| Draft Environmental Impact Statement Shorts School Road Am Antenna Structures 19 Identifying viewer groups affected by those visual resources and assigning representative viewpoints for each group Assessing the degree of change in the visual quality created by the proposed alternatives, including light and glare. Identifying mitigation measures for impacts to visual quality for each alternative. 3.1.1.2 Describing the Visual Environment The visual environment can be described as a combination of landscape types based on regional topography, hydrology, vegetation, and human development types. The proposed project area is located in an agricultural river valley bounded to the east and west by ridges and low lying foothills, and the Cascade and Olympic Mountain ranges. The Snohomish River Valley is an agricultural landscape with a rural character. Typical visual elements in the valley include farm houses and equipment, agricultural fields (often with crops and stands of trees), roads (Highway 9), high power transmission line towers, cellular towers, railroad tracks, telephone poles, infrequent street lights, existing AM radio structure to the north, and the Snohomish River at its heart. The adjacent ridges to the east and west of the proposed project site are used for residential purposes and have a rural to semiurban character. Typical visual elements on the adjacent ridges include houses, roads, telephone poles, street lights, evergreen and deciduous trees, parks, golf courses, and existing antennas to the east. The Cascade and Olympic Mountain ranges are natural forested elements in the landscape. Their snow-covered peaks create scenic distant views from locations throughout the valley. 3.1.1.3 Identifying Viewshed Boundaries The viewshed is the area visible from a given viewpoint or series of viewpoints. Viewsheds may incorporate a single landscape type or a variety of landscape types. Topography, vegetation, and development typically influence what can be seen within a viewshed on an absolute scale. Viewshed boundaries can also vary from moment to moment, depending on current climatic conditions. 3.1.1.4 Describing and Rating Existing Visual Resources The visual character and quality of the landscape are both considered when describing existing visual resources. The assessment of visual character is descriptive, not evaluative. Descriptions of visual character may include patterns in the landscape such as line, form, color, texture, and scale. Specific visual quality rating criteria developed by the FHWA were used to quantify the visual assessment. The three criteria used to perform this evaluative appraisal of the landscape visual quality are vividness, intactness, and unity. Ratings for vividness, intactness, and unity range from 0 to 7 and are described in more detail in the discussion below. Expert evaluations based |