This letter stated in part:
“The City of Clearlake announced the completion of the Provinsalia Final Environmental Impact Report on April 17, 2008, and held a workshop to discuss it almost immediately thereafter, on April 22. Although public comment was accepted at that workshop, the many agencies, organizations, and individuals who submitted comments on the EIR have not yet been given an opportunity to rebut the detailed PMC responses to those comments now incorporated in the FEIR. Provision of such a response period, appropriately noticed, is required under CEQA, and until it has taken place we believe that formal review by the Commission is inappropriate.
The consultants neglected to address all of the submitted comments during preparation of the FEIR. In particular, Dr. John Parker’s letter of Oct. 18, 2007 was omitted, even though this letter detailing major inadequacies in both the method of evaluating cultural resources and the proposed mitigations was received before the submission deadline and forwarded to PMC for review, as subsequently acknowledged by City staff. It is our understanding that Supervisor Ed Robey and County Community Development Director Richard Coel also submitted comment letters, neither of which was addressed. Under these circumstances it is inevitable to wonder if additional submissions may also have fallen by the wayside, but whether or not this is true, the FEIR cannot be considered complete until all submitted comments have been incorporated, with responses. Again we assert that consideration by the Commission is premature, and contrary to the processes established by CEQA.
Numerous specific inadequacies and omissions in the FEIR will be detailed by commenters during the formal response period mentioned above, but failing to evaluate the impacts of the project on climate change could expose the City to legal action by environmental groups or by the State Attorney General, and therefore deserves special mention. This was exactly what happened to the City of Desert Hot Springs in August 2008, when the Riverside Superior Court invalidated an EIR because of failure to analyze greenhouse gas emissions and other climate change impacts.
A series of legislative actions over the past few years (eg AB 32, 2006, SB 97, 2007) have firmly established that control and reduction of carbon emissions is a stated goal of the state of California. Just a few weeks ago Governor Schwarzenegger signed SB 375 into law, requiring California communities to consider climate change impacts of development in regional planning, with an emphasis on reducing car travel.
In June 2008 the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research issued a technical advisory report recommending the establishment of uniform guidelines on CEQA processes in addressing climate change. In the meantime, lead agencies are advised to make a good-faith effort to calculate the carbon emissions associated with a project, including traffic, energy consumption, release of sequestered carbon, construction activities, etc, and to assess their standard of significance. Failure to address these impacts is not acceptable.
Although extensive oak woodland mitigations in the form of restoration have been added to the FEIR in response to Sierra Club comments (Section 2, Response 4-47), no attempt is made to calculate either the amount or the significance of these effects, or to address the project’s broader contribution to greenhouse gas emissions.
In any case the ability of small young trees of to sequester carbon is insignificant in comparison to that of mature woodlands, and will not reach equivalence for many years, perhaps for generations, rendering the proposed mitigations disproportionately inadequate in comparison to the immediate impact.
We believe that certification of the Provinsalia FEIR under these circumstances would be in violation of CEQA standards, and liable to reversal by the courts, with possible penalties accruing to the City. To avoid these consequences we recommend that:
• the EIR be returned to the consultants for revision, in order to incorporate a comprehensive quantitative analysis of its impacts on climate change, and that it be subsequently re-circulated for additional public comments related to this subject;
• a revised FEIR be prepared that responds to all comment letters, including those omitted to date and any additional submissions;
• commenters be informed of the availability of a comprehensive FEIR as soon as it has been finalized, and given due notice, including a firm timeline, of the process for responding to the consultants’ evaluation, and their rebuttals then be appended to the FEIR.
It is our contention that the Planning Commission should not commence formal consideration of the FEIR until the three steps listed above have been completed.”
No response to this letter has yet been received.
During the course of the past four or more years the Provinsalia project has raised concerns among many members of the community, who may share the Sierra Club’s belief that the EIR in its present form is not only substantively inadequate, but has the potential to expose the City to legal action. If so, we suggest that you contact City Administrator Dale Neiman immediately at 994-8201 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to express your views.
More information about the project, including numerous comment letters, is available at www.lakelive.info/provinsalia.
Victoria Brandon is chair of the Sierra Club Lake Group.
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