Final Mitigated Negative Declaration Date of Issuance Of PMND: October 31, 2018; amended on November 30, 2018 (amendments to the PMND include deletions shown as strikethrough and additions shown as double underline). Case No.: 2012.0893ENV Project Title: 0 The Embarcadero/ Pier 22½ Fire Boat Headquarters Zoning: C-2 (Community Business Use District) 84-X-2 Height and Bulk District Block/Lot: 9900/022H Lot Size: 12,175 square feet Project Sponsor San Francisco Public Works Boris Deunert – 415-558-4009 Lead Agency: San Francisco Planning Department Staff Contact: Chris Thomas – (415) 575-9036 [email protected] BACKGROUND On September 5, 2018, the San Francisco Planning Department (department) issued a Preliminary Mitigated Negative Declaration (PMND) with an attached initial study (collectively referred to hereafter as “PMND”) for the proposed fire boat headquarters project described below. Subsequent to issuance of the September 5, 2018 PMND, the project sponsor (San Francisco Public Works) modified the project to remove two project components: dredging of San Francisco Bay and alterations to Fire Station 35. Additionally, the department determined that the existing procedures for review and conduct of ordinary maintenance and repair activities at historic resources under the ownership and jurisdiction of the Port of San Francisco (the Port) would serve to ensure that significant impacts to Fire Station 35’s historic and landmark status resulting from ordinary maintenance and repair activities would not occur. With these changes to the project description and regulatory framework, two significant impacts identified in the prior September 5, 2018 PMND would no longer occur, and two related mitigation measures are were determined to be no longer applicable to the proposed project. Accordingly, a revised PMND for the proposed project was published on October 31, 2018. A 30-day public review period for the revised PMND was provided from October 31 through November 30, 2018. Text removed from the September 5, 2018 PMND is was indicated within this the revised PMND by a strikethrough line; text that has been was added to the first September 5, 2018 PMND is was double underlined in the revised PMND. (Additionally, several typographical and grammatical errors in the September 5, 2018 PMND were also corrected but are not shown in strikethrough or underline due to their minor nature.) For this Final Mitigated Negative Declaration (FMND), strikethrough text in the revised PMND (text that was removed from the September 5, 2018 PMND) has been deleted. Text with a double underline (text that was added to the September 5, 2018 PMND) has been retained in this FMND, Case No. 2012.0893ENV 0 The Embarcadero\Pier 221/2 Fire Boat Headquarters Mitigated Negative Declaration with the double underline removed. Text deleted from the revised PMND is indicated in this FMND by a strikethrough line and text that has been added to this FMND is indicated with a double underline. Changes to the revised PMND that are shown in this FMND with a strikethrough or double underline are largely clarifications and corrections to minor grammatical errors and do not represent substantial changes to the project description or environmental analysis as provided in the revised PMND. Section G Public Notice and Comment (on pages 135 and 136) contains a response to comments received from the Native American Heritage Commission regarding their review of the revised PMND. Impacts to the Historic Fire Station 35 Would No Longer Occur The former proposed project described in the September 5, 2018 PMND includes maintenance activities and potential future alterations to Fire Station 35 (City Landmark No. 225). The revised project includes ordinary maintenance and repair (defined in detail below, under Project Description) of Fire Station 35; alterations are no longer proposed. The Port’s existing procedures for review and conduct of ordinary maintenance and repair activities at historic resources under their ownership and jurisdiction, as required by Port Commission Resolution 04-89, would serve to ensure that significant impacts to Fire Station 35’s historic and landmark status would not occur as a result of ordinary maintenance and ordinary repair. As such, Impact CR-1, which addresses the impacts of the proposed project on historic architectural resources, would now be less than significant, rather than less-than-significant with mitigation. Therefore, Mitigation Measure CR-1: Condition Assessment and Review Process Requirements for Maintenance and Repair Work, included in the September 5, 2018 PMND, will no longer be required. This measure would have required future ordinary maintenance and repair activities at Fire Station 35 to be consistent with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties and the historic review processes of the Port of San Francisco and the San Francisco Planning Department, including review by San Francisco Planning Department Preservation staff and the San Francisco Historic Preservation Commission. Accordingly, text in the revised PMND has been was modified