Saticoy & Wells Community Plan & Development ... - City Of Ventura

Saticoy & Wells Community Plan and Code EIRSection 4.5 Cultural and Historic ResourcesFarmers and Merchants Bank of Santa Paula-Saticoy Branch. This bank was built in 1911serving as the first branch bank in Ventura County and is located at 1203 Los Angeles Avenue.The bank was built in a neo-classical style and is a reminder of Saticoy’s vitality as an importantagricultural shipping community around the turn of the century. The HRI indicates that thissite is listed on the California Register and is determined eligible for listing on the NationalRegister. Figure 4.5-3 provides views of the building.4.5.2 Impact Analysisa. Methodology and Significance Thresholds. Conejo Archeological Consultantsperformed an historic resources technical report for the proposed project in July 2006. Theconclusions as to the significance of the effects of the proposed project on historic resources arebased on the findings of the Historic Resources report.According to PRC §21084.1, “a project that may cause a substantial change in the significance ofan historical resource is a project that may have a significant effect on the environment.”Broadly defines a threshold for determining if the impacts of a project on an historic propertywould be significant and adverse. By definition, a substantial adverse change means,“demolition, destruction, relocation, or alterations,” such that the significance of an historicalresource would be impaired (PRC §5020.1(6)). For purposes of NRHP eligibility, reductions in aresource’s integrity (the ability of the property to convey its significance) should be regarded aspotentially adverse impacts.Further, according to the CEQA Guidelines, “an historical resource is materially impaired when aproject... [d]emolishes or materially alters in an adverse manner those physical characteristics ofan historical resource that convey its historical significance and that justify its inclusion in, oreligibility for, inclusion in the California Register of Historical Resources [or] that account for itsinclusion in a local register of historical resources pursuant to section 5020.1(k) of the PublicResources Code or its identification in an historical resources survey meeting the requirementsof section 5024.1(g) of the Public Resources Code, unless the public agency reviewing the effectsof the project establishes by a preponderance of evidence that the resource is not historically orculturally significant.”The lead agency is responsible for the identification of “potentially feasible measures to mitigatesignificant adverse changes in the significance of an historical resource.” The specifiedmethodology for determining if impacts are mitigated to less than significant levels are theSecretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties with Guidelines forPreserving, Rehabilitating, Restoring, and Reconstructing Historic Buildings and the Secretaryof the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation and Guidelines for Rehabilitating HistoricBuildings (1995), publications of the National Park Service. (PRC §15064.5(b)(3-4))4.5-11City of Ventura