The City Council assigns responsibilities for implementing CEQA
as defined in this chapter for all instances wherein the City is considered
the lead agency.
(Ord. 96-10 § 1, 1996)
The City Planner is assigned the following functions:
A. Determining
whether a project is exempt;
B. Conducting
an initial study;
C. Overseeing
required consultation with outside agencies;
D. Preparing
a negative declaration;
E. Maintain
the City's list of environmental consultants, and monitor consultant
progress on projects for which a consultant is retained;
F. Making
recommendations to the Council and Planning Commission concerning
the environmental determination, mitigation measures and alternatives,
adequacy of environmental documents and other related matters;
G. Assuring
required public review;
H. Assuring
that required time limits are met;
I. Preparing
responses to comments on environmental documents;
J. Preparing
draft resolutions including CEQA or environmental findings for council
or Planning Commission consideration and action;
K. As
directed by the City Council, review and provide recommendations to
the City concerning notices of preparation, draft environmental impact
reports, or negative declarations prepared by consultants or other
agencies;
L. Other
tasks as determined by the City Council necessary to the implementation
of the State CEQA Guidelines, and this title.
(Ord. 96-10 § 1, 1996)
The City Clerk shall be responsible for the following functions.
The Clerk performs these functions under the supervision of the City
Planner. The City Clerk may assign some or all of his or her CEQA
environmental review process responsibilities to a deputy or Planning
Commission secretary.
A. Maintaining
address lists of agencies for formal and informal consultation and
assisting Planner in carrying out consultation with outside agencies;
B. Scheduling
public meetings and hearings and issuing proper public notices;
C. Distribution
of draft negative declarations for public and State Clearinghouse
review;
D. Minutes
of public hearings;
E. Finalizing
resolutions containing council or Planning Commission actions;
G. Maintaining
complete files and copies of environmental documents including evidence
on which council or Planning Commission findings are made;
H. Clerical
and secretarial support for the Planner, the Planning Commission and
the City Council including, but not limited to, typing some environmental
documents, preparing related meeting agendas and preparing related
correspondence;
(Ord. 96-10 § 1, 1996)
The Planning Commission is assigned the following functions:
A. Unless
or until a matter is appealed to the City Council, and unless an EIR
is required, the Planning Commission shall act on behalf of the City
Council, hold public meetings and hearings to consider and act upon
environmental documents for the following types of projects:
5. Lot line adjustments, except for those projects which are solely lot line adjustments as described in Chapter
16.28 of this Code;
6. Certificates
of compliance.
B. The
City Council may ask for the recommendations of the Planning concerning
environmental documents for the following types of projects:
1. Public
works projects of the City or another public agency;
4. Planned
developments and development agreements;
5. Prezonings
and annexations.
(Ord. 96-10 § 1, 1996; Ord. 2006-01 § 2)
The City Council shall not delegate its responsibility to act
on behalf of the City, including holding public meetings and hearings
to consider or acting upon environmental documents, for the following
types of projects:
A. Public
work projects of the City or another public agency;
D. Planned
developments and development agreements;
E. Prezonings
and annexations;
F. Any
action delegated to staff or the Planning Commission which is appealed
to the Council;
G. Any
action concerning the environmental documents that may affect the
City and that are prepared by an agency other than the City;
H. Consultant
contracts for the preparation of EIRs or other environmental documents;
I. Action
upon any project for which an EIR has been required.
(Ord. 96-10 § 1, 1996)
The City shall conduct its environmental review of projects
in accordance with the time limits specified in Article 8 of the State
CEQA Guidelines. The subsequent parts of this section are intended
to be a summary of the CEQA time limits. These time limits are also
referenced in subsequent chapters and sections of this title.
A. Review
of Applications for Completeness. The City shall review private project
permit applications and determine whether or not they are complete
for processing within 30 days.
B. Initial
Study. The City shall prepare an initial study within 30 days of the
date an application is accepted as complete for processing.
C. Notice
of Determination. The City shall determine whether a project is exempt,
a negative declaration should be prepared, or an EIR should be prepared
within 30 days of the date that the application has been accepted
for processing. This 30 day period may be extended 15 days upon mutual
consent of the City and the project applicant.
D. Notice
of Preparation. When the City determines that an EIR should be prepared,
the notice of preparation shall be issued as soon as possible after
the project applicant deposits funds with the City for EIR preparation.
E. Response
to Notice of Preparation. Outside agencies shall provide a response
to a notice of preparation to the City within 30 days after receipt
of the notice of preparation. If a responsible agency fails to reply
within 30 days, the City may assume that it has no response to make
and may ignore a late response.
F. Scoping
Meeting. The City shall convene a meeting with outside agency representatives
to discuss the scope and content of the environmental information
to be addressed in an EIR upon its own initiative or no later than
30 days after receiving a request for such meeting from the project
applicant or a responsible or trustee agency.
G. Negative
Declaration. With a private project, a negative declaration must be
completed and ready for approval within 105 days of the date when
the project's application was accepted as complete for processing.
The negative declaration may be approved at a later time when the
permit or entitlement is approved.
H. Public
Review of Negative Declaration. The public review period for a negative
declaration shall be a reasonable period of time sufficient to allow
members of the public to respond to the proposed finding before the
negative declaration is approved. This time limit shall be no less
than 30 days when one or more State agencies are a responsible or
trustee agency or when State Clearinghouse review is required, unless
a shorter review period has been approved by the State Clearinghouse.
I. Environmental Impact Report. With a private project the City shall complete and certify a final EIR within one year after the date when the project application was accepted as complete for processing. This time period may be extended once for a period not to exceed more than 90 days upon mutual written consent between the City and the project applicant. Because the City usually prepares its EIRs under a consultant contract, the City has adopted additional time limits concerning deposit of funds for such contracts and the contracting process. These are found within Section
18.05.070 of this title.
J. Public
Review of Draft EIR. The public review period for a draft EIR shall
not be less than 30 days nor longer than 90 days except under unusual
circumstances. The City generally requires a 45 day public review
period. The State Clearinghouse, likewise, normally requires a 45
day review period, however, a shorter review period may be authorized
due to exceptional circumstance.
K. Suspension of Time Periods. Any unreasonable delay by a project applicant in meeting requests of the City for information necessary to complete a negative declaration or an EIR shall suspend the running of the time periods described in subsections
G and
I of this section above for the period of time of the unreasonable delay. Failure of a project applicant to pay deposits necessary for EIR consultant contracts according to time limits specified in Section
18.05.070(C) of this title shall also be cause for the City to suspend time limits pursuant to this section and Section 15109 of State CEQA Guidelines.
L. Denial
of Project for Applicant Delays. The City may disapprove a project
application where there is a documented unreasonable delay by the
applicant in meeting a written request for the environmental information
necessary to prepare a negative declaration or an EIR. The City may
allow a renewed application to start at the same point in time in
the process where the application was when it was disapproved due
to applicant's delay in providing necessary environmental information.
M. Special
Provisions for Longer or Shorter Time Limits. State CEQA Guidelines
Sections 15110 and 15111 contain special provisions addressing projects
which may require longer or shorter time limits than those specified
above or elsewhere in this title.
(Ord. 96-10 § 1, 1996)