3 - The Bowery_PUBLIC COMMENT_RAMSEY

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5.0 Environmental Analysis 5.4 Landform Alteration/Visual Quality Avion Project SEIR Page 5.4-1 5.4 Landform Alteration/Visual Quality This section evaluates potential landform alteration/visual quality impacts associated with the project. The following discussion focuses on the change in visual character. 5.4.1 Relationship to the Black Mountain Ranch (Subarea I) Subarea Plan The analysis in this section updates the landform alteration/visual quality analysis in the 1998 Environmental Impact Report (EIR), with an emphasis on effects that were not addressed in the previous report. Because no site-specific design was proposed at the time the 1998 EIR was prepared, impacts relative to landform alteration could not be analyzed in detail for the perimeter properties, and impacts were considered to be potentially significant. Therefore, this section provides a site-specific analysis of landform alteration impacts relative to the project. Other issues related to visual quality were adequately analyzed as part of the 1998 EIR, to which this Supplemental Environmental Impact Report is tiered. Those issues are summarized in Chapter 9.0. 5.4.2 Existing Topography and Landform Topographically, the 5,098-acre Black Mountain Ranch Subarea, of which the project site is part, is characterized by a variety of landforms ranging from nearly flat-lying mesas in the north to Lusardi Creek/La Jolla Valley in the center flanked by rugged, steeply sloping hillside terrain dissected by smaller drainages and rolling hills. The more rugged terrain is found in the northwestern portion of the Subarea near Lusardi Creek and in the southeastern portion of the site near Black Mountain. The broad La Jolla Valley area, which crosses the central portion of Black Mountain Ranch North presents a gentler topography. Topographically, the project site is located at the upper end of a broad north-south trending valley. A ridgeline occurs in the central portion of the site that rises in elevation from north to south from 740 feet mean sea level to 915 feet mean sea level. The ridge is bounded by two small canyons, one to the east and one to the west, with one main drainage course and smaller tributaries in each. These drainages have slopes of moderate to steep grade. There is a small meadow in the northwest corner of the property, at the mouth of the eastern drainage. While the project site is undeveloped, existing residential development associated with the Heritage Bluffs project is located to the north. 5.4.3 Issue 1: Development Features 1. Project bulk, scale, materials, or style which would be incompatible with surrounding development?