| Draft Environmental Impact Statement Shorts School Road Am Antenna Structures 64 cottonwood) plantations to produce pulpwood are common in the project area, and the trees would grow to screen the lower 70 to 80 feet of the tallest antenna, and the lower 1/3 of the smaller antennas, thus screening those parts of the antennas that have a large cross-sectional dimension. The antennas would rise out of the tree plantation, appearing as slim, �floating� structures. There may be several drawbacks to this mitigation proposal. The tree farm itself would likely alter the existing open visual character of the Upper Snohomish River Valley, although they are commonly found in the project vicinity. In addition, once the trees reach maturity, the necessary timber harvests would have the potential to reduce the visual quality at the proposed project site for a certain period of time. Nonetheless, this option does have the potential to minimize visual impacts of the antenna from a number of viewpoints, including Kenwanda. An alternative to this option would be to plant screening trees only at the perimeter of the parcel. Another measure could involve requiring the applicant to make limited tree-planting services available to those Kenwanda residences which are oriented directly towards the project site and are impacted by views of the proposed antennas. By providing appropriate trees to plant, the project proponent would allow residents to screen views of the proposed antennas in a sensitive manner, making their own decisions about which parts of the views to screen, and which to preserve. Efforts to achieve universal screening in Kenwanda is probably not a desirable mitigation option, given the presumed desire to maintain as much of the views towards the distant mountains as possible. Final details of any potential mitigation measures would need to be worked out through the EIS process and Snohomish County. The intent would be to provide specific screening, not general residential landscaping services. Care should be taken not to screen desirable views from adjacent property owners. The project proponent has already adopted other identified mitigation measures related to antenna design. The antennas have been redesigned to lower the height and reduce the visual profile, to minimize the amount of lighting, and to remove the original guy wires. Choices of color and minimal lighting requirements are dictated to the proposed project by the FAA, so these cannot be changed. Therefore, only the above voluntary measures remain as potential mitigation measures. 3.1.8 Significant Unavoidable Adverse Impacts In spite of substantial design modifications, this project will result in significant unavoidable impacts to the existing views from a limited number of residences in the central section of the Kenwanda neighborhood, as represented by Viewpoint 14 and 15. These impacts are limited to only those residences that are located due west of the proposed project site and face directly towards it due to topography. This excludes the greater portion of the residences in Kenwanda. The precise number of residences so affected is difficult to pinpoint, as the review team limited fieldwork to public streets, excluding important viewpoints from private property, but it is estimated to be 7 to 8 residences, less than the 30 total residences previously identified by others. Other mitigating factors that may reduce this number further include existing landscaping and elevation of residences. Views from residences represented by the following addresses appear to be similar to those depicted in the simulations associated with Viewpoints 14 and 15, thus experiencing significant adverse visual impacts: 13527, 13601, 13615, 13631, and 13701 |