibit below shows an area of the City that was previously identified as being within the 75th percentile in Version 3 (released in 2018) of CalEnviroScreen, but is now below the 75th percentile in the latest version, Version 4 (released in 2021). The HEJA provides more detailed information about this analysis.

Exhibit 1: Disadvantaged Communities in La Habra

 
As required by SB 1000, staff solicited the public’s input during the preparation of HEJA and the proposed amendments to Chapter 7. These public outreach efforts included:

• A questionnaire that was prepared in Spanish and English, and was distributed at two festivals: the Tamale Festival held on December 3, 2022, and the Spring Family Eggstravaganza, held on April 8, 2023. A total of 75 questionnaires were completed by City residents. These residents expressed 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.

• The City held two Community Safety and Environmental Justice Workshops on Tuesday, October 24, 2023, at 10:00 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. at the La Habra Community Center. Between four and five people attended each session. The participants provided insightful comments, such as providing local transit service for elderly residents, promoting the Move More, Eat Healthy Plan, promoting pedestrian-oriented site designs, improving community engagement, the lack of an affordable grocery store, planting more trees throughout the city, the lack of public art, and the loss of a local/cultural gather point when the Northgate market was relocated.  

The assessment along with the community’s input helped to guide the proposed changes to Chapter 7 to address Environmental Justice and comply with SB 1000. As a result, the goals below are proposed to be included in the General Plan in Chapter 7.

 

EJ1: Food Availability. Adequate opportunities for residents to access a wide variety of healthy food choices and benefit from nutrition education.

EJ2: Active Living. A network of parks, trails, and community facilities that support active, healthy recreational activities that promote health.

EJ3: Healthy and Secure Housing. A variety of housing choices that contribute to quality, safe, and healthy neighborhoods and enhance housing security.

EJ4: Public Facilities and Services. Complementary educational, social, health, and employment services that support all La Habra residents.

EJ5: Clean and Safe Environment. Established development patterns, building and operation standards, and mitigation measures to reduce pollution and improve air quality in the City.

EJ6: Land Use Policy. A built environment that promotes health, well being, safety, and a sense of place at the building level, neighborhood, and corridor.

EJ7: Civic Engagement. Meaningful opportunities for all residents and stakeholders to participate in the City actions that affect health and well being.

Chapter 8 (Implementation Manual)

The Implementation Manual is the eighth chapter of the General Plan and describes how the goals and policies within the other seven chapters of the La Habra General Plan will be carried out. This chapter describes the specific programs (i.e. plans, actions, strategies) that must be completed within certain timeframes (i.e., annually, continuously or within a specified date) to implement the General Plan.  The proposed changes to Chapter 8 reflect the proposed policy to establish objective design standards, that is included in the proposed changes to Chapter 2 (Community Development); and proposed policies under Chapter 7 (Community Safety) pertaining to natural and human health hazards, climate resilience and emergency/disaster preparedness. Staff has determined that these policies can be carried out by existing programs that meet the same objective. The goals and polices proposed to address environmental justice necessitate new programs to achieve health and environmental justice. As such, a new Health and Environmental Justice Program Summary will be added to the Implementation Manual. Attachment 5 shows the full red-line changes that are proposed to the Implementation Manual. 

Agency and Public 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, Gabrieleno Band of Mission Indians – Kizh Nation, indicating that the tribe agreed with the General Plan update and requests consultation for all future projects.

A public hearing notice for General Plan Amendment 23-01 was sent in anticipation of being presented to the Planning Commission on November 27, 2023. However, it was determined that additional time was necessary to finalize the staff report. At the Planning Commission meeting on November 13, 2023, staff informed the Planning Commission that General Plan Amendment 23-01 would be re-noticed for the December 11, 2023, Planning Commission meeting. The legal notice was published in the Orange County Register on December 1, 2023.  To date, no public comments have been received concerning GPA 23-01.

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 also proposed in the public’s interest and will not be detrimental to the public's health, safety, and welfare, as stipulated for all General Plan amendments per the La Habra General Plan. Therefore, it is recommended that the Planning Commission approve the resolution recommending City Council approval of GPA 23-01 to amend: (1) Chapter 2 (Community Development) and Appendix C (Glossary Of Terms) to provide consistency with the Housing Element; and, (2) Chapter 7 (Community Safety), and add new Appendices D (Climate Change Vulnerabilities Assessment) and E (Health And Environmental Justice 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 amend Chapter 8 (Implementation Manual) to include the new policies and programs as part of the updates to Chapter 2 (Community Development) and Chapter 7 (Community Safety).

• Goal LU1: Growth and Change. Sustainable growth and change through orderly and well-planned development that provides for the needs of existing and future residents and businesses, ensures the effective provision of public services, makes efficient use of land and infrastructure, and promotes the health of the community. 

• Goal LU 5: City Sustained and Renewed. Land development practices that sustain natural environmental resources, the economy, and societal well-being for use by future generations, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and impacts on climate change, are maintained. 
   
• Goal LU 6: City Fair and Equitable. Fair and equitable access for all citizens to employment, housing, education, recreation, transportation, retail, and public services, including participation in public planning for the future.
   

• Objective M. Update, implement and provide annual performance reports for the General Plan in compliance with State law.

• Objective Q. Facilitate the development of high-quality housing, at a variety of income levels, to help meet projected demand, as set forth in the Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA).