1 of 4February 6, 2024, Item #8M EMQRAN DLJ M City of Poway ADDITIONAL MATERIALS (Agenda Related Writings/Documents provided to City Council or Staff after distribution of the Agenda Packet for the February 6, 2024 Council Meeting) DATE: TO: FROM: CONTACT: SUBJECT: February 6, 2024 Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council Carrie Gallagher, City Clerk u-C/r (858) 668-4535 or [email protected] Item 8 -Specific Plan Amendment (SPA) 24-0001, a request to amend the South Poway Specific Plan to add "Battery Storage Facilities" and "Battery Energy Storage Systems" as conditionally permitted uses in the Light Industrial (LI) land use designation Attached please find correspondence received after the agenda posting deadline. Reviewed/Approved By: Wendy Kaserman Assistant City Manager Reviewed By: Alan Fenstermacher City Attorney Approved By: Ch~H~ City Manager
2 of 4February 6, 2024, Item #8Ellis Webster Subject: RE: SPA24-0001 From: Chris Cruse Sent: Thursday, February 1, 2024 11:23:52 AM (UTC-08:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada) To: Alan Fenstermacher Subject: SPA24-0001 [You don't often get email from [email protected]. Learn why this is important at https://aka.ms/LearnAboutSenderldentification ] EXTERNAL EMAIL Hello Mr. Fenstermacher, I have some questions about SPA24-001. Many projects in a specific plan area or in the habitat area don't need a CEQA process, because they use the EIR that was approved when the particular specific plan or habitat plan was approved. IIRC, projects on Poway Rd didn't need EIRs because they "use" or "borrow" the EIR for the Poway Road Specific Plan. So, here are my questions: 1) when do SPAs or GPAs require a new EIR? For example the Harmon Ranch Plan is asking the city for a GPA to add a new zone. I don't think that new zone would be for the exclusive use of the Harmon Ranch project. That would be arbitrary and capricious. Does the city need to do an EIR addendum to consider the cumulative impact of adding a higher density zone to the general plan or can the city rely on each individual project to do El Rs? 2) SPA24-001 requires battery farms to follow the CEQA process, and I assume that mean they need to have an EIR done. Do all other permitted uses have to follow that same process? What determines whether a CUP applicant needs to do an EIR or can just "borrow" the already approved EIR from the plan? 3) In the case of Life Time, they were also seeking a CUP, but submitted a traffic study claiming that traffic counts would be lower with the substitution of a 30,500 sq ft facility for a less than 3000 sq ft facility. The Farm Specific Plan had language in it allowing the director of development services to make a discretionary approval and accept that traffic study. What makes discretionary approval ok in one specific plan for one type of use, but requires that council approve a discretionary permit in another? There seems to be considerable inconsistency in what can be ministerially approved and when an approval would require a hearing and vote by the council. Please advise, Chris Cruse 1
3 of 4February 6, 2024, Item #8From: [email protected] Sent: Wednesday, January 31, 2024 8:41:29 AM (UTC-08:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada) To: Alan Fenstermacher Subject: Comments to SPA24-0001/Amendment to South Poway Specific Plan regarding Battery Storage Facilities I You don't often get email from normkohls/algmail.com. Learn why this is important EXTERNAL EMAIL Dear Mr. Fenstermacher, Councilmembers and Mayor, I am a resident of south Poway and I am providing comments on behalf of myself on the subject proposed amendment. I am a registered professional engineer with over 30 years of experience in the energy industry. I have reviewed the proposed amendment and find it unreasonably restrictive and not in the City's, residents' or businesses' best interests as written. The language provides no definition of size of storage facility, and this will lead to unintended consequences. I propose that a size threshold be added to the amendment. I understand the City's desire to have discretionary review over large scale battery storage facilities. However, as currently proposed, the language will require .all battery storage facilities, large and small to undergo a discretionary review. I don't think that is what City staff or the public wants or needs. It will result in an unnecessary work burden for City staff to review small, standardized battery storage installations (e.g., Tesla Powerwalls, etc) and inhibit much needed energy infrastructure. As we move to integrate more intermittent renewable energy, we must build in energy storage to assist the grid during periods when the sun isn't shining, and the wind is not blowing. Battery storage is one way of doing that. It is now becoming economically essential and more prevalent to install small battery packs coupled with solar panels in both residential and commercial settings. The future is to have distributed battery resources of all sizes that can be called on to discharge back into the grid during peak periods or after dark. This includes not only large industrial scale installations, but also small installations such as Tesla Powerwalls, and potentially our personal electric vehicles being discharged back into the grid via a "vehicle to grid" mode. In the future, it will become common that all buildings have batteries such as a Tesla Powerwall. In the future, there may also be moderate sized battery installations coupled with EV charging stations to smooth out load on the grid. We must not unintentionally restrict the future and what is low risk and proven technology with a catchall resolution that really should be focused on large industrial scale installations. I recommend that the language in the amendment include a size of the facility for discretionary review. I recommend this threshold be for battery storage installations that are equal to or
4 of 4February 6, 2024, Item #8greater than 1 megawatt discharge rate and/or with a total storage capacity of 4 megawatt-hours. This will cover even relatively small industrial/utility scale storge projects, but not restrict the more common proven, low risk smaller applications of batteries which may become ubiquitous in the future. Thank you for your consideration. Norm Kohls 11674 Eastfield Road Poway, CA 92064