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Grand Avenue Widening Project Environmental Impact Report Section 4.0 This significant unavoidable adverse impact of Alternatives 1 and 2 can only be avoided if the widening alternatives are not implemented. Because this part of the City of Santa Ana is largely developed in urban uses including residential uses, and these uses are very close to the edge of the existing right-of-way for Grand Avenue, it is not possible to widen Grand Avenue without the acquisition of some property, including residential uses. 4.4 UNAVOIDABLE ADVERSE IMPACTS RELATED TO TRANSPORTATION As described in Section 3.3.5 (Impacts Related to Transportation), substantial improvements in traffic operations will result on the project segment of Grand Avenue, if the proposed widening project is implemented. As discussed earlier, Alternatives 1 and 2 would result in substandard LOS at the Santa Ana Boulevard/I-5 HOV ramps intersections during the PM peak hour in 2020. The Traffic Studv recommends the retention of the dual right turn lane with overlap phasing to mitigate this impact. However, due to the constraints of the I-5 bridge over Grand Avenue, there is not enough right-of-way to have three through lanes and dual right turn lanes at this intersection. Further, the City carefully analyzed both options and concluded that more congestion would be created upstream by reducing the number of through lanes from three to two. Therefore, this is an unavoidable significant adverse impact of Alternatives 1 and 2 related to transportation that cannot feasibly be mitigated. 4.5 UNAVOIDABLE ADVERSE IMPACTS RELATED TO NOISE As described earlier in Section 3.6.4 (Impacts Related to Noise), the potential short term noise impacts associated with construction of Alternatives 1 and 2 would be substantially mitigated based on implementation of mitigation measure N-1. However, the anticipated noise levels of construction equipment and construction activities cannot be mitigated to below a level of significance because of the proximity of the proposed widening project to adjacent noise sensitive land uses. Therefore, in the short term, the construction of the proposed Grand Avenue widening under Alternatives 1 and 2 would result in significant adverse noise impacts which cannot be mitigated to below a level of significance. This significant unavoidable short term adverse impact of Alternatives 1 and 2 can only be avoided if the widening alternatives are not implemented. Because this part of the City of Santa Ana is largely developed in urban uses including sensitive residential uses, and some of these uses would be close to the construction area, it is not possible to construct the widened Grand Avenue without the resulting in some significant, short term, adverse noise impacts on adjacent sensitive land uses. 4.6 UNAVOIDABLE ADVERSE IMPACTS RELATED TO CULTURAL RESOURCES As described earlier in Section 3.7.4 (Impacts Related to Cultural Resources), Alternatives 1 and 2 will result in significant adverse impacts on residences at 702 and 714 North Grand Avenue which appear to be eligible for listing on the Santa Ana Register of Historic Property. Mitigation measure CR -7 would potentially avoid or partially reduce these impacts. In the event that the City cannot avoid acquisition of these properties, the impacts of Alternatives 1 and 2 on these F: IPROJ-EWGrand eirWew Text - GrandWection 4.0-new.doc Page 4-2