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

2.0 LIST OF COMMENTERS AND RESPONSE TO COMMENTS
Response to Comment Letter from Henry McGuckin (letter dated July 18, 2008)
Note: Response numbers correspond to comment numbers labeled in the margin of the
letter.
1) Project impacts on biological resources are discussed in Section 3.4 of the Draft EIR;
impacts to oak trees and oak woodland are further detailed in Master Response Oak
Trees and Oak Woodland. No significant impacts to biological resources would
occur as a result of Project implementation. Impacts to oak and heritage trees would
be less than significant with implementation of mitigation, including replanting of
native trees onsite. Implementation of Best Management Practices (BMP), described
in Mitigation Measure 3.4-1c, would protect trees and habitat to be preserved during
construction. As noted in Section 3.4, no direct impacts to Piner Creek would occur
as a result of the Project. No wetlands or waters under the jurisdiction of the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) would be impacted by the Project (USACE, 2008.
February 20 letter to Amy Paravano at WRA on USACE jurisdictional
determination). Potential impacts from construction of the Project to nesting birds,
roosting bats, and northwestern pond turtle will be mitigated to a less than
significant level through preconstruction surveys, avoidance, monitoring during
construction, and/or other measures.
2) See response to Comment Epperly-23.
3) Comment noted. As described in Section 2 of the Draft EIR, the purpose of the
Project is help to meet housing and service needs of the City’s senior community,
consistent with the policies and goals in the General Plan that call for projects and
services to support the needs of seniors in the City. Specific Project objectives are to
create approximately 135 community care facility units; provide progressive care
and a range of services to allow seniors to remain within the community; provide
quality senior care licensed by the state of California; provide employee housing that
is affordable to the full-time employees needed to operate the facility; and provide
housing for seniors with convenient access to medical care facilities, highways,
transportation, retail, and recreation amenities. As discussed in Section 3.9 Land Use
of the Draft EIR and in Master Response Land Use Compatibility, the development
of the site is consistent with the land uses designated in the City’s General Plan and
the FRPCD Policy Statement, which was originally adopted in 1972 and amended in
1981 and 1992. Development has been planned for the Project site for several
decades.
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