Fountaingrove Environmental Impact Report - City of Santa Rosa ...

Response to Comment Letter from Joseph Magagna
2.0 LIST OF COMMENTERS AND RESPONSE TO COMMENTS
Note: Response numbers correspond to comment numbers labeled in the margin of the
letter.
1) The lead agency (in this case, the City) is responsible for the adequacy and
objectivity of the Draft EIR (see CEQA Guidelines Section 15084 (e)). If the lead
agency does not prepare the Draft EIR with its own staff, a number of options are
provided by the CEQA Guidelines (Section 15084 (d)(1 through 5)). The City
contracted directly with an outside consultant to prepare the EIR for the proposed
Project. The consultant is not affiliated with the Applicant. Studies prepared by the
Applicant were reviewed by the consultant and the City for adequacy. The Draft EIR
reflects the City’s independent judgment. The Applicant is reimbursing the City for
the costs of the EIR.
2) No medical services will be provided as part of the proposed Project (see Draft EIR
p. 2-1). City Code Chapter 21-05.040 (I)(8) considers community care facilities (such
as the Project) as a nonresidential land use that provides nonmedical residential care.
However, to reduce the City Fire Department’s need to respond to nonmedical
emergency calls in community care facilities, Fountaingrove Lodge will provide an
Emergency Medical Technician qualified or equivalent personnel 24 hours per day in
the main “assisted living” building and Care Center (see Draft EIR Mitigation
Measure 3.11-2b on p. 3-132).
3) See above response to Magagna – 3. In general, only residents and their guests will
have access to the services and facilities included with the Project.
4) Noise impacts were evaluated in Section 3.10 of the Draft EIR; with mitigation, noise
impacts will be less than significant. Also see Master Response Noise.
5) See Master Response Visual Resources for additional detail on accuracy of
simulations portraying building height and visual impacts; with mitigation, impacts
will be less than significant. For a discussion of a smaller project alternative to the
Project, see Response to Comment McGuckin July 18 – 2. As described in Impact 3.1-
3 in the Draft EIR, the Project would add new sources of nighttime security lighting
along driveways, in outdoor parking lots, and near building entrances. Conformance
to the City of Santa Rosa’s Lighting Design Guidelines and the Principles of
Low-impact Lighting Design (see Mitigation Measure 3.1-3), which minimize the
amount of light that leaves the site, would reduce impacts to less than significant.
6) As described in Section 3.13.3 of the Draft EIR, the average number of construction
workers onsite during any weekday is 97, and they would work from 7:00 AM to
3:30 PM. Truck deliveries supplying materials would occur as often as four times a
day, between 9:00 AM and 3:00 PM. Equipment and materials would be staged in
the outside parking areas and the proposed driveways would offer turnaround
locations for equipment and transport vehicles. Assuming most construction
workers would drive alone, there could be on average 85 to 90 construction worker
vehicles entering the site before 7:00 AM and leaving before 4:00 PM. Virtually no
construction worker or truck traffic should occur during the AM or PM commute
peak periods (from 7:00 to 9:00 AM and 4:00 to 6:00 PM, respectively). Therefore, the
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