Dear Lynne— Thank you for your interest in the legal requirements related to the preparation and certification of an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). As you noted, this evening the City Council will be reviewing comments on the scope and content of the EIR received in response to the Notice of Preparation (NOP). For more information on the NOP and scoping process, please see 14 California Code of Regulations (CEQA Guidelines) Sections 15082 and 15083. This opportunity to review the scoping comments and provide additional input, if any, is not a legal requirement, but is responsive to and satisfies the Council’s request for this additional step given the large scale of this particular project. The next step will be the preparation of the draft EIR. Once the draft EIR is complete, there will be an opportunity for the public to review and comment on the draft EIR. CEQA Guidelines Section 15087. Then, the environmental consultant will prepare a Response to Comments document that responds to all substantive comments received on the draft EIR. CEQA Guidelines Section 15088. The draft EIR and the Response to Comments document together constitute the final EIR. Prior to taking final action on the proposed project, the City Council must certify the final EIR as compliant with CEQA. California Public Resources Code Section 21151 and CEQA Guidelines Section 15090. Note that for this project the City Council is the decision making body pursuant to Menlo Park Municipal Code Sections 16.45.055 and 16.82.100. If you have any additional questions regarding legal requirements, please do not hesitate to ask. Best Regards, Bill William L. McClure, City Attorney City of Menlo Park 1100 Alma Street, Suite 210 Menlo Park, CA 94025 650-324-9300 Ofc 650-324-0227 Fax wlm_at_(domainremoved) P Please consider the environment before printing this email þ From: Lynne Bramlett Sent: Friday, December 13, 2019 5:05 PM To: William L. McClure Cc: city.council_at_(domainremoved) Lynne E Bramlett Subject: Exact State laws referenced in Willows Village draft EIR preparation Dear City Attorney, What are the exact State laws requiring the City Council to approve the preparation of the draft EIR for Willows Village? Staff report #19-274-CC refers to these legal requirements in three places, but does not provide the specific legal references. What are they? I would like to read the exact legal language. In the future, I suggest that Staff reports include the specific legal references in parenthesis when making assertions about legal requirements. Lynne Bramlett Received on Mon Dec 16 2019 - 11:23:01 PST
