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CAJA Environmental Services, LLC 9410 Topanga Canyon Blvd., Suite 101 Chatsworth, CA 91311 Phone 310-469-6700 Fax 310-806-9801 constructed (including size and placement of the new use as well construction schedule, construction equipment, amount of grading, amount of hauling, etc.). The increase in noise from construction should then be compared against the threshold to determine whether the increase in noise is greater than the threshold, in which case there would be a potentially significant impact. The likelihood of significant impacts increases where there are sensitive uses (such as residences) in close proximity to construction. If potentially significant impacts have been identified, mitigation measures, if feasible, would need to be provided to reduce impacts to less than significant. If feasible mitigation is not available (which for noise, it often is not feasible), impacts could be significant. Regarding construction vibration impacts, depending on the proximity of adjacent sensitive receptors, an analysis should be prepared to quantify projected vibration levels from construction of new replacement facilities. For example, if a new hotel is constructed in an area adjacent to a historical or archaeological resource, the City must evaluate whether there could be building damage caused to those resources. The increase in vibration from construction should be compared against the applicable thresholds for both building damage and human annoyance to determine whether the increase in vibration is greater than the threshold, in which case there would be a potentially significant impact. The likelihood of significant impacts increases where there are sensitive uses (such as residences) in close proximity to construction. If potentially significant impacts have been identified, mitigation measures, if feasible, would need to be provided to reduce impacts to less than significant. It is likely that there would be feasible mitigation for building damage impacts (such as monitoring a building during vibration -producing activities). Conversely, it is difficult to mitigate human annoyance impacts beyond increasing the distance from the construction activity to the sensitive receptor. Therefore, if you have a sensitive receptor adjacent to vibration -producing construction activity, you could have a significant impact with respect to human annoyance. Operation of New Hotels All issues associated with the potential operational noise impacts from existing hotels apply to the City's failure to calculate potential noise impacts from operation of new hotels. Adding more hotels to the City's existing hotel stock would further concentrate traffic on roadways going to hotels in the area resulting in noise impacts above the City's General Plan Noise Element standard of 65 dBA CNEL, potentially exacerbating existing noise impacts or creating a new noise impact. (Ramboll Environmental Analysis, p. 9.) Further, it is possible that to avoid the potentially significant impacts associated with adding more hotels to the areas of the City that already have several hotels, new hotels would be constructed farther from a city center or tourist destination, resulting in greater urban sprawl and vMT, which could result in higher noise levels from increased traffic in these areas. These new hotels would also produce noise from mechanical equipment, parking facilities, loading docks, and amenity spaces. The City must evaluate the potential for noise complaints associated with operation of new hotels to determine whether there would be a significant impact. 29