SECTION 1.
The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:(a) The California Environmental Quality Act (Division 13 (commencing with Section 21000) of the Public Resources Code) requires that the environmental impacts of development projects be identified and mitigated. The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) also guarantees the public an opportunity to review and comment on the environmental impacts of a project and to participate meaningfully in the development of mitigation measures for potentially significant environmental impacts.
(b) The City of Concord has embarked on a multiphase redevelopment project at the former Concord Naval Weapons Station (base), consistent with the Concord Reuse Project (CRP) Area Plan adopted in 2012 as an amendment to the city’s 2030 general plan, that will implement, refine, and augment the community vision expressed in the CRP Area Plan. The specific plan area would be developed according to the specific parameters for development established in the specific plan as the CRP areas become available for transfer from the United States Navy to the city as a local reuse authority, and as service from the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) becomes available for development. The 2,268-acre specific plan area is located within the incorporated limits of the City of Concord.
(c) The redevelopment project would promote an affordable housing commitment, consistent with Concord City Council Resolution 12-4823.3, adopted on January 24, 2012, for the project, in which the city council made the following findings:
(1) The CRP Area Plan can accommodate an additional 900 units of affordable housing. The total commitment for the CRP Area Plan is 3,020 units, which will be approximately 25 percent of the total number of housing units that would be constructed through buildout. The total number of affordable units will be designed to accommodate a range of lower income levels as defined in the city’s housing element.
(2) The additional 900 units of affordable housing is prioritized for lower income seniors, veterans, and teachers.
(3) The original 2,120 affordable housing units, including affordable, homeless family, and self-help housing, committed to in the CRP Area Plan should accommodate a diverse range of lower income levels and demographics defined in the city’s housing element.
(4) Some of the 3,020 units can be built in conjunction with other market-rate housing to satisfy inclusionary housing requirements. However, a more efficient and effective method to achieve the levels of housing required is to have most of the affordable housing built as standalone projects where the affordable housing providers stay involved as owners or managers of the property, ensuring facility upkeep and screening of residents. Affordable housing builders will require gap funding to develop the desired affordable projects, and fees from market-rate developers in lieu of unit construction that might otherwise be required, could be a source of funding. Market-rate developers may also be allowed to provide utility services to affordable housing project sites in lieu of fees as another alternative to satisfy the inclusionary requirement.
(5) To replace or augment more traditional redevelopment funding support, the city’s local reuse authority (LRA) should pursue disposition methods that would allow parcels to be transferred at no cost or significantly reduced cost to the LRA that could in turn be transferred at no cost or significantly reduced cost to affordable housing developers to accommodate the committed 3,020 units of affordable housing. The LRA reserves the right to augment the use of discounted land if other funding sources arise in part, or in whole, to replace the use of redevelopment tax increment.
(6) The sites would be selected solely by the LRA and street improvements and utilities to the sites would be provided by the LRA or the master developer, and their transfer would represent the city’s in-kind match for the affordable housing developers in leveraging external financing. The sites would not be clustered, but spread out in smaller two- to four-acre increments and generally be located in areas with minimum densities of 25 units to the acre. To the degree feasible, at least one affordable housing parcel should be contiguous to each homeless accommodation parcel so that the homeless units can be integrated with larger affordable projects and more readily access services. This is a vision of mixed-income housing that the city council and community has been supportive of through the community planning process.
(7) Specific affordable housing parcels should be identified and analyzed for environmental impacts under CEQA as part of the development of future specific plans for the base. With certified CEQA documents in place, land uses consistent with adopted specific plans should be exempt from further CEQA review, creating an incentive for development.
(8) The LRA will not be required to issue building permits for affordable housing development until the 200th market-rate unit is constructed and utilities can be made available to the affordable housing sites. As the balance of the CRP Area Plan develops, creation of affordable units should track as a percentage against built market-rate units as part of the phasing plan that is intended to be crafted for the disposition strategy.
(9) The city council reaffirms its commitment to self-help housing by directing staff to negotiate a public benefit conveyance of two- or three-acre parcels to Habitat for Humanity.
(d) The redevelopment project would implement the legally binding agreement the city has executed to create up to 260 units of affordable housing, as a part of the 3,020 affordable units, for formerly homeless individuals, as well as the creation of a food bank and employment training center at the site.
(e) The redevelopment project would generate up to 6,100,000 gross square feet space for commercial, campus, or institutional uses to be constructed, along with extensive open spaces and bicycle and pedestrian networks and streets.
(f) The redevelopment project will generate up to 26,000 permanent jobs and thousands of jobs will be created during construction of the projects. This employment estimate does not include the substantial job generation that will occur within the surrounding development, which will generate additional hospitality, office, restaurant, and retail jobs in the City of Concord’s downtown area. Workplaces will be designed to encourage walking, bicycling, and transit access, and the community itself will include a mix of jobs and housing to minimize commute lengths and driving times.
(g) The redevelopment project also presents an unprecedented opportunity to implement innovative measures that will significantly reduce traffic and air quality impacts and mitigate the greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the project. The project site is located adjacent to the North Concord/Martinez BART stations and within one mile of the Concord BART Station and thus is situated to maximize opportunities to encourage nonautomobile modes of travel to the mixed-use development project, consistent with the policies and regional vision included in Chapter 728 of the Statutes of 2008.
(h) The redevelopment project would implement the CRP Area Plan’s Climate Action Plan, including standards to promote vehicle trip reduction, energy efficiency, renewable energy generation, waste reduction and diversion, and water efficiency.
(i) The Mount Diablo Creek Corridor, which is 178 acres within the development project area, would be restored and enhanced for habitat value and flood control and approximately 698 acres of open space will be created and made accessible to the public, with pedestrian and vehicular connections provided over the creek to the more expansive 2,500-acre Thurgood Marshall Regional Park–Home of the Port Chicago 50.
(j) The city will evaluate both a 75-acre tournament sports complex facility and a broader 175-acre facility to study in-depth quantification of potential economic impacts to the city and explore the potential public-private partnerships or other strategies to develop and finance the project.
(k) The city will implement a campus district, consistent with the city’s Campus District Vision Framework adopted on June 14, 2019, to strategically support regional economic and higher education through a new campus model, a model that combines multiple academic institutions at various grade levels, research and development, and manufacturing opportunities.
(l) Planning and implementation of community facilities to serve the redevelopment project, including police and fire stations, new schools, community centers, a library, a veteran’s hall, parks and recreation facilities, and open-space amenities and trails providing connectivity throughout the site and into surrounding neighborhoods.
(m) It is in the interest of the state to expedite administrative review of the redevelopment project, as appropriate, while protecting the environment and the rights of the public to review, comment on, and, if necessary, seek judicial review of, the adequacy of an environmental impact report for the projects.