HomeMy WebLinkAboutJMosherFrom: Jim Mosher [jimmosher@yahoo.com]
Sent: Monday, January 09, 2012 4:03 PM
To: Ung, Rosalinh
Subject: EIR scoping comments on Uptown Newport Project (PA2011-134)
Rosalinh,
I feel bad that I have had very little time to review the Initial Study for
the Uptown Newport Project (PA2011-134) since the December 15, 2011 Scoping
Meeting.
I would just like to reiterate the idea which I believe was expressed by both
myself and some of the other members of the audience that just as Phase 1 and
Phase 2 of this project have to be considered together, as well as separately,
the impact of the project in its totality has to be considered in the context
of the considerable amount of additional residential conversion in the area
that can be forseeably anticipated as a result of the General Plan, and more
particularly the latest Housing Element.
Doing less seems either piecemealing or encouraging the construction of only a
part of grander vision, which may not be the highest and best use of the land
if the remainder can never be implemented for environmental reasons.
I would also like to suggest again that the analysis of the impact on schools
and community cohesiveness include a comparison with the alternative
possibility of the area becoming part of the Newport-Mesa Unified School
District. That certainly seems a foreseeable, if not politically likely,
possibility.
In addition, I remain unconvinced that the EIR can adequately assess the
impact of this project on neighboring properties, particularly as to such
issues as noise, privacy and shading, without a more particularized plan of
exactly what is planned to be built where. In the absence of such
information, the EIR will presumably need to consider the impact of the most
obtrusive structure possible being built at each possible location.
Finally as a general comment, I believe the scoping process could have done a
better job of bringing front and center to the public's attention the items
that have ALREADY been identified as the most likely serious environmental
effects of the project if built. I hope the DEIR will give those items, and
their impacts, more prominence.
Yours sincerely,
Jim Mosher