| Draft Environmental Impact Statement Shorts School Road Am Antenna Structures 45 3.1.5 Preferred Alternative Viewpoint 1 Under the Preferred Alternative, the foreground views from Viewpoint 1 would remain the same and include Shorts School Road running north, a group of mailboxes, and agricultural fields. In the middleground, the 349-foot antenna, painted in orange and white bands, and the seven 199- foot antennas, painted in neutral colors, would be visible in the existing agricultural field at a distance of 0.63 miles. Portions of the eight antennas would project beyond the ridge line of Fiddler�s Bluff and Cathcart Hill and be seen against the sky. This viewpoint presents a very open view of all 8 antennas. The background views of Fiddler�s Bluff and Cathcart Hill would remain unchanged. The open view of the valley is striking from Viewpoint 1, and so the vividness level would remain in the medium range under the Preferred Alternative. The agricultural fields, punctuated with stands of trees, are dominant elements in this view and the radio antennas would visually encroach on the rural nature of this scene. As a result, the intactness level would decrease. The existing vertical built elements, such as the telephone poles, would be repeated by the radio antennas, maintaining a coherent visual pattern in this view. However, the difference in scale between the 349-foot antenna and the existing telephones poles is large, and would disrupt the visual pattern, lowering the unity level seen from Viewpoint 1. Lighting In the evening, the two blinking, red hazard warning lights at the apex of the tallest antenna and the three smaller marker lights at the mid-point of the antenna would be visible in the middleground from Viewpoint 1. However, because the red lights would be vertically shielded to reduce the visibility from the ground, and the distance is only 0.63 miles so the smaller marker lights will be further shielded, the visual impact would be lessened. Final Adjusted Visual Quality Rating: 3.6 (down from 4.3) Viewpoint 2 Existing foreground views from Viewpoint 2 would remain the same under the Preferred Alternative. In the middleground, the 349-foot antenna, painted in orange and white bands, and the seven 199-foot antennas, painted in neutral colors, would be visible in a small section of the valley at a distance of 0.98 miles. The view of Fiddler�s Bluff in the background would remain unchanged. The panoramic view of the Snohomish River Valley would retain its memorable character under the Preferred Alternative. The antenna in the middleground would visually encroach on the natural elements in this view. However, because the antenna would be close to 1 mile away from Viewpoint 2 and would take up only a small portion of the expansive valley views, they would not be dominant elements in the middleground nor significantly disrupt the overall intactness of the scene. The antenna would generally fit in with the coherent visual pattern created by repeating vertical elements, such as the evergreen trees in the foreground and the |