Murrieta 122/Adobe Springs Specific Plan

FCS prepared an EIR and associated CEQA filing and distribution notices for the Adobe Springs Specific Plan, which proposed to develop a residential and business park development with additional areas dedicated to permanent open space within the project site. The proposed project would involve a General Plan Amendment and Zone Change, as well as a Specific Plan, Tentative Parcel Map, and Tentative Tract Map to subdivide the approximately 122.3-acre project site into five parcels for residential and business park purposes. Approximately one-half of the project site (approximately 66.8 acres) would remain undeveloped and conserved as open space.

Major circulation facilities would be constructed to provide access to the site from Winchester Road in a southwesterly direction, and approximately 797 parking spaces would be provided within the residential community. Controversial elements involved with the project included a large portion of the project site being protected by the Pechanga Tribe and a portion of the site being in an agricultural preserve containing protected rock outcroppings, as well as air quality, noise, and traffic impacts.

FCS used an Air Quality and Greenhouse Gas technical report that was prepared an outside firm to draft the Air Quality and Greenhouse Gas section for the Adobe Springs Specific Plan EIR. Although a formal technical peer review was not part of the scope of work, FCS utilized the extensive expertise and experience of its technical discipline staff to review the applicant-provided Air Quality and Greenhouse Gas technical report to ensure that the report adequately addressed all potential environmental impacts. FCS’s initial evaluation of the estimated cancer risks attributable to the diesel particulate matter emissions from the construction of the project indicated that the risks would exceed the SCAQMD's cancer risk significance threshold at residential locations adjacent to the construction area. As such, FCS technical staff recommended the additional of a construction HRA. FCS prepared a health risk assessment evaluating the project’s DPM emissions during construction and recommended a mitigation measure to reduce cancer risk impacts to a less-than-significant level. The project was approved and the EIR was certified in January 2017.