Title
Hold a Public Hearing to Provide Comments on the Environmental Impact Report for the Alameda Point Project
Body
CITY OF ALAMEDA
Memorandum
To: Honorable President and
Members of the Planning Board
From: Andrew Thomas
City Planner
Jennifer Ott
Chief Operating Officer - Alameda Point
Date: September 9, 2013
Re: Hold a Public Hearing to Provide Comments on the Environmental Impact Report for the Alameda Point Project
BACKGROUND
The City is preparing a comprehensive zoning ordinance amendment (Zoning Amendment) and associated General Plan Amendments, a Master Infrastructure Plan (MIP), and a Town Center and Waterfront Precise Plan (Town Center Plan) for Alameda Point (collectively, Alameda Point project).
As required by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), the City is also preparing a draft environmental impact report (EIR). On January 28, 2013 and February 25, 2013, the City held two scoping sessions with the Planning Board to provide an opportunity for the public to submit comments on the scope of a Draft EIR for the Alameda Point project. Written comments submitted to the City as part of the scoping process were reviewed by City staff and City's consultants (Environmental Science Associates (ESA)) as part of the preparation of the Draft EIR.
The DEIR and the draft Zoning Amendment, MIP, and Conceptual Framework Options for the Town Center Plan can be found at the City's website at http://alamedaca.gov/alameda-point/current-draft-documents by the end of the day on September 3, 2013. (Printed copies will be delivered to the Planning Board on September 3, 2013.)
DISCUSSION
The draft EIR provides an evaluation of the potential environmental impacts that may be expected as the result of the redevelopment and reuse of Alameda Point pursuant to the draft zoning amendment, infrastructure plan, and town center plan. The purpose of the evaluation is to inform the community, the Planning Board, and the City Council about the potential environmental impacts and the potential mitigations that are available to avoid or lessen the impacts before any final decisions are made on the Alameda Point project. The information in the draft EIR may also be used by the Planning Board to inform possible changes and modifications to the draft zoning, MIP, or draft Town Center Plan.
The EIR is an informational document; it does not approve or deny the project, but it does provide important information that must be considered before any final actions are taken on the plans.
Over the course of the next 45 days, staff will be accepting comments on the draft EIR. Specifically, staff is inviting comments on the adequacy of the analysis and any specific environmental questions that might not have been adequately answered. Comments may be submitted in verbally on September 9, 2013 at the Planning Board meeting or on September 25, 2013 at the joint Planning Board and City Council meeting. Written comments by be submitted at any time by mail or email until October 21, 2013.
At the close of the 45 day comment period in October, the City will compile all the comments and prepare a revised analysis and a response to each of the comments received. Upon completion or the revisions and responses, the City will release a Final EIR for public, Planning Board, and City Council consideration. Neither the Planning Board nor the City Council can make any final decisions about the adoption of the zoning, infrastructure plan or town center plan until the Final EIR is reviewed and accepted by the City Council, with a recommendation from the Planning Board.
EIR SECTIONS
The DEIR includes a series of chapters that address the following environmental topics:
- Land Use
- Population, Employment, and Housing
- Transportation (including impacts on bicycle, transit, and pedestrian levels of service)
- Cultural Resources (including impacts on historic resources and the NAS Historic district)
- Biological Resources (including impacts on the endangered species and the Least Tern colony)
- Air Quality and Greenhouse Gas Emissions
- Noise
- Geology, Soils, and Seismicity
- Hydrology and Water Quality
- Hazardous Materials
- Aesthetics
- Utilities and Service Systems
In addition, the draft EIR includes:
- A summary chapter (Chapter 2) that summarized the impacts and mitigations for each environmental topic.
- A detailed project description is provided in Chapter 3. In summary, the Alameda Point “project” evaluated in the draft EIR is designed to accommodate a mix of land uses, including approximately 5.5 million square feet of employment uses in existing and newly constructed buildings, 1,425 residential units, including 267 existing single family and multifamily housing units, over 2|1013|0 acres of parks and open space, and maritime and recreational uses in and adjacent to the Seaplane Lagoon. The new housing units will be distributed within existing vacant and newly constructed multi-family and single-family buildings. While it is anticipated that Alameda Point will be developed in phases over the next 20 to 30 years, the pace of redevelopment will depend on economic conditions, completion of the Navy's remaining environmental remediation activities, property conveyance, and other factors.
- An alternatives chapter (Chapter 5) that evaluates alternatives to the proposed project that might reduce or avoid environmental impacts associated with the project. The alternatives chapter is also designed to inform future decisions about potential changes to the project plans.
MAJOR FINDINGS
In summary, the major environmental issues raised by the redevelopment of Alameda Point include:
Transportation Impacts (Chapter 4.C) The draft EIR finds that redevelopment of Alameda Point will increase the volume of automobiles travelling to and from Alameda Point. The increased volume will result in impacts to automobile levels of service, bicycle level of service, pedestrian levels of service and transit levels of service.
