Comments on NOP for Curtis Park Village October 21, 2004

October 21, 2004

Susanne Cook
Planning Division
City of Sacramento
1231 I Street, Room 300
Sacramento, CA 95814

Re: Comments on Notice of Preparation for Curtis Park Village (Project P04-109)

Dear Ms. Cook:

The Sierra Curtis Neighborhood Association is pleased to comment on the City of Sacramento's Notice of Preparation (NOP) for the Curtis Park Village project.

According to the NOP, the project includes 200,000 square feet of commercial use, 225 to250 single family home sites (with potential for 450 to 500 units), 310 multi- family housing units, and a 5 acre park / detention basin, all on a 72 acre site that is severely constrained by the existing development surrounding the site.

1. PROJECT DESCRIPTION

First, as a threshold issue, the project description in the NOP is unclear and in some cases, inconsistent with statements in the application submitted to the City. Some specific examples:

The NOP is misleading in implying that there is anything in the application (or as defined, in the "project") that would limit the sale of lots to 10 or fewer per buyer. The City staff has stated that there is no legal method to impose or enforce such a requirement as part of the City's approval process.

The NOP states that low-income housing required by City ordinance will be provided both on- and off-site. Neither the application nor the NOP explain how low-income housing located off-site would comply with the City ordinance.
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The NOP fails to acknowledge that each single-family lot can include two residences, thereby doubling the potential number of single-family dwellings on the site to 450-500 units. The EIR must assume that for purposes of environmental impact analysis, the maximum number of units would be built. This will have significant effects on the evaluation of the project's impacts on traffic, schools, utilities, and parks and must be accurately accounted for.

2. RECREATION AND PARKS

The current parks in the area are below the City's standards for the population served. Any proposed park must meet the City's standards for regional and neighborhood park needs. The City's ordinances require any park fee to be used for facilities which will serve the residents of the area being subdivided. The new park land required by the City's Quimby Act requirements should be for parks to serve this subdivision, where it is sorely needed.

The proposed park for the project needs to be studied in light of whether it meets City standards Quimby Act requirements and the needs of the new residents. An on-site park that meets those requirements should be included in the project alternatives.

A regional detention surface basin, doubling as a park, has been proposed. The EIR should study whether an area subject to flooding could meet the City's standards and serve the new residents' need for active recreational park acreage. Further, the applicant has proposed that open space credit be given for the median and round-about areas. The EIR should evaluate the impact on park and recreational needs if these are counted as open space.

Curtis Park will be the most likely destination of new residents who want to use a larger, more established park. Curtis Park is already overtaxed with users and has few amenities. The EIR should study the impact of the new development on Curtis Park.

The EIR must also address the impacts from private management of the park, as proposed by the applicant. What will be the impact on City park and recreational needs if the City does not manage the park use?

3. TRANSPORTATION / CIRCULATION

Traffic generated by this project will ripple across older existing neighborhoods. The boundaries of the environmental review and traffic study should include Land Park Drive on the west, Fruitridge Blvd. on the south, Oak Park on the east and Broadway on the north. Further, increases in traffic at or near the Highway 99/12th Ave.--Sutterville Road intersection will back up cars into the residential areas of Oak Park, Curtis Park, and Western Pacific Addition.

The EIR must include:

An analysis of the overall traffic distribution plan and impacts for each land use alternative studied.
The EIR should use the previously accepted Neighborhood Thresholds of Significance to be used to assess traffic impacts on residential streets. (See below.)

The increases in traffic generated by this project and associated congestion, noise and safety problems will cause significant adverse impacts on the existing neighborhoods. The EIR must include alternatives that substantially reduce the traffic impacts on the neighborhood streets, and not just address the effect on major intersections.

Those alternatives should include, at a minimum, an alternative with significantly less density, both commercial and residential, as well as a project with all-residential development. The commercial development will be the biggest traffic generator. Alternatives that study the effects of commercial development of 50,000 and 100,000 square feet should be included in the EIR.

Alternatives that will spread the traffic impacts throughout the surrounding areas, and do not result in directing the adverse traffic effects to a few streets, should be studied.

One alternative should include ground level or overpass vehicular access to Freeport Blvd, as well as the maximum number of connections to the south, east and north side of the project.

In addition, a no-vehicular-connection to Curtis Park alternative should be included in the EIR analysis.

The alternatives should include direct pedestrian access to the City College and the 4th Ave. Light Rail stations.

The EIR must assume that the capacity of 21st St. will be reduced to a two lane, two-way street, as the City Council recently endorsed. In the alternatives that include a northern access at Portola/21st St., the EIR should address the traffic flow at the 21st St. / Portola / Marshall Way / 4th Ave. intersection.

The EIR should also address how the alleys that back up to the development, including the 24th St. alley, will be impacted by the project. The EIR should must include an alternative that preserves neighbors' access to their alleys.