to clarify the process by which future ordinary maintenance and repair activities will be reviewed for potential impacts to historic resources and Mitigation Measure CR- 1 has been was removed from the revised PMND. Dredging-Related Impacts Would No Longer Occur The project description in the PMND issued on September 5, 2018 included the dredging of approximately 18,600 cubic yards of material from the floor of the bay to create adequate draft for the proposed floating fire boat facility. The revised project would not include dredging, as the project sponsor has determined that it is no longer would not be necessary. Therefore, dredging activities would no longer contribute to Impact BI-1, which addresses the impacts of the proposed project on species identified as a candidate, sensitive, or special-status species in local or regional plans, policies, or regulations, or by the California Department of Fish and Game or U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. While other proposed construction activities, such as pile-driving, would result in this impact still being significant, the dredging-related Mitigation Measure M- BI-1b: Dredging, included in the September 5, 2018 PMND, would no longer be applicable to the proposed project. This measure would have limited dredging to between June 1 and November 30 and required the Port to assess the environmental risk to aquatic resources in developing sediment capping design and mitigate potential impacts based upon regulatory and resource agency review. Therefore, dredging has been was removed from the project description and Case No. 2012.0893ENV ii 0 The Embarcadero\Pier 22½ Fire Boat Facility Mitigated Negative Declaration Mitigation Measure M-BI-1b has been was removed from this the revised PMND. Impact BI-1 would remain less-than-significant with mitigation. PROJECT DESCRIPTION: The proposed fire boat headquarters project involves construction and installation of a new fire boat station to be located on a steel float at Pier 22½ on the northeastern San Francisco waterfront, and adoption of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the Port of San Francisco and the San Francisco Fire Department for use of Port property at the Pier 22½ project site for Fire Department fireboat and emergency response operations. Regarding the new fire boat headquarters, the proposed structure would be constructed in two locations: first at Pier 1, Treasure Island and then at Pier 22½ on The Embarcadero. The Pier 1, Treasure Island construction site is located on the southeastern corner of Treasure Island and consists of an approximately 900-foot-long pier that extends into the shallow waters of San Francisco Bay just west of the Bay Bridge. The Pier 22½ project site consists of a main pier and two finger piers to its north and south. The main pier supports the historic Fire Station 35, a two-level structure originally constructed in 1915 that serves as the current fire boat headquarters for the San Francisco Fire Department. (Fire Station 35 is historically known as the “Fire Boat Headquarters / Station No. 35 Pier 22½”.) The existing fire station and fire boat berthing facilities at Pier 22½ are inadequate to meet the San Francisco Fire Department’s public service and water rescue needs. The proposed project would provide new and upgraded infrastructure and facilities for emergency equipment and personnel, including continued use of Fire Station 35, improving the Fire Department’s and the Port of San Francisco’s capacity to meet future demands for water rescue and emergency-response services. The new steel float would be manufactured in China and transported by ship to Pier 1, Treasure Island, where it would remain for approximately six months while the exterior walls and interior framing of the fire boat station shell would be constructed on top of the float. The steel float and fire boat station shell would then be towed to Pier 22½ where the fire boat station’s exterior walls and interior facilities would be finished. Construction at Pier 22½ includes demolition and replacement of the two existing finger piers with a new, approximately 173-foot-long by 96-foot- wide steel float which would be occupied by a two-level, approximately 16,000-square-foot fire boat station that would be accessed from the main pier by vehicular and pedestrian ramps. The new fire boat station would provide berthing space for three fireboats and an additional, smaller support craft, and would be secured by four 60-inch-diameter vertical steel pipe guide piles to allow its rise and fall with the tide. The 36-foot-tall facility to be built on top of the steel float would provide space on the first level to support emergency operations, including storage for equipment and supplies, a repair shop, a night watch room, decontamination/drying rooms, and mechanical equipment for operation of the facility. The second level would include dormitory space with 35 beds, communication, laundry and day rooms, a study, a dining area and kitchen with an outdoor patio at the east end of the building, and lockers, showers and bathrooms.