§ 33-924. Coordination of CEQA, quality of life standards, and growth management… — Escondido Zoning Code

The purpose of this section is to ensure consistency between the city's thresholds of environmental significance and the Public Facilities Master Plan that implements the growth management element of the general plan. The city's general plan contains quality of life

Downloaded from https://ecode360.com/ES4926 on 2026-05-23

City of Escondido, CA § 33-924

ZONING

§ 33-924

standards that are to be considered in comprehensive planning efforts as well as individual project review. The degree to which a project, and the area in which it is located, conforms to the quality of life standards, is an issue in determining thresholds of significance. Notwithstanding the city's goal of providing adequate infrastructure concurrent with development, the Public Facilities Master Plan acknowledges that concurrent provision of infrastructure cannot be provided in all cases, particularly in the short term. Instead, only critical infrastructure deficiencies affect the timing of development. The following criteria are intended to clarify how facility deficiencies should affect the following CEQA determinations:

(a) Negative and mitigated negative declarations. In situations where the preparation of a negative declaration is otherwise appropriate, yet quality of life standard deficiencies are found to exist, a negative declaration may still be prepared under the following circumstances, as applicable:
- (1) Facility deficiencies are of an interim nature in that a master plan has been adopted for the provision of the facilities, appropriate fees are charged to offset project impacts, or other measures are in place to address long-run impacts;
- (2) The project does not in itself, or in conjunction with other pending and approved projects, cause the number of units outside specified fire and emergency response times to exceed 10% of the total number of city units;
- (3) A project proposes fewer than 200 units, and the cumulative total of reasonably anticipated projects does not exceed a total of 1,000 units where the police service territory is experiencing, or is likely to experience, unacceptable service times;
- (4) Adequate sewer, water, and drainage facilities for the area can be provided to the satisfaction of the city engineer in accordance with adopted master plans;
- (5) After mitigation, the project does not individually generate air-quality impacts for fixed, mobile, or construction sources within the general plan area by more than any of the following thresholds per day:

==> picture [377 x 108] intentionally omitted <==

----- Start of picture text -----
Pounds per Day Thresholds
Respiratory Fine Volatile
Particulate Particulate Oxides of Oxides of Carbon Lead and Organic
Matter Matter Nitrogen Sulfur Monoxide Lead Compounds
(PM10) (PM2.5) (NOx) (SOx) (CO) Compounds (VOCs)
100 55 250 250 550 3.2* 75**
55***
----- End of picture text -----

Not applicable to construction.
** Threshold for construction per SCAQMD CEQA Air Quality Handbook.
*** Threshold for operational per SCAQMD CEQA Air Quality Handbook.
- (A) Diesel standby generators in conformance with Zoning Code section 33-1122 are exempt from the above requirement for daily emissions of oxides of nitrogen;
(6) Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In situations where a negative declaration is otherwise appropriate, the following incremental GHG emissions are generally not

Downloaded from https://ecode360.com/ES4926 on 2026-05-23

City of Escondido, CA § 33-924

ESCONDIDO CODE