Historic & Cultural Resources Evaluation
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HISTORIC & CULTURAL RESOURCES EVALUATION HISTORIC RESOURCES EVALUATION FOR SECTION 106 REVIEW Ashland Family Apartments 16309-16331 Kent Avenue San Lorenzo, California 94580 AUGUST 2012 AEM CO NS UL TI N G LLC 310 Pacific Heights Drive Santa Rosa, California 95403 (707) 523-3710 Ashland Family Apartments- Historic Evaluation TABLE OF CONTENTS BACKGROUND ..................................................................................................................................................... 3 REGULATORY CONTEXT ....................................................................................................................................... 3 National Historic Preservation Act ................................................................................................................. 3 State of California.......................................................................................................................................... 4 The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) ........................................................................................... 4 Public Resources Code (PRC) Section 5020.1 ................................................................................................... 4 Public Resources Code Section 5024.1 ............................................................................................................ 4 Public Resource Code, Section 5097 ............................................................................................................... 5 Public Resources Code Section 21084.1 .......................................................................................................... 5 Health and Safety Code, Sections 7050.5 and 7052 ........................................................................................ 5 California Native American Historical, Cultural and Sacred Sites Act ............................................................... 5 Alameda County ............................................................................................................................................ 5 The Preservation Ordinance codifies: ............................................................................................................. 6 PROJECT DESCRIPTION ........................................................................................................................................ 6 PROJECT LOCATION ............................................................................................................................................. 9 PROJECT LOCATION ............................................................................................................................................... 10 SITE CONDITIONS/CONTEXT .............................................................................................................................. 11 AREA OF POTENTIAL EFFECTS ............................................................................................................................ 14 CALIFORNIA HISTORIC RESOURCE INFORMATION SYSTEM - RECORDS SEARCH ................................................. 15 NATIVE AMERICAN CONTACTS .......................................................................................................................... 16 HISTORIC DISTRICTS........................................................................................................................................... 16 EVALUATION ..................................................................................................................................................... 30 Archaeology - Field Survey ........................................................................................................................... 30 Architectural Survey .................................................................................................................................... 30 ACCIDENTAL DISCOVERY ................................................................................................................................... 33 CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................................................................... 34 RECOMMENDED DETERMINATION .................................................................................................................... 34 Works Cited ................................................................................................................................................. 34 Ashland Family Apartments- Historic Evaluation Page 2 of 34 Ashland Family Apartments- Historic Evaluation BACKGROUND Resources for Community Development (RCD) proposes to use funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) as administered by Alameda County to construct an affordable housing project. To se- cure HUD release of funds for the project, Alameda County must provide a suitable federal Environmental Review Record to HUD prepared according to the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and HUD’s own Environmental Regulations found in 24 CFR Part 58. The appropriate level of federal environmental review in this case is an Environmental Assessment leading to a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI). Both the Environmental Assessment and FONSI must be prepared for signature by the Certifying Officer for Alameda Coun- ty. To achieve a FONSI, HUD requires that the Environmental Assessment demonstrate that the project complies with all applicable federal laws and regulations, including Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. Regula- tions pertaining to Section 106 Review are found in 36 CFR Part 800. REGULATORY CONTEXT NATIONAL HISTORIC PRESERVATION ACT Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) requires federal agencies to take into account the effects of their undertakings on historic properties. The section 106 process seeks to accommodate historic preservation concerns with the needs of federal undertakings through consultation among the agency official and other interested parties, beginning at the early stages of project planning. The goal of consultation is to identify historic properties potentially affected by the undertaking, assess its effects and seek ways to avoid, minimize or mitigate any adverse effects on historic properties. To evaluate the significance of an historical resource and its integrity, the ability of a property to convey that significance, a building is evaluated according to the National Reg- ister Criteria for Evaluation. According to the guidelines of the National Register Criteria for Evaluation, the quality of significance in American history, architecture, archeology, engineering, and culture is present in districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects that possess integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feel- ing, and association, and: A. That are associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history; or B. That are associated with the lives of persons significant in our past; or C. That embody the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction, or that repre- sent the work of a master, or that possess high artistic values, or that represent a significant and distin- guishable entity whose components may lack individual distinction; or D. That has yielded or may be likely to yield, information important in prehistory or history. Section 106 compliance requires Alameda County to obtain the views of the State Historic Preservation Officer (SHPO) as to whether any of the project activities could have an “adverse effect” to the setting or character- defining features of any historically significant property in the Area of Potential Effects (APE). A historically signifi- cant property is one that would be eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places, whether it is cur- rently listed or not. Ashland Family Apartments- Historic Evaluation Page 3 of 34 STATE OF CALIFORNIA THE CALIFORNIA ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY ACT (CEQA) The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), encoded in Sections 21000 et seq of the Public Resources Code (PRC) with Guidelines for implementation codified in the California Code of Regulations (CCR), Title 14, Chap- ter 3, Sections 15000 et seq., requires state and local public agencies to identify the environmental impacts of pro- posed discretionary activities or projects, determine if the impacts will be significant, and identify alternatives and mitigation measures that will substantially reduce or eliminate significant impacts to the environment. CEQA identifies historic resources as those listed in or eligible for listing in the California Register of Historic Re- sources, based on a range of criteria, such as association with events or patterns of events that have made signifi- cant contributions to broad patterns of historical development in the United States or California, including local, regional, or specific cultural patterns (California Register Criterion I). Alternatively, structures which are directly associated with important persons in the history of the state or the country (Criterion 2), which embody the dis- tinctive characteristics of type, period or other aesthetic importance (Criterion 3), or which has the potential to reveal important information about the prehistory or history of the state or the nation (such as archaeological