75B - PH - EIR 1584 SANTA CLARA - Laserfiche WebLink

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Ill an attempt to further encourage these discussions, the City convened a meeting among City staff (including the Interim City Manager, Planning Director, and City Attorney), The Old Orchard Conservancy, and the property owners on May 13, 2013. At the meeting, the City offered to facilitate a mediation between the property owners and The Old Orchard Conservancy. After carefully considering that offer, The Old Orchard Conservancy and the property owners jointly declined the offer to mediate, but indicated they would continue discussing among themselves the potential sale of the property. Those discussions have continued, but no tangible progress toward a mutually satisfactory resolution has been achieved. On August 29, 2013, the City received an email from a representative of The Old Orchard Conservancy, requesting that all additional preservation alternative be considered. The City had previously considered a "Hybrid Development Alternative" that involved the relocation of the existing residential structure and the rectangular outbuilding to the northeast comer of the property,, and the retention of approximately 20 to 30 trees in the northeast portion of the property as in orchard area. To accomplish this design configuration, the number of homes under the Hybrid Development Alternative would be reduced from 24 to 21. The EIR concluded that the Hybrid Development Alternative would not reduce impacts to historic resources to below a level of significance because the relationship of the residence to the orchard would be substantially altered. An important factor in that determination was the fact that the relocation of the farmhouse, and changing its orientation, could create a false sense of historic development. In an attempt to address the August 29, 2013 request, and to devise a better preservation alternative, in November, 2013, the City commissioned the "Additional Analysis for Response to Cormments on the Draft Environmental Impact Report." That analysis includes a description and discussion of a "Historic Preservation Alternative" that would (I) keep in place the existing farmhouse and garage,, (2) require that those buildings be rehabilitated to Secretary of the Interior historic preservation standards, (3) maintain the home as a single family residential use that would be available for sale, (4) retain those orange trees that are currently located on the 1.0,044 square foot lot, and (5) provide for the planting of additional orange trees. To achieve this design, the number of homes would be reduced from 24 to 23 (the restored farmhouse plus 22 new homes). The Supplemental Analysis applied The National Park Service (NPS)National Register Bulletin 30: Guidelirxes for Ei,alit(itirrg twirl Docitmerrting Rural T3zsstoric Landscapes (MeLelland et al. 1999:15 -17) rubric for purposes of analyzing impacts to cultural resources associated with the Historic Preservation Alternative. That analysis considered thirteen different landscape characteristics that can apply to orchards, including: (1) Natural Systems and Features; (2) Spatial Organization; (3) Land Use; (4) Cultural Traditions; (5) Circulation; (6) Topography; (7) Vegetation; (8) Buildings and Structures; (9) Cluster Arrangements; (10) Small Scale Features; (11) Constructed Water Features; (12) Views and Vistas; and (13) Archaeology Sites. In the context of the Sexlinger Farmhouse and Orchard; small scale features (criterion 10), constructed water features (criterion 11), and archeology sites (criterion 1.3), are either not applicable or minimally applicable, and are therefore not discussed in the Additional Analysis, As to the remaining ten factors, the Additional Analysis acknowledges that natural systems and for the property. -4- 75B -248