muy<\/em> long \u2014 list of acronyms and their definitions that appears near the front of the report. Without that cheat sheet, it\u2019s virtually impossible to understand what\u2019s being said. Even with it, it\u2019s a hard slog.<\/p>\nAs I trekked through the document, one section grabbed my attention quickly \u2014 one phrase that seemed to call attention to some things that will bother a lot of people as the effort proceeds to change industrial Grantville to something that will reflect the city\u2019s commitment to the \u201cCity of Villages\u201d concept built around the Grantville Trolley stop.<\/p>\n
That phrase is \u201csignificant and unmitigable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Translated to plain English, that means, \u201cIt\u2019ll be a problem, and there\u2019s nothing much we can do about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the report, it begins at Section 8.2, headlined \u201cCumulative Impacts found to be significant.\u201d<\/p>\n
LAND USE (NOISE)<\/strong><\/p>\nMuch of what the EIR proposes falls afoul of the city\u2019s General Plan. Noise levels in the area already exceed the city limit of 65 decibels (weighted), and the noise levels will only increase with the major project construction that will have to happen to make some of these redevelopment dreams come true. It\u2019s true that some of that noise will dwindle as projects are completed, the projects themselves will bring in new residents, more cars, and just generally more noise to the area \u2014 noise that will not go away.<\/p>\n
The EIR lays out a number of measures that will mitigate some of the problems, but not enough to fit within the city\u2019s General Plan. The cumulative effect of the buildup in noise levels is now considered to be \u201csignificant and unmitigable.\u201d That may require a change in the city\u2019s General Plan, making the increased noise levels at least legal, if not palatable.<\/p>\n
TRANSPORTATION\/CIRCULATION<\/strong><\/p>\nElsewhere in this issue, Editor Hutton Marshall has admirably and clearly delineated the traffic and circulation issues that surround the implementation of the projects considered in the EIR, so I won\u2019t spend much time on this, other than to say that the report itself states that a number of the mitigation efforts proposed are simply not feasible, and the cumulative impact would be \u201csignificant and unmitigable.\u201d After all, we are talking about nine intersections, 15 street segments, eight freeway segments, and one freeway ramp.<\/p>\n
Enough said.<\/p>\n
AIR QUALITY AND ODOR<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nThe area is already running afoul of the federal and state standards for ozone and particulate matter in the air, although the report says we are getting better about that. But the pure fact is that the proposed redevelopment is going to bring more pollution and odor into the area. There will be a sharp rise when all the construction is being done, but that will diminish as jobs are completed. That still leaves increased levels from people \u2014 and cars \u2014 who will be living and working in all those redeveloped apartments, condos and homes and offices.<\/p>\n
The report calls that \u201clong-term cumulative operational air quality impacts,\u201d and admits those will be \u201ccumulatively significant and unmitigable.\u201d<\/p>\n
You can be sure someone \u2014 likely several someones \u2014 will be asking about all this and more in the EIR.<\/p>\n
The city website will tell you how to do so by mail, but you only have until Feb. 2 to do so.<\/p>\n
Give the report a thorough read. It\u2019s the future of your community, once we figure out how to get all this paid for.<\/p>\n
But, that\u2019s another story.<\/p>\n
\u2014Contact Doug Curlee at <\/em>doug@sdcnn.com<\/em><\/a>. <\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Doug Curlee |\u00a0Editor at Large The long-awaited Environmental Impact Report about the proposed redevelopment of Grantville and the surrounding area is now posted on several city websites, with a 30-day public comment window open.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":766,"featured_media":227898,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11558","_seopress_titles_title":"Grantville EIR is open for public comment \u2014 there will be some","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11558,11551,11593],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-227900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-mission-times-courier","category-news","category-no-images"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/766"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}