EMERSON HALL REPLACEMENT PROJECT Tiered Initial Study and Negative Declaration The following Initial Study has been prepared in compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act. Prepared By: CAMPUS PLANNING AND ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP University of California One Shields Avenue 436 Mrak Hall Davis, California 95616 February 2018 State Clearinghouse # 2018012032 Contact: Matt Dulcich Campus Planning and Environmental Stewardship 530-752-9597 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 PROJECT INFORMATION 1 2 INTRODUCTION 3 2.1 Initial Study 3 2.2 Tiering Process 3 2.3 Public and Agency Review 4 2.4 Project Approvals 4 2.5 Organization of the Initial Study 5 3 PROJECT DESCRIPTION 7 4 CONSISTENCY WITH THE 2003 LRDP AND 2003 LRDP EIR 19 4.1 2003 LRDP Scope of Development 19 4.2 2003 LRDP Land Use Designation 19 4.3 2003 LRDP Population Projections 19 4.4 2003 LRDP Objectives 20 4.5 2003 LRDP EIR Cumulative Impacts Analyses 20 5 ENVIRONMENTAL RESOURCES POTENTIALLY AFFECTED 23 6 DETERMINATION 25 7 EVALUATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS 27 7.1 Aesthetics 27 7.2 Agricultural Resources 35 7.3 Air Quality 37 7.4 Biological Resources 46 7.5 Cultural Resources 59 7.6 Geology, Soils, and Seismicity 68 7.7 Greenhouse Gas Emissions 72 7.8 Hazards and Hazardous Materials 86 7.9 Hydrology and Water Quality 91 7.10 Land Use and Planning 101 7.11 Mineral Resources 103 7.12 Noise 104 7.13 Population and Housing 113 7.14 Public Services 115 7.15 Recreation 118 EMERSON HALL REPLACEMENT PROJECT i 7.16 Transportation and Traffic 121 7.17 Utilities and Service Systems 127 7.18 Mandatory Findings of Significance 136 8 DEPARTMENT OF FISH AND WILDLIFE DETERMINATION 137 9 REFERENCES 139 10 REPORT PREPARERS 143 LIST OF APPENDICES Appendix A. Proposed Negative Declaration Appendix B. Air Quality and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Calculations Appendix C. Cultural Resources Report for the University of California Davis Emerson Hall Project Appendix D. Noise Memorandum Appendix E. Comments and Responses to Comments LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Project Location 9 Figure 2. Project Site 11 Figure 3. Preliminary Site Plan 15 Figure 4. Existing Views 29 Figure 5A. Site Photos 49 Figure 5B. Site Photos 51 Figure 6. Noise Measurement Locations 107 LIST OF TABLES Table 3-1. UC Davis Central Campus Housing Projects (2003 through 2017) 13 Table 4-1. 2003 LRDP EIR Population Projections vs Actual 21 Table 7.3-1. Estimated Construction Emissions 43 Table 7.3-2. Estimated Operational Emissions 44 Table 7.7-1. Annual GHG Emissions in California 73 Table 7.7-2. Estimated Annual Construction GHG Emissions 83 Table 7.7-3. Estimated Annual Operational Greenhouse Gas Emissions 84 Table 7.12-1. Existing Noise Environment 105 Table 7.12-2. Measured Traffic Sound Levels 105 Table 7.12-3. Thresholds of Significance for Noise Evaluations 106 Table 7.12-4. Construction Noise at Receivers 112 ii EMERSON HALL REPLACEMENT PROJECT UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA FEBRUARY 2018 Davis Campus 1 PROJECT INFORMATION Project title: Emerson Hall Replacement Project Project location: University of California, Davis Yolo County, California Lead agency’s name and address: The Regents of the University of California 1111 Franklin Street Oakland, California 94607 Contact person: Matt Dulcich, Director of Environmental Planning Campus Planning and Environmental Stewardship [email protected] 530.752.9597 Project sponsor’s name and address: Campus Planning and Environmental Stewardship University of California One Shields Avenue 436 Mrak Hall Davis, California 95616-8678 Location of administrative record: See lead agency. Identification of previous documents relied upon for tiering purposes: This environmental analysis is tiered from the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the University of California Davis (UC Davis) 2003 Long Range Development Plan (2003 LRDP). The 2003 LRDP EIR was certified by the UC Regents in November 2003 (State Clearinghouse No. 2002102092). The 2003 LRDP is a comprehensive land use plan that guides physical development on campus to accommodate projected enrollment increases and expanded and new program initiatives. Section 2.2 provides additional information about the tiering process. The 2003 LRDP and its EIR are available for review at the following locations: UC Davis Campus Planning and Environmental Stewardship in 436 Mrak Hall on the UC Davis campus EMERSON HALL REPLACEMENT PROJECT 1 Reserves at Shields Library on the UC Davis campus Yolo County Public Library at 315 East 