Visalia City Council - File #: 25-0005

Date	Ver.	Action By	Action	Result	Action Details	Meeting Details	Video
2/18/2025	1	Visalia City Council	approve	Pass	Action details	Meeting details	Video

Agenda Item Wording:

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Adoption of General Plan Elements - Public hearing and adoption of General Plan Amendment No. 2024-01: A request by the City of Visalia to adopt a comprehensive update to the Safety Element of the Visalia General Plan, and to adopt a new Environmental Justice Element for inclusion in the Visalia General Plan. The regulations will apply Citywide to properties within the Urban Growth Boundary of the City of Visalia. The project is Categorically Exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) pursuant to Code of Regulations Section 15061(b)(3).

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Deadline for Action: 2/18/2025

Submitting Department: Community Development

Contact Name and Phone Number:

Brandon Smith, Principal Planner, brandon.smith@visalia.city <mailto:brandon.smith@visalia.city>, (559) 713-4636

Paul Bernal, Planning and Community Preservation Director, paul.bernal@visalia.city <mailto:paul.bernal@visalia.city>, (559) 713-4025

Department Recommendation:

The Planning Commission recommends that the City Council conduct a public hearing and adopt Resolution No. 2025-07, adopting the comprehensive update to the Safety Element of the Visalia General Plan and a new Environmental Justice Element for inclusion in the Visalia General Plan. This recommendation is based on the Update’s consistency with the General Plan and State housing law.

Staff further recommends that the Environmental Justice Element incorporate three edits to address dated or overlooked details in the Community Profile and Concerns sections, as raised in the correspondence included as Attachment 4.

Background Discussion:

State housing law (Government Code Section 65580, et seq.) mandates that all California jurisdictions maintain and regularly update a general plan housing element and that the element be approved by the State Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD). In September 2024, the City of Visalia’s 6^th Cycle Housing Element, covering the eight-year planning period of 2024 to 2031, was certified by the State. With the Housing Element update complete, state law requires that the Safety Element of a General Plan be updated as well, and that cities with disadvantaged communities to identify environmental justice policies whenever two or more elements are adopted or updated concurrently.

Since the City of Visalia has updated its Housing Element, triggering the Safety Element update as part of the Housing Element update process, the City is also adopting a new Environmental Justice Element to be in compliance with State law.

The City’s preparation for this update began in July 2022 when the City Council provided authorization to award a professional contract with Mintier Harnish of Sacramento to proceed on tasks as outlined in the scope of work to update the City’s Housing Element, Safety Element, and Environmental Justice Element. Subconsultant Rincon also provided assistance for the Safety Element Update.

Safety Element

The Safety Element is one of the required elements of the General Plan. The purpose of the Safety Element is to reduce the risk of death, injuries, property damage, and economic and social dislocation resulting from fires, floods, drought, earthquakes, landslides, climate change, and other potential hazards in the community. The Safety Element identifies potential risks to community safety and establishes policies and programs to protect the community from those risks. Topics addressed in the Safety Element include evacuation routes, flood and fire hazards, emergency shelters, emergency response services, and emergency communication programs.

As part of the Safety Element update, Rincon consulting group, with contributions from the City’s Community Development, Public Works, Police and Fire Departments, prepared an evacuation analysis to assist the City in meeting the requirements of Assembly Bill (AB) 747. AB 747, which added Government Code § 65302.15, requires that the Safety Element be reviewed and updated to identify evacuation routes and their capacity, safety, and viability under a range of emergency scenarios. This is a requirement for all safety elements or updates to a hazard mitigation plan completed after January of 2022.

In addition, Government Code § 65302, as amended by Senate Bill (SB) 379, requires cities and counties across California to prepare a Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment that informs updates to the Safety Element. Rincon was also contracted to prepare this assessment. Understanding Visalia’s vulnerabilities to climate change provides a foundation to develop required climate adaptation goals, policies, and implementation programs for the Safety Element. This assessment established a foundation for identifying adaptation policies and programs that can increase resilience in the city. The Visalia Safety and Environmental Justice Elements include policies and programs to increase the resilience of the population groups and asset categories with the highest vulnerability to climate change.

Environmental Justice Element

Environmental justice is defined by the State of California as “the fair treatment of people of all races, cultures, and incomes with respect to the development, adoption, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies” (Government Code Section 65040.12).

The State has long recognized that over the course of history, various groups such as low-income residents, racial minorities, tribal nations, and immigrant communities are often overlooked and/or do not have meaningful opportunities to participate in the planning process which can lead to their concerns and/or issues not being addressed.

As a response, in 2016, the California Legislature passed Senate Bill (SB) 1000 requiring cities and counties that have disadvantaged communities to incorporate environmental justice goals, policies, and objectives into their general plans. The purpose of this legislation is to address the “unique or compounded health risks” in disadvantaged communities by decreasing pollution exposure, increasing community assets, and improving overall health.

