The County of Riverside is the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Lead Agency for the proposed Highway 74 Community Plan, Project General Plan Amendment No. 1205 (GPA1205). The County has completed preparation of a Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) in compliance with CEQA for the project identified herein.
PROJECT LOCATION: The Highway 74 Community Plan Project is generally located on a 6.8-mile-long noncontiguous corridor of Highway 74 in the unincorporated area between Interstates 15 and 215, between the cities of Lake Elsinore and Perris, in western Riverside County. The planning area contains approximately 2,220 acres of unincorporated County land, with portions of the unincorporated communities of Good Hope, Meadowbrook, and Warm Springs being within the project boundary.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION: The Highway 74 Community Plan has been prepared by the County to guide land use and planning decisions within the planning area. The proposed project includes GPA1205 to guide the development of potential future residential neighborhoods of varying densities, commercial retail, mixed use, light industrial, business park, public facilities, rural, open space, and recreation areas. In summary, GPA1205 would involve the following amendments: Modify the existing General Plan Land Use Designations, Policy Areas, and policies within the Highway 74 Community Plan planning area – Removal of the Rural Village Land Use Overlay (RVLUO) for all sites within the planning area – Either update both the foundational components and land use designations, or only land use designation of sites – Remove the Perris Policy Area, Good Hope Policy Area, and the Good Hope and Meadowbrook RVLUO’s – Remove the Warm Springs Policy Area that overlaps Neighborhood 3.
The proposed project would lead to an increase of the following uses: Approximately 3,970 multi-family residential dwelling units; approximately 2,081,150 square feet of commercial retail uses; approximately 1,506,217 square feet of business park uses; approximately 740,903 square feet of light industrial uses; approximately 21.6 acres of public facility uses; and approximately 4.28 acres of open space uses.
The proposed project would lead to a decrease of approximately 383 single-family detached residential units (<5 dwelling units per acre [DU/acre]). However, given the potential increase of 3,970 multi-family dwelling units listed above, the proposed project would lead to a net increase of 3,587 residential units.
Potentially Significant Environmental Effects: Analysis of the project determined that there were potentially significant impacts related to Air Quality, Biological Resources, Cultural Resources, Geology and Soils, Noise, Transportation and Traffic, and Tribal Cultural Resources. However, implementation of mitigation measures provided in the DEIR would reduce the majority of these potential impacts to a less than significant level. Impacts that would remain significant even after implementation of all feasible mitigation measures include Project-Level and Cumulative Air Quality Impacts, and Project-Level and Cumulative Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) Impacts.
As stated in the DEIR, the site is not listed as a hazardous materials site enumerated under Government Code Section 65962.5.
DEIR Document Review and Availability: An electronic copy of the DEIR is available for public review on the County’s website at: https://planning.rctlma.org/Advanced-Planning/Highway-74-Community-Plan. A hard copy of the DEIR can be viewed at the following locations:
Riverside County Planning Department
4080 Lemon Street, 12th Floor
Riverside, CA 92502-1409
Hours: Monday-Friday: 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Moses-Schaffer Community Center
21565 Steele Peak Drive
Perris, CA 92570
Hours: Monday–Friday: 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
The public review period to comment on the DEIR shall be 45-days, from April 26, 2023, to June 9, 2023, at 5:00 p.m. Any person, Agencies, or organization wishing to comment on the document must submit their comments in writing to the Project Planner at the information below.
By Mail:
Riverside County Planning Department
Attn: Andrew Svitek,
4080 Lemon Street, 12th Floor
Riverside, CA 92501
By Email:
Project Planner:
Andrew Svitek
asvitek@rivco.org
951-955-8514