While not included in the NOP, the applicant has stated that the traffic signal at 24th St. and Sutterville will be removed and there will be a new a signal at the southern end of the development. The EIR must include an analysis of this proposed change and describe how Curtis Park residents will be able to turn left and go east on Sutterville without signal protection at this busy intersection.

Thresholds of Significance-A Neighborhood Traffic Yardstick

The City currently has no traffic thresholds of significance applicable to neighborhood-serving residential streets. As a result, we urge the city to utilize the thresholds of significance developed in consultation with the City's traffic consultant for evaluating neighborhood streets as part of the 1998 UP application for this site. That threshold is as follows:

Traffic studies conducted during environmental review would establish a baseline of existing traffic.

Streets with existing large traffic volumes (2500 cars a day and higher) like 24th Street , Sutterville Road, and Freeport Blvd would have a 5% cap, unless more restrictive measures are in effect. (By city ordinance, Sutterville Road and portions of Franklin Blvd. are under a more stringent 2% cap. Those Levels of Service (LOS) caps therefore would not be changed.)
Very low volume streets (those with traffic at or under 120 cars a day) would be allowed no significant increase in traffic. (These are the streets where traffic studies indicate there will be no increases in traffic as a result of the project.)
Moderate traffic streets, such as 4th Avenue, Donner Way, 5th Ave. and Portola Way, would have a 10% cap.

"Measurability," or the ability to accurately count and quantify increased traffic, begins at about 100 cars a day. Therefore, we are not requesting the developer be held responsible for mitigating small traffic increases that do not cause the traffic to exceed the existing baseline plus 10%. For example, where the existing baseline on a street is 800 cars per day, the traffic threshold of significance would be 880 cars per day.

4. TOXICS

These comments assume clean-up of the site to levels commensurate with land use entitlements for the site. The project description should include the requirements of SB 120 (1999), connecting the proposed land use plan to clean up levels. The EIR will need to evaluate the impacts to residents of being exposed to the toxic contaminants that are not remediated to an unrestricted level.

The impact on surrounding residents from toxics during construction, particularly from air-borne contaminants and dust, needs to be evaluated and properly mitigated.

5. AESTHETICS

The proposed project has significant historical resource impacts. A proposal to designate a portion of the Curtis Park area, West Curtis Oaks, as a historic district, is currently pending before the City.

The Curtis Park area is one of the first planned subdivision communities in Sacramento dating from the early decades of the twentieth century. The proposed project site is directly bounded by three separate early subdivisions: to the north by the West Curtis Oaks Addition 1911, to the northeast by the Curtis Oaks subdivision 1916, and to the west by South Curtis Oaks 1922-1927. West Curtis Oaks Addition and Curtis Oaks are excellent examples of pre-WWI street car suburbs characterized by many fine examples of California Bungalow and Arts and Crafts residential architecture. Both were developed by J.C. Carly, one of the city's most prominent pre-WWII developers, who resided in Curtis Park and whose Dean and Dean designed house is located on Montgomery Way, east of the park.

West Curtis Oaks was a development of the Hickman Coleman Company, also prominent city developers in the 1920's and 30's. West Curtis Oaks contains excellent examples of "Small Home" and "Better Homes" eclectic revival residential architecture of the 1920's.

Curtis Park is a representative example of the evolution of the American suburb, an important aspect of city and urban planning in the United States. It is historically significant in the context of suburban and metropolitan demographic trends, subdivision design, and suburban housing development in the pre-and post-WWI era. The residential suburban development in Curtis Park possesses a significant concentration, linkage and continuity of buildings, structures and sites united historically and aesthetically by plan and physical arrangement. The individual subdivisions that make up the Curtis Park suburb have the requisite characteristics for eligibility for listing on the National Register of Historic Places, the California Register of Historical Resources, and for listing as a City Preservation Area.

The Draft EIR should address the potential historic significance of the three subdivision areas adjacent to the project site, as well as the historic significance of the Land Park area and City College's architectural heritage. The areas should be surveyed and significance should be evaluated under the criteria of the California Register of Historical Resources (Title 14, sections 4850, et seq. of the CCR) and the draft National Register Bulletin: A Context and Guidelines for evaluating America's Historic Suburbs.

Since layout, plan and overall site design is an important character defining feature of historic subdivisions, the projects consistency with, or variation from, patterns, established in the historic portions of Curtis Park should be addressed. The EIR should include a discussion of consistency or variation with existing patterns of open space and landscaping, and consider whether such design should be a mandatory condition of approval, since voluntary guidelines provide no assurance that development will be built in compliance with such guidelines.

The potential for traffic patterns and flow to disrupt traditional linkage within the historic area should be addressed. Existing buildings or structures that might contribute to a historic district and might be devalued, removed, or demolished should be identified and the impacts on a historic district evaluated.

The EIR should evaluate the impact of the design of the retail development on the historical significance of the surrounding neighborhoods.