State law requires general plans to address the following topics in disadvantaged communities:

• Public facility access

• Food access

• Safe and sanitary housing

• Physical activity / recreational opportunities

• Pollution exposure, including air quality

• Unique compounded health risks

• Community engagement in the public-decision making process

Cities and counties can incorporate environmental justice policies into their general plans either in a standalone Environmental Justice Element or by including relevant environmental justice policies into all existing General Plan Elements. As part of the Housing Element and Safety Element Updates, the City of Visalia has drafted a standalone Environmental Justice Element. The Element places a large emphasis on identifying environmental justice concerns in the City, utilizing the findings of its public participation efforts (described further below), from which a series of objectives and policies are formed.

Identifying Disadvantaged Communities

California law refers to communities with high levels of environmental and socioeconomic vulnerability as “disadvantaged communities.” In recognition of the many strengths that these communities also possess, such as a strong sense of community and local community-based organizations and residents working to improve their neighborhoods, the City of Visalia and the Environmental Justice Element has identified areas which qualify as a “disadvantaged community” as a “Neighborhood of Focus.”

The City used two geospatial screening tools that analyze socioeconomic, environmental, and health factors to identify if a Neighborhood of Focus exists within the city limits.

CalEnviroScreen 4.0 is a screening tool developed by the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) and is the primary screening tool used by the California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA) to identify disadvantaged communities in California. CalEnviroScreen uses 21 indicators to assess pollution burdens and population vulnerabilities for each census tract in California and assigns a score for each indicator. The higher the score, the more that census tract is impacted by that indicator. Individual indicator scores are then summarized into two primary metrics: pollution burden and population characteristics, which are together calculated to determine an overall CalEnviroScreen score. Census tracts in the top 25 percent of overall CalEnviroScreen scores (percentile scores between 75 and 100) are identified as disadvantaged communities by the CalEPA. Figure 1 below (Figure 9-1 in the Element) shows overall CalEnviroScreen 4.0 scores in Visalia.

EJScreen is a screening tool developed by the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) that combines environmental and socioeconomic factors to calculate environmental justice index scores for each census block group in the United States. EJScreen provides an environmental justice index score for 12 environmental indicators that then receive a percentile score compared to both countrywide and statewide scores. For the purposes of this Environmental Justice Element, Visalia block groups were compared to statewide percentile scores and a 75th percentile filter was used as the threshold for identifying environmental justice communities.

In 2012, Senate Bill (SB) 535 tasked CalEPA with identifying disadvantaged communities. Disadvantaged communities in California are targeted for investments from State funding to improve public health, quality of life, and economic opportunity. In 2022, CalEPA updated its designation of disadvantaged communities to include any census tract that meets one or more of the following four criteria:

1. Census tracts receiving the highest 25 percent of overall scores in CalEnviroScreen 4.0.

2. Census tracts lacking overall scores in CalEnviroScreen 4.0 due to data gaps but receiving the highest five percent of CalEnviroScreen 4.0 cumulative pollution burden scores.

3. Census tracts identified in the 2017 Disadvantaged Community designation as “disadvantaged,” regardless of their scores in CalEnviroScreen 4.0.

4. Lands under the control of federally recognized Tribes.

Figure 2 (Figure 9-4 in the Element) shows census tracts in Visalia identified as disadvantaged communities under the 2022 SB 535 designation criteria by the CalEPA.

Based on the established methodology, Visalia’s Neighborhoods of Focus encompass approximately 15 square miles (including parge portions of the Industrial Park, Downtown, and East Downtown). The Community of Focus includes the following census tracts:

Figure 3 below (Figure 9-5 in the Element) shows Visalia’s Neighborhoods of Focus. These neighborhoods were determined primarily based on SB 535 census tract boundaries, CalEnviroScreen 4.0 scores, and defining features (i.e., major roads).

Public Participation

A key principle of environmental justice is engaging the residents most impacted by pollution burden and other environmental factors. With the assistance of consultants Mintier Harnish and Rincon, the City of Visalia kicked off its 6th Cycle Housing Element and targeted General Plan Elements update in January 2023. As part of the Housing Element update process, the City implemented the State’s public participation requirements in Housing Element law. However, being the City’s first Environmental Justice Element, the need was clear for robust public participation that went above and beyond State requirements in order to seek out input from underrepresented residents either within or outside the neighborhoods of focus.

City planning staff worked with the consultants to develop a strong community engagement program tailored to ensure the community and other stakeholders were able to engage in the process and given ample opportunities to provide input. The updated effort utilized a variety of outreach and engagement tools to ensure participation was diverse and inclusive to reach residents throughout Visalia; all materials and events were offered in English and Spanish to ensure access to information. Given the plan update’s focus on racial and social equity, outreach and engagement emphasized reaching communities that had not been as actively engaged in previous Housing Element and General Plan Element updates and elevating those voices.

