2014-028 - Approving General Plan Amendement No. 2014-01

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City of Santa Ana -Park View at Town and Country Manor Draft EIR Aesthetics Santiago Creek, running through Santiago Park south of the project site, has been identified by the City of Santa Ana as a scenic corridor, and is part of a regional system of open space corridors promoted by the Orange County General Plan Open Space Element. The City's Scenic Corridors Element of the General Plan defines scenic corridors as linear features of the City through which people and vehicles move, and designates them for special treatment and improvements. The Scenic Corridors Element highlights several levels of treatment possible within scenic corridors, from paving, lighting, and signage design, to careful treatment of land use relationships and natural and man -made features visible from within the corridors. The foundation of the City's Scenic Corridors Plan is a series of Mixed Use Corridors which underlie the entire General Plan. Main Street is contained within the Main- Broadway primary street corridor. A major City entry is identified along Main Street south of the Garden Grove Freeway. A view location of Santiago Creek and Park from SR -22 is identified in the Scenic Corridors Plan, located to the east of the project site where Grand Avenue /Glassell Street intersect SR -22. No County - designated scenic highways run through Santa Ana and are, therefore, not occurring in the vicinity of the project site. However, the Scenic Corridors Element does identify the proximate I -5 and SR -22 freeways as high speed scenic corridors operating at a regional scale in that residents of the County form their image of Santa Ana from their travels along these and other transportation corridors. Existing Views Viewers have differing sensitivity to visual change based on their familiarity with the view, the duration of those views (permanent vs. intermittent), and their activity, which determines how much attention is paid to the view. Residential viewers are usually very sensitive to any changes in the visual quality because of their familiarity with the view, their investment in the area as homeowners or long -term residents, and their sense of ownership of the view. Commercial viewers usually have a moderate to low sensitivity to their visual environment unless the commercial activity is focused on the view. They are typically more concentrated on the commercial activity. Commuter viewers have a moderate to low sensitivity to the visual environment due to their concentration on their driving and destination. Recreational viewers include people engaged in passive or active recreation. Viewers engaged in most active recreation, such as sports, tend to have only an average sensitivity to visual quality and visual change. Although they are aware of their surroundings, they are usually focused on the activity itself. The faster the pace of the activity, the less they are sensitive to visual quality. People engaged in more passive or slower paced recreation, such as picnicking, photography, nature hikes, horseback riding, or bicycle riding etc., are much more aware of and sensitive to the visual environment. Sensitive viewers in relation to the proposed project are considered the recreational viewers from Santiago Park and the residential viewers from City Place. Exhibit 4.1 -1 is an aerial photograph of the site and surrounding area with numbers 1 -5 representing 5 separate locations from which the site photographs were taken. Exhibits 4.1 -1a through 4.1 -1c Michael Brandman Associates 4.1 -11 H \Cl t (PNJN)b327b32]003MMVB2]0030 Sec I Ae9h .d¢