The application proposes that the applicant will remain in control of design review approval for the new homes. The EIR should address how this will affect the impact on aesthetics and compatibility with the existing neighborhood. Further, the diversity of house types, sizes and layouts is part of what distinguishes Curtis Park from many modern subdivisions. The EIR should address the aesthetic impact if a builder could purchase adjoining lots and build identical houses, as this would be a dramatic departure from the architectural norms in Curtis Park.

The EIR should also analyze the natural features of the site, including the trees and any biological resources that are on the site and might be impacted by the proposed project. Alternatives must include ones that protect Heritage trees and any unique species on the site.

6. AIR

The evaluation of air quality impacts should address the current EPA standards. In addition, the effect on project residents from nearby idling diesel locomotives should be evaluated.

Fugitive dust generated by infrastructure/structural construction activity will be the largest source of PM10 from the project. Because of the close proximity of dense residential development to the boundaries of this soil disturbance activity, a Dust Control Plan must be developed and evaluated in the EIR.

The cumulative impacts of regional development projections on the ozone level, including this project's contributions, should be assessed.

7. WATER

The EIR should assess impacts on both surface and ground water using the Regional Water Quality Control Board, Central Valley Region's Water Quality Control Plan for the Sacramento and San Joaquin River Basins, 4th Edition ("Basin Plan").

The beneficial uses of waters at the property identified and the applicable water quality objectives in the Basin Plan should be specified in the EIR. The existing status of the groundwater should be identified and potential impacts to the water from development activities should be addressed.

The EIR should address the fact that the ground water underneath the site is contaminated with volatile organic chemicals and nickel at above the water quality objectives in the Basin Plan. Down gradient from the site are drinking water wells. The EIR needs to evaluate the impacts of contaminated ground water and siting residential and commercial uses above the contaminated ground water.

8. NOISE

The EIR should consider the impacts of noise and vibration on residents, particularly on children and other sensitive receptors exposed to unprotected and extended noise volumes. The proposed playing fields are near the railroad tracks and in close proximity to the even louder noises from the switching yard. Cumulative noise impacts of the combined noise of the switching operations and train and traffic noise on both proposed residences and other sensitive receptors should be evaluated. In addition, there needs to be an evaluation of the increased noise from the project together with existing and projected future noise from train horns and other train and light-rail related noise.

The EIR should measure the noise impacts using measurements for both amplitude and frequency. Since much of the noise will be from train or vehicular traffic, the noise descriptors should include peak noise levels, not just average noise level descriptors. In addition, the noise measurements and mitigation requirements should account for the noise-sensitive hours between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., using Day-Night Noise Level to adjust for the impact on residents, as well as for Community Noise Equivalent Level to address the traditional quieter neighborhood family needs between 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.

The EIR should study all conditions, including worst case, when evaluating the amount and level of rail yard traffic and switching yard operations, as well as increased noise due to the light rail line and noise from significant increases in volume and type of traffic on neighborhood streets.

9. LAND USE

Different levels of commercial use should be studied. The secondary economic impact on existing commercial properties in the vicinity due to the development of additional neighborhood serving commercial property could be a major contributor to economic decline and physical deterioration of an economically fragile commercial area. This impact needs to be addressed, and the alternatives with no or less commercially-zoned property needs to be evaluated as it would likely reduce the secondary economic impacts on individuals and properties.

Neighborhood serving commercial needs to be more fully defined. The traffic analysis should evaluate the impact of different types of commercial use.

10. RISK OF UPSET

The EIR should consider the risk of upset from transportation of toxics, nuclear material or chemicals by rail. The frequency and kind of all hazardous materials carried on railroads, based on their manifest or comparable data, should be disclosed. If it is not known how often or what types of materials will be carried on this route, disclosure of materials carried on all Northern California routes should be included. The EIR should evaluate the potential exposure in the event of derailment or a spill.

11. PUBLIC SERVICES

The EIR should fully consider the additional impact of the new commercial and residential land uses on schools, utilities, fire and police. Of particular concern is the addition of up to 500 new families on enrollment levels of Bret Harte Elementary School, which is already crowded. The evaluation needs to include an assumed number of residents that accurately reflects the maximum number of residences proposed, including the second units that would be permitted if the project is approved. The NOP does not appear to include these second units; they will substantially affect the ability of the City to provide public services.

12. CUMULATIVE IMPACTS

The EIR needs to address the cumulative impacts of this project together with those from other projects that will affect related resources, especially traffic, school capacity and air quality. The projects that should be considered, include at a minimum, the proposed Sacramento City College Transportation, Access and Parking Master Plan; the proposed 21st Street/ Freeport two-way traffic conversion; and other proposed developments that also contribute to these environmental impacts.

Sincerely,

Will Gonzalez, President
Sierra Curtis Neighborhood Association

cc: City Council and Planning Commission
City Manager