The key objective of the community engagement program was to maximize opportunities for everyone interested in the update effort to participate. The engagement program included branding, a Project website - www.housevisalia.com <http://www.housevisalia.com>, social media, and Planning Commission and City Council study sessions and hearings. The draft documents were also routed and reviewed by relevant City departments and referred to outside agencies.

Emphasis was placed particularly on promoting an environmental justice survey, available online for approximately four months in both English and Spanish. The survey was divided into six sections covering the seven environmental topic areas listed above. The survey was primarily advertised through e-blasts, a vinyl banner advertised at community events, an email sent to all VUSD parents and staff, connections through community based organizations, and at three separate public outreach events. A total of 885 survey responses with meaningful data were gathered throughout the outreach process, including physical survey responses received at outreach events.

The three outreach events were chosen with particular emphasis for reaching persons who may not have been active in community engagement. The locations and dates were:

• Farmer’s Market, Sequoia Mall Parking Lot, August 5, 2023

• El Grito En Visalia Event, Recreation Park, September 16, 2023

• Farmworker Women’s Conference, Visalia Community Center, November 16, 2023

The public review drafts of the Environmental Justice and Safety Element were posted on www.housevisalia.com <http://www.housevisalia.com>, between June 3 and July 3, 2024 for the Environmental Justice Element and between October 21 and November 18, 2024 for the Safety Element. No comments were received on the elements, and therefore no revisions were made to the public review drafts that are being presented to the Planning Commission and City Council.

Planning Commission Review / Action

On January 27, 2025, the Planning Commission received a presentation and conducted a public hearing on the Update. During the public hearing, no one from the public spoke to the item.

The Commission voted unanimously (5-0) to recommend adoption of the Update with no changes to the documents.

Dissatisfaction was shared regarding possible misrepresentation of disadvantaged community data in the North-West Visalia neighborhood (Census Tract 10.03) due to the state and/or federal government’s lag in rolling out updated census tract boundaries from the 2020 Census. The Planning Commission acknowledged that the census tract data was outside of staff’s control and that a future update to the Environmental Justice Element may produce more accurate data with the utilization of the updated census tract boundaries.

Commissioner Norman also stated that despite the Safety Element’s updated studies and policies addressing fire preparedness, the rebuilding of homes will still face challenges due to the state’s Vegetation Management Program.

Correspondence

Staff received one written correspondence on the Draft Environmental Justice Element on February 4, 2025, included as Attachment 4. The correspondence was received after the formal public comment period and after the Planning Commission public hearing. The item addresses three items that address dated or overlooked details in the report’s Community Profile section and the resources in the Concerns section:

• Address of an air monitoring station

• Identification of a grocery store at Akers / Walnut on the Food Environment map

• Identification of the Manuel Hernandez Community Center on the listing of Community Centers

Staff’s recommendation includes incorporating these edits into the final adopted document.

Fiscal Impact:

None.

Prior Council Action:

In July 2022, the City Council authorized to award a professional contract with Mintier Harnish of Sacramento to proceed on tasks as outlined in the scope of work for preparation of a Housing Element Update, Safety Element Update, and Environmental Justice Element.

Alternatives: In addition to the recommended action, the City Council may, in lieu of the recommendation, consider any one of the following:

1. Approve the Update with one or more modifications; or,

2. Return the Update to staff for revisions as directed.

Recommended Motion (and Alternative Motions if expected):

recommendation

I move to adopt Resolution No. 2025-07 adopting the comprehensive update to the Safety Element of the Visalia General Plan and adopting the new Environmental Justice Element of the Visalia General Plan, including the addressing of edits as identified in the Community Profile section and the resources in the Concerns section.

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Environmental Assessment Status: The project is exempt from further review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines section 15061(b)(3) (common sense exemption), as the proposed Safety and Environmental Justice Elements represent the adoption of a policy document with implementation programs with no changes to ordinances or regulations going into effect at this time and which will not in and of itself have a significant impact on the environment. Certain implementation programs contained in the Housing Element Update will be subject to a discretionary entitlement process for the amendment of Zoning Ordinance text that will be separately evaluated in accordance with the Guidelines for CEQA.

CEQA Review: The project is exempt from further review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines section 15061(b)(3) (common sense exemption), as the proposed Safety and Environmental Justice Elements represent the adoption of a policy document with implementation programs with no changes to ordinances or regulations going into effect at this time and which will not in and of itself have a significant impact on the environment. Certain implementation programs contained in the Housing Element Update will be subject to a discretionary entitlement process for the amendment of Zoning Ordinance text that will be separately evaluated in accordance with the Guidelines for CEQA.

Attachments:

1. City Council Resolution No. 2025-07

2. Public Hearing Draft Safety Element Update

3. Public Hearing Draft Environmental Justice Element Update

4. Correspondence