To: Honorable Mayor and Members of City Council
From: Vincent Smith, Community Development Director
Prepared By: Michael Walker, Senior Planner
TITLE:
Title
General Plan Adoption
LABEL
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Recommendation
Adopt a resolution (a) approving and adopting an Addendum to the certified Environmental Impact Report for the City of Napa General Plan Update, and (b) adopting the City of Napa 2040 General Plan, and determining that the actions authorized by this resolution were adequately analyzed in compliance with CEQA.
Body
DISCUSSION:
Purpose
The purpose of this agenda item is to approve and adopt an Addendum to the certified EIR for the City of Napa 2040 General Plan (“2040 General Plan”) and adopt the final 2040 General Plan based on direction provided by the City Council at their September 20, 2022 meeting. The Staff report from the September 20, 2022 meeting is attached for reference (see Attachment 3).
Background
The City Council held a public hearing to consider the 2040 General Plan on September 20, 2022, and continued the hearing to October 18, 2022. During public comments, 40 speakers provided comments on the General Plan. Most of the comments were regarding the Linda Vista roadway extension, the Foster Road Mixed Use designation, and comments supportive of additional language in the General Plan related to quality jobs, services, and affordable housing.
After receiving public comment, the City Council deliberated on the General Plan and EIR and took action to (1) adopt a resolution certifying the EIR, and (2) continue the hearing on the Napa 2040 General Plan to October 18, 2022, subject to the following edits:
1. Maintain the Foster Road Mixed Use as presented in the Draft General Plan with minor text edits in the Land Use and Community Design Element Specific Area Policies and Policy LUCD23-1 and Policy LUCD 23-7;
2. Provide options and alternatives to the Linda Vista Avenue roadway extension (see additional information below);
3. Identify residential uses in the Oxbow Commercial designation;
4. Incorporate edits and new policies to the Transportation Element as recommended by the Napa County Bicycle Coalition;
5. Incorporate edits to Climate Change and Sustainability Element Policy CCS1-1 and Policy CCS2-1;
6. Change the Religious Institutions icon on Figure 9-11 to a more generic Faith-Based symbol; and
7. Add a policy in the Economic Development Element regarding Card Check Neutrality.
Linda Vista Bridge Options/Alternatives
City Council directed Staff to evaluate additional options and alternatives to the Linda Vista Avenue roadway extension identified in the Transportation Element, such alternatives to include:
• Scenario A - No Roadway Extension and No Study Corridor
• Scenario B - Emergency/Bicycle/Pedestrian Only Bridge and continue Study Corridor
• Scenario C - Roadway Extension and Study Corridor (no changes to Draft General Plan)
Following the City Council meeting, Staff evaluated the options for each scenario considering the direction provided by Council, future needs of the City with regard to traffic circulation and emergency response, as well as the analysis provided in the certified EIR. As presented in the final Napa 2040 General Plan, the Linda Vista roadway extension has been removed from the Transportation Element (Scenario A).
Specifically, the following edits have been made in the General Plan:
• Figure 3-1 Future Roadway Network: Robinson Lane is reclassified as a Local Street. Linda Vista Avenue will remain designated as a Collector Street which will end at Lone Oak Avenue north of the creek. There is no connection to Robinson Lane.
• Figure 3-2 Existing and Planned Bicycle Facilities: Removed Class II Bike Lane designation shown on Linda Vista Avenue/Robinson Lane between Lone Oak and Browns Valley Road.
• Table 3-2 Planned Roadway Improvements: Deleted Roadway Extension Project #2 “Linda Vista Avenue” from the table (renumbered table).
• Figure 3-3 Planned Roadway Improvements: Deleted the “Roadway Extension” project line shown for Linda Vista Avenue.
• Policy TE2-6: Removed “Linda Vista Avenue between existing southern terminus and Robinson Lane” from the Study Corridor list.
Regarding the ability for the City to evaluate emergency response in the Browns Valley area, Safety and Noise Element Policy SN5-6 was edited to remove the extension of Linda Vista Avenue to Browns Valley and replaced with “Support efforts to improve the provision of emergency fire services for areas north of Fire Station 5.” This will allow the City to continue to evaluate other options to improve fire response times and emergency services that may or may not include the Linda Vista Avenue roadway extension.
The Linda Vista Avenue extension in the future roadway network was analyzed in the certified EIR as part of the 2040 General Plan “Project.” Therefore, removal of the Linda Vista Avenue extension constitutes a change to the Project evaluated in the certified EIR. To assess the potential effects of this change in the Project on the EIR, Staff directed the City’s EIR consultant, Dyett & Bhatia (“D&B”), to prepare a technical memorandum to confirm that the EIR remains valid and would continue to support the City Council’s adoption of the 2040 General Plan as revised (without the Linda Vista Avenue extension). In its technical memorandum, D&B determined that removal of the Linda Vista Avenue extension would not affect the EIR’s findings and conclusions regarding the potentially significant impacts from the revised Project, would not require any major changes to the certified EIR, and would not affect the adequacy of the EIR or its compliance with all applicable CEQA requirements. D&B’s findings and conclusions, and its technical memorandum, are set forth in the Addendum to the City of Napa General Plan Update Environmental Impact Report (the “Addendum”) dated October 2022, attached as Exhibit B to the draft City Council Resolution (see Exhibit B, Attachment 1).
Other Edits to the General Plan
In addition to the edits recommended by City Council, Staff has also provided clarifying edits to Chapter 1 - Vision and Planning Context which better reflect the history of the Rural Urban Limit line (RUL) including references to County Measure J (1990) and County Measure P (2008).
The Redline General Plan has been updated to include all text edits made since the September 20, 2022, City Council meeting. These edits have been highlighted in blue for easy reference (see Attachment 2).
FINANCIAL IMPACTS:
Funds for the General Plan Update were budgeted through the normal process and this action simply utilizes already appropriated funds and will have no impact on budget or fund balance. The Capital Improvement Program budget for FY 2018-22, adopted June 20, 2017, included expenditure of $1,500,000 for the General Plan Update (MS18CD02) in 2018.
CEQA:
City Staff recommends that the City Council (a) approve and adopt the Addendum to the certified EIR, and (b) determine that the potential environmental effects of the Recommended Actions described in this Staff report were adequately analyzed in the certified EIR, as amended by the attached Addendum, in compliance with all applicable CEQA requirements.
DOCUMENTS ATTACHED:
ATCH 1 - Resolution
EX A - Napa 2040 General Plan
EX B - Addendum to the City of Napa General Plan EIR
ATCH 2 - Redlined General Plan
ATCH 3 - September 20, 2022 City Council Report
NOTIFICATION:
Legal notice of the public hearing was published in the Napa Valley Register on October 7, 2022.