Downtown Specific Plan - Part 1 - City of Brawley

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The standards and criteria by which development will proceed.
A program of implementation measures, such as financing measures,
policy and regulations and public works projects.
California law also requires a specific plan to be consistent with a City’s
General Plan, and that findings regarding consistency be included in the
specific plan itself.
1.1.4 california Environmental Quality Act (cEQA)
compliance
The Brawley Downtown Specific Plan has been adopted in compliance
with the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA)
(California Public Resources Code, Section 1000 et seq.). Pursuant to
CEQA Guidelines (Title 14, California Code of Regulations, Chapter 3,
Section 15000 et seq.), the City of Brawley prepared an Initial Study and
made these documents available to responsible agencies, trustee agencies,
and interested parties for a 30-day public review period. Through the
Initial Study, the City determined that the implementation of the Brawley
Downtown Specific Plan could result in less than environmental impacts
with mitigation and that preparation of an Mitigated Negative Declaration
(MND) was required.
The Brawley Downtown Specific Plan MND is assigned State Clearinghouse
Number 2012101023. Section 15162 of the CEQA Guidelines allows an
MND to be prepared for a project area with certain mitigation measures.
The Brawley Downtown Specific Plan establishes an overall development
program that can be charaterized as one large project, but its implement-
ation will require a series of future discretionary actions (approval of
specific projects) by the City of Brawley. The Brawley Downtown
Specific Plan Program MND is intented to serve as the primary
environmental document for all future entitlements (later activities)
ssociated with implementation of the Brawley Downtown Specific
Introduction and User’s Guide
Plan, including all discretionary approvals requested or required to
implement the project.
Pursuant to Section 15162 of the CEQA Guidelines, a later activity under the
Brawley Downtown Specific Plan development program must be examined
in the light of the Final MND to determine whether additional environmental
documentation must be prepared. Each later activity must undergo an
initial study and analysis by the City to determine if it is within the scope of
the Final MND. Given that later activities are not new projects as defined
by CEQA, compliance for each impact category is narrowed to a
determination as to whether the activity would result in: (1) a new
significant impact; ( ) a more severe impact; or (3) no substantial change
from the previous analysis. Based on the results of this initial study, the City
will determine which of the following actions is applicable to the later activity:
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The later activity is a component of and consistent with the Brawley
Downtown Specific Plan and has been previously analyzed as a part
of the Final MND and findings certified pursuant to the State CEQA
Guidelines. No additional CEQA documentation is required
(CEQA Guidelines Section 15162).
The later activity is a component of the Downtown Brawley Specific
Plan and has been previously analyzed as a part of the Final MND
and findings certified pursuant to the State CEQA Guidelines;
however, minor technical changes or additions are needed to make
the previous documentation adequate to cover the project. An
Addendum to the Final MND is required (CEQA Guidelines
Section 15164).
1.1.5 consistency with Applicable Plans and regulations
Findings of Consistency with General Plan
Although a map amendment to the City’s General Plan will be necessary to
facilities its implementation of this Specific Plan, the recommendations and
objectives of the Brawley Downtown Specific Plan are consistent with the
goals of the Brawley General Plan.
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