Agmt19 Aecom Technical Services, Inc.

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following list is not intended to be exhaustive, nor is it intended to suggest that these topics may raise significant impacts. These issues and the relevant considerations are identified here, based on the attributes of the project site, the nature and intensity of the proposed development, and input received by the applicant during its outreach meetings and comments on prior environmental documents in the area. There are standard mitigation measures and specific measures in the City's General Plan EIR that can reduce these effects, if found to be potentially significant, to a less -than - significant level and thereby be satisfactorily addressed in an Initial Study. • Aesthetics and Visual Quality: The proposed project promises to upgrade the visual quality, character, and image of the project site, which is currently characterized by low-rise, auto -oriented, and underutilized parcels. Little of the built environment or the street trees provides for a coherent streetscape that unifies the area or connects to the adjacent or the larger EI Camino Real Corridor and the Grand Boulevard vision. Nevertheless, the building heights, which will be increased through allowable density bonuses and community benefits, may contrast with the bordering, predominantly one-story development pattern and scale across EI Camino Real (one-story buildings from Maple to Roosevelt streets), the Caltrain right-of-way (predominantly one-story from Main to Chestnut streets), and Cedar and Chestnut streets. To communicate these changes to the height, scale, and massing of the project vicinity, the preparation of visual simulations are shown below as an optional task. While the project site is a transit priority area and fulfills the criteria under SB 743 that dismiss aesthetics from being a CEQA significant impact, nonetheless, such discussion for information purposes may be beneficial for the public and the City decision -makers. • Cultural Resources: The area possesses little of the historic fabric and buildings that help characterize the Downtown Precise Plan area. Still, 1401 Main Street is a non -designated historic resource and input received during the applicant's initial review and outreach meetings requested that it be retained and repurposed. How the building is treated and integrated (or not) into the development schemes needs to be presented and assessed in the CEQA document. AECOM's architectural historians will critically review the applicant's study of the historic integrity of the building and incorporate the information into the analysis. • Hazardous Materials: The nature of the historic land uses in the project area — auto -related sales and service businesses and proximity to the rail line — is often associated with possible hazardous materials concerns that could affect construction workers, future site occupants, and the public. Database searches of the state soil and groundwater contaminated sites and consultation with the County Environmental Health Department, the local CUPA, would be important to document. In addition, the project applicant has performed its due diligence in acquiring and assembling the project site parcels and, thus, have had an ASTM Phase 1 environmental site assessment and Phase 2 completed. These studies will be Page 11 of 37 ATf-Y/AGR/2018.270/AECOM PSA REV: 12-07-18 PR