14th Street in Davis Online at: http://sustainability.ucdavis.edu/progress/commitment/environmental_review/ index.html Revisions to the Initial Study and Negative Declaration: Minor changes to the Draft Initial Study and Negative Declaration, following public review, will be noted as shown. Where changes have been made to the Initial Study and Negative Declaration, the format style of adding underline to indicate new text and strikeout to indicate deletion of the prior text has been used as shown in the following example. Example of text changes: “This Initial Study is being was circulated for public and agency review from December 20, 2013, to January 20, 2014. Copies of this document, the 2003 LRDP, and the 2003 LRDP EIR are were made available for review at the following locations:” 2 EMERSON HALL REPLACEMENT PROJECT 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, description of environmental setting, identification of environmental effects by checklist or other similar form, explanation of environmental effects, discussion of mitigation for significant environmental effects, evaluation of the project’s consistency with existing, applicable land use controls, and the name of persons who prepared the study. 2.2 TIERING PROCESS The CEQA concept of “tiering” refers to the evaluation of general environmental matters in a broad program-level EIR, with subsequent focused environmental documents for individual projects that implement the program. This environmental document incorporates by reference the discussions in the 2003 LRDP EIR (the Program EIR) and concentrates on project-specific issues. CEQA and the CEQA Guidelines encourage the use of tiered environmental documents to reduce delays and excessive paperwork in the environmental review process. This is accomplished in tiered documents by eliminating repetitive analyses of issues that were adequately addressed in the Program EIR and by incorporating those analyses by reference. Section 15168(d) of the CEQA Guidelines provides for simplifying the preparation of environmental documents on individual parts of the program by incorporating by reference analyses and discussions that apply to the program as a whole. Where an EIR has been prepared or certified for a program or plan, the environmental review for a later activity consistent with the program or plan should be limited to effects that were not analyzed as significant in the prior EIR or that are susceptible to substantial reduction or avoidance (CEQA Guidelines Section 15152[d]). This Initial Study is tiered from the UC Davis 2003 LRDP EIR in accordance with Sections 15152 and 15168 of the CEQA Guidelines and Public Resources Code Section 21094. The 2003 LRDP EIR is a Program EIR that was prepared pursuant to Section 15168 of the CEQA Guidelines. The 2003 LRDP is a comprehensive land use plan that guides physical development on campus to accommodate projected enrollment increases and expanded and new program initiatives. The 2003 LRDP EIR analyzes full implementation of uses and physical development proposed under the 2003 LRDP, and it identifies measures to mitigate the significant adverse program-level and cumulative impacts associated with that growth. The Emerson Hall Replacement Project (Project) is an element of the growth that was anticipated in the 2003 LRDP and evaluated in the 2003 LRDP EIR. By tiering from the 2003 LRDP EIR, this Tiered Initial Study relies on the 2003 LRDP EIR for the following: A discussion of general background and setting information for environmental topic areas; Overall growth-related issues; Issues that were evaluated in sufficient detail in the 2003 LRDP EIR for which there is no significant new information or change in circumstances that would require further analysis; and Assessment of cumulative impacts. EMERSON HALL REPLACEMENT PROJECT 3 This Initial Study evaluates the potential environmental impacts of the Project with respect to the 2003 LRDP EIR to determine what level of additional environmental review, if any, is appropriate. As shown in the Determination in Section 6 of this document, and based on the analysis contained in this Initial Study, it has been determined that the Project would not result in any potentially significant impacts that cannot be mitigated to less than significant levels or that were not adequately addressed by the 2003 LRDP EIR. Therefore, the preparation of a Negative Declaration is appropriate (the Proposed Negative Declaration is presented in Appendix A). This Initial Study concludes that the Project impacts are addressed by the measures adopted as part of the 2003 LRDP approval. Therefore, those 2003