18.04.020 Definitions.
For the purpose of this chapter, the following terms and phrases are defined as follows, unless it is apparent from the context that a different meaning is intended:
A. “Categorical exemption” means the immunity of a class of projects from the necessity for an environmental assessment, either based upon an exemption under the Environmental Quality Act of 1970 or based upon a determination that the type of projects comprising the class normally will have no significant effect on the environment.
B. “Decisionmaker” means any agency, official or employee of the city who is authorized to take a governmental action on a project, including but not limited to the city council.
C. “Discretionary project” means a project for which the governmental action requested allows latitude of decision within which the decisionmaker determines issues for that project according to the circumstances and according to the judgment of the decision maker; that is, the decisionmaker is not expressly controlled by fixed rules of law.
D. “Environment” means the physical conditions which exist within the area which will be affected by a proposed subject, including land, air, water, minerals, flora, fauna, noise and objects of historic or aesthetic significance. The general term “environment” is divided into the following categories:
1. The physical or inorganic environment, comprising such factors as climate and soil;
2. The biological environment, comprising wild plants and animals, including bacteria and other germs;
3. The social environment, comprising things due to human activity and divisible, in tum, into:
a. The physiosocial environment, comprising buildings, roads, and all manufactured objects,
b. The biosocial environment, comprising domesticated plants and animals.
E. “Environmental assessment” means an evaluation of the characteristics of a project and of its proposed environment to determine whether the project may have a significant effect on the environment.
F. “Environmental documents” means all of the papers pertaining to a specific project which are prepared by the city and are relied upon as the bases, proof or support of the environmental impact of the project.
G. “Environmental impact report” means the detailed written statement and comments as defined in the Environmental Quality Act of 1970.
H. “Environmental Quality Act of 1970" means Division 13 of the California Public Resources Code, as it may be amended from time to time, and any regulations adopted pursuant thereto.
I. “Governmental action” means the proposed authorization by the city of a project or a discrete part of a project. Such proposed authorization may be by ordinance, resolution, contract, lease, permit, license, or any other form of entitlement to proceed with the project proposed.
J. “Ministerial project” means a project for which the governmental action requested allows no latitude of decision within which the decisionmaker determines issues for that project according to the circumstances and according to the judgment of the decisionmaker; that is, the decisionmaker is expressly controlled by fixed rules of law.
K. “Person” means any person, firm, association, organization, partnership, business, trust, corporation, company, district, county, city and county, city, town, the state, and any of the agencies and political subdivisions of such entities.
L. “Project” means a planned undertaking requiring governmental action on the undertaking as a whole or on any discrete part of the undertaking authorizing land acquisition, site development, building alteration, building construction, or any significant intensification of the use of land. “Project,” as defined by the Environmental Quality Act of 1970, includes the following:
1. Activities directly undertaken by the city;
2. Activities undertaken by a person other than the city which are supported in whole or in part through contracts, grants, subsidies, loans or other forms of assistance from the city;
3. Activities involving the issuance to a person other than the city of a lease, permit, license, certificate, or other entitlement for use by the city.
M. “Significant effect on the environment” means an important result, either beneficial or adverse, in the environment of a project which may be produced by the implementation of the project as proposed. The significance of an effect generally is directly proportional to the following qualities of the effect:
1. Its magnitude;
2. Its duration;
3. Its proximity to the project site;
4. The number of individuals directly affected by it;
5. The closeness of its relationship to the physical and biological environment.
In accordance with the legislative intent stated in the Environmental Quality Act of 1970, the effects on the following items are deemed to be more significant that other environmental effects:
1. Aesthetic environmental qualities;
2. Natural environmental qualities;
3. Scenic environmental qualities;
4. Historic environmental qualities, especially examples of the major periods of California history;
5. The maintenance and perpetuation of fish and wildlife species;
6. Freedom from excessive noise;
7. Waste disposal and environmental pollution.
N. “Sponsor” means the person who submits a project or a discrete part of a project for governmental action. (Ord. 122 § 1, 1973)