University of California Santa Cruz Merrill Residence Halls Capital Renewal (Tiered from 2005 LRDP EIR) SCH #2012062017
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Final Initial Study/ Proposed Mitigated Negative Declaration University of California Santa Cruz Merrill Residence Halls Capital Renewal (Tiered from 2005 LRDP EIR) SCH #2012062017 Prepared By: Office of Physical Planning & Construction University of California Santa Cruz 1156 High Street, Barn G Santa Cruz, CA 95064 November 2012 Contact: Alisa Klaus, Senior Environmental Planner (831) 459-3732 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 Project Information ............................................................................................................ 1 2 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 2 2.1 Initial Study ........................................................................................................... 2 2.2 Public and Agency Review .................................................................................... 3 2.3 Project Approvals .................................................................................................. 3 2.4 Organization of the Initial Study ........................................................................... 3 3 Project Description ............................................................................................................ 5 3.1 Project Location ..................................................................................................... 5 3.2 Project Overview ................................................................................................... 8 3.3 Project Background, Need and Objectives ............................................................ 9 3.4 Project Discretionary Approvals .......................................................................... 12 3.5 Consistency with the 2005 LRDP ........................................................................ 12 3.6 Detailed project Description ................................................................................ 13 3.7 Sustainable Design Elements ............................................................................... 14 3.8 Population ............................................................................................................ 15 3.9 Construction Schedule and Staging ..................................................................... 15 4 Environmental Factors Potentially Affected ................................................................. 16 5 Determination .................................................................................................................. 18 6 Evaluation of Environmental Impacts ............................................................................ 19 6.1 Aesthetics ............................................................................................................. 20 6.2 Agricultural Resources ........................................................................................ 22 6.3 Air Quality ........................................................................................................... 24 6.4 Biological Resources ........................................................................................... 29 6.5 Cultural Resources ............................................................................................... 32 6.6 Geology, Soils, & Seismicity ............................................................................... 34 6.7 Greenhouse Gas Emissions .................................................................................. 36 6.8 Hazards and Hazardous materials ........................................................................ 43 6.9 Hydrology & Water Quality ................................................................................ 46 6.10 Land Use & Planning ........................................................................................... 50 6.11 Mineral Resources ............................................................................................... 51 6.12 Noise .................................................................................................................... 52 6.13 Population & Housing ......................................................................................... 56 6.14 Recreation ............................................................................................................ 58 6.15 Traffic, Circulation and Parking .......................................................................... 59 6.16 Utilities & Service Systems ................................................................................. 63 6.17 Mandatory Findings of Significance .................................................................... 66 7 Fish & Game Determination ............................................................................................ 68 8 References ....................................................................................................................... 69 9 Agencies & Persons Consulted ..................................................................................... 71 10 Report Preparers ............................................................................................................. 71 FIGURES Figure 3-1. Project Location ......................................................................................................................... 6 Figure 3-2. Existing Site Plan ....................................................................................................................... 7 Figure 3-3. Proposed Site Plan .................................................................................................................... 10 Figure 3-4. Revised Site Plan and Tree Removal Plan ............................................................................... 11 APPENDICES Appendix A. Proposed Mitigated Negative Declaration Appendix B. 2005 LRDP EIR Mitigation Measures Included in the Project Appendix C. Proposed Mitigation Monitoring Plan Appendix D. Construction Health Risk Assessment and Noise Technical Analysis Appendix E. Greenhouse Gas Emissions Calculations Appendix F. Responses to Comments on the Draft Initial Study Appendix G. Addendum to Biotic Assessment Report UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA November 2012 Santa Cruz Campus 1 PROJECT INFORMATION Project title: Merrill Residence Halls Capital Renewal Project location: Merrill College, University of California, Santa Cruz main campus, Santa Cruz, CA Lead agency’s name and address: The Regents of the University of California 1111 Franklin Street Oakland, CA 94607 Contact person: Alisa Klaus, Senior Environmental Planner (831) 459-3732 Project sponsor’s name and address: Office of Physical Planning & Construction University of California Santa Cruz 1156 High Street, Barn G Santa Cruz, CA 95064 Location of administrative record: See Project sponsor, above. Identification of previous documents relied upon for tiering purposes: UCSC 2005 Long Range Development Plan Environmental Impact Report. Available on line at: http://lrdp.ucsc.edu/final-eir.shtml UC SANTA CRUZ MERRILL RESIDENCE HALLS CAPITAL RENEWAL 1 2 INTRODUCTION 2.1 INITIAL STUDY Pursuant to Section 15063 of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines (Title 14, California Code of Regulations, Sections 15000 et seq.), an Initial Study is a preliminary environmental analysis that is used by the lead agency as a basis for determining whether an EIR, a Mitigated Negative Declaration, or a Negative Declaration is required for a project. The CEQA Guidelines require that an Initial Study contain a project description; a description of environmental setting; an identification of environmental effects by checklist or other similar form; an explanation of environmental effects; a discussion of mitigation for significant environmental effects; an evaluation of the project’s consistency with existing, applicable land use controls; and the names of persons who prepared the study. The purpose of this Initial Study is to evaluate the potential environmental impacts of the proposed project to determine what level of additional environmental review, if any, is appropriate. As shown in the Determination form in Section 5 of this document and based on the analysis contained in this Initial Study, which is tiered from the UCSC 2005 Long Range Development Plan Environmental Impact Report, it has been determined that the proposed project would not result in any potentially significant impacts that either were not previously identified and analyzed in the 2005 LRDP EIR, or that cannot be mitigated to less-than-significant levels through mitigation included in the project. The analysis contained in this Initial Study concludes that the proposed project would result in the following categories of impacts, depending on the environmental issue involved: no impact; less-than- significant impact; or a less-than-significant impact with the implementation of mitigation measures. Therefore, preparation of a Mitigated Negative Declaration is appropriate. The proposed Mitigated Negative Declaration is presented in Appendix A. UC SANTA CRUZ MERRILL RESIDENCE HALLS CAPITAL RENEWAL 2 2.2 PUBLIC AND AGENCY REVIEW This Draft Initial Study was circulated for public and agency review from June 8, 2012 to July 9, 2012. Copies of this document were available for review at the following locations: UCSC Physical Planning and Construction, Barn G, UC Santa Cruz McHenry Library and the Science and Engineering Library on the UC Santa Cruz campus