The EIR recommends a number of mitigations to reduce these impacts at the specific locations where level of services will be impacted. Consistent with General Plan policy, the primary mitigation recommended by the draft EIR is a comprehensive Transportation Demand Management (TDM) program specifically designed to reduce the volume of automobiles travelling to and from Alameda Point. The TDM Plan mitigation is designed to:
- Incentivize future Alameda Point residents and employers to use transportation alternatives to the single-occupancy vehicle,
- Generate funds for alternative modes of transportation (shuttles, buses, ferry and/or water taxi services, car share services, etc.), and
- Facilitate and support a transit oriented development at Alameda Point.
Air Quality (Chapter 4.F) Due to increased construction activity and traffic related to development facilitated by the Alameda Point Project there are potentially significant and unavoidable impacts to air quality. The draft EIR recommends a number of mitigations to reduce these impacts, including a TDM program to reduce automobile trips, which are a primary source of emissions.
Noise (Chapter 4.G) Due to increased construction activity and traffic related to development facilitated by the Alameda Point Project there are potentially significant and unavoidable noise impacts. Offsite noise impacts related to the increase automobile traffic can be reduced or avoided by a successful TDM program.
Cultural Resources (Chapter 4.D) The development facilitated by the Alameda Point Project would potentially have a significant and unavoidable adverse impact on historic resources within the Historic District. The NAS Historic District has over 100 contributing elements, including buildings, landscape features, open taxiways, open water areas, and view corridors. The Alameda Point Project will facilitate development that includes:
- Physical changes within the Historic District in order to address sea level rise, infrastructure improvements, and address health and safety issues;
- Alternations and possible demolition of certain contributing buildings and/or features that may not be economically feasible to rehabilitate and reuse, especially considering the cost of installing new infrastructure to support these buildings (many of the buildings have be vacant for over 15 years); and
- Modifications and improvements to the Seaplane Lagoon and adjacent taxiways (contributors to the District) to accommodate future ferry services, a marina, waterfront recreational activities, and waterfront visitor serving development (i.e. restaurants, kayak rentals, etc.).
The draft EIR recommends a mitigation measure to lessen the potential impacts, but the EIR also concludes that some of these impacts may be significant and unavoidable.
Biology and Hazardous Materials The Draft EIR includes extensive discussion and analysis of the potential impacts on biological resources (species and habitat) and hazardous materials. The draft EIR finds that all of these potential impacts can be mitigated through appropriate procedures and standards to be implemented with the project.
Project Alternatives CEQA requires that an EIR describe and evaluate a range of reasonable alternatives that would reduce environmental impacts associated with the project. Based upon comments received at the Planning Board scoping sessions and the CEQA requirements for alternatives evaluation, the draft EIR includes an evaluation of a range of alternatives. The analysis is designed to identify changes to the project that might be considered to minimize environmental impacts and identify any additional impacts that might be expected if certain changes to the project were considered in the future to accomplish other planning goals. The alternatives considered include:
- The No Project Alternative: This alternative considers the environmental impacts of continuing the existing uses on the site, which include 267 existing housing units and existing non-residential business leases with approximately 1,000 jobs. No construction of new housing units or new commercial development would occur under this alternative.
- The Preservation/Less Development Alternative: This alternative considers the environmental impacts of allowing some additional development, but not as much as the proposed Alameda Point Project and limiting that new development to the areas outside of the Historic District. This alternative would include a total of 1,000 housing units (733 additional units) and up to 6,000 jobs (5,000 additional jobs). Approximately 733 of the housing units would be created through new construction. Of the 5,000 new jobs, approximately half (2,500) of the new jobs would occur in new non-residential buildings and the other half would occur in exiting vacant or underutilized buildings. This alternative is specifically designed to avoid or reduce impacts in the Historic District. In this alternative, no new construction would be allowed within the Historic District.
- The General Plan Alternative: This alternative compares the environmental impacts of 500 more housing units (up to 1,928), but fewer jobs (6,000 instead of 9,000) than then proposed project. The development program reflects the development program from the 2003 Alameda Point General Plan Amendment.
- The Multifamily Alternative: The Multifamily Alternative includes the same amount of housing and jobs as the proposed Alameda Point Project, but the residential uses are organized differently on the property. Existing single family homes would remain, but all new residential units would be constructed in new multi-family structures or in buildings within the Historic District that would be adaptively reused for multifamily housing, such as the Bachelors Officers Quarters (BOQ) and Bachelors Enlisted Quarters (BEQ). This alternative is specifically designed to examine reduce transportation impacts associated with residential development.
- The Transit Mixed Use Alternative: This alternative examines the relative environmental impacts of creating a higher density mixed use development at Alameda Point. The alternative includes 3,400 units. The alternative maintains the 5.5 million square feet of residential use, but significantly increases the amount of retail development 1 million square feet. Office, manufacturing and other non-residential development is reduced to approximately 4.5 million square feet.
- High Density Alternative: This alternative is modeled on the plan contained in the 2009 Ballot Initiative for Alameda Point. It includes 4,841 housing units and 3.8 million square feet of commercial uses. This alternative was included at the request of speakers at the scoping sessions.
At the September 9, 2013 Planning Board public hearing, staff will be available to answer any questions about the draft EIR and the process for public review of the documents.
RECOMMENDATION
This report is for information purposes only. No action is recommended.
Respectfully submitted,
Andrew Thomas
City Planner
Jennifer Ott
Chief Operating Officer - Alameda Point