III. ENVIRONMENTAL SETTING A. OVERVIEW OF ENVIRONMENTAL SETTING Regional Setting The project site is located in Los Angeles County in the northeastern San Fernando Valley, approximately 18 miles north of downtown Los Angeles. Specifically, the project site is located at 9189 De Garmo Avenue between Pendleton Street and Randall Street in the Sun Valley Community of the City of Los Angeles. Regional access to the project site is provided by the Foothill Freeway (I-210), Golden State Freeway (I-5) and the Hollywood Freeway (SR-170). The site is approximately one mile east of I-5 with several nearby northbound and southbound on- and off-ramps. The Verdugo Mountains and La Tuna Canyon are located approximately 0.5 miles to the east of the project site. The major thoroughfares serving the area include Glenoaks Boulevard approximately 500 feet to the north, San Fernando Road approximately 0.5 miles to the south, and Tuxford Street approximately 0.2 miles to the east of the project site. San Fernando Road and Glenoaks Boulevard contain commercial and industrial land uses fronting the roadways, with residential uses located behind the commercial and industrial uses. The other major streets in the area, including Tuxford Street and Sheldon Street (approximately 0.66 miles to the north) contain commercial and industrial uses east of San Fernando Road, with residential uses and school sites located along Sheldon Street west of San Fernando Road. A City of Los Angeles Department of Water and Power generating station is located approximately 0.7 miles northwest of the project site on Sheldon Street. A City of Los Angeles Department of Water and Power right-of-way runs parallel to Sheldon Street. Tuxford Street, east of Glenoaks Boulevard, is primarily commercial. Trucks southbound on I-5 in transit to the site can exit at Sheldon Street, Lankershim Boulevard, or Penrose Street. Trucks northbound on I-5 can exit at Glenoaks Boulevard, Sunland Boulevard, or Penrose Street. East-west local roads that provide access to the site include Tuxford Street and Penrose Street. San Fernando Road, Sunland Boulevard, Glenoaks Boulevard, and Lankershim Boulevard all provide northsouth access into the project area. Because of its location within an alluvial wash that handles drainage from the nearby Verdugo and San Gabriel Mountains, the area contains extensive aggregate (i.e., sand and gravel) resources that have been mined in surface pits over many years. A number of these pits have been used as landfills after aggregate mining operations have ceased. Local Setting The subject property is an assemblage of 19 separate parcels situated at the southeast and southwest corners of De Garmo Avenue and Pendleton Street, in the Sun Valley Community of the City of Los Angeles. In total, these parcels house the operations known as Community Recycling & Resource Community Recycling and Resource Recovery Facility Draft Environmental Impact Report III. Environmental Setting Page III-1
City of Los Angeles April 2009 Recovery, Inc. (CR&RR). The parent parcel is designated Assessor Parcel Number 2408-034-042. The total acreage encompassed by this operation is approximately 12.29 acres. The CR&RR facility consists of a front yard (measuring approximately 266 feet along Pendleton Street and 520 feet along De Garmo Avenue) and slightly longer rear yard (measuring approximately 311 feet along Pendleton Street and ranging from 632 feet along the property line to 660 feet abutting the front yard between Pendleton Street and Randall Street) located on the southwest corner of De Garmo Avenue and Pendleton Street. On the southeast corner, the facility contains a truck scale, truck parking, and bin storage. Refer to Figure II-2 in Section II, Site Plan. Immediate access to the site is provided by Pendleton Street, Randall Street, and De Garmo Avenue. The project site is located within the Sun Valley-La Tuna Canyon Community Plan Area. The general plan land use designation in the community plan for the project site is Heavy Industrial and it is zoned M3-1-G. Additionally the project site is within and Environmental Justice Improvement Area (ZI-2355) and a Los Angeles State Enterprise Zone (ZI-2374). On-Site Land Uses The site is currently developed with an existing transfer station (allowed per the SWFP) and nonpermitted recycling activities (allowed pursuant to the Interim Operating Agreement) that are conducted 24-hours a day, seven days a week. In general the site is open, with existing structures limited to one two-story office building, an equipment storage building, and a few roof-only non-enclosed structures for recycling, truck maintenance, and equipment repair. The front yard is paved and contains the existing structures, parking areas and resource recovery equipment. Other activities occurring in the front yard include commercial refuse tipping, resource recovery, and recycling. The rear yard is paved and contains a conveyor system and grinder. It is dedicated to activities associated with construction and debris material, wood waste, green waste, and produce (refer to Figure III-1, Aerial View of Project Site). The existing perimeter fence along the property line is a combination of stand-alone cinderblock wall, mesh screening material atop 10- to 12-foot high concrete blocks and chain link fencing along the north and west sides of the property. Driveways are open and all operations on the site are visible. Views of the project site are presented in Figures II-5 through II-12 in Section II. Surrounding Land Uses Land uses immediately adjacent to the project site are commercial and industrial. These industrial land uses include: both active and closed landfills, auto salvage yards, manufacturing and assembly activities, warehouses and distribution facilities, inactive sand and gravel pits, and aggregate processing plants. Land uses of note in the area, in addition to the project site, include Pick Your Part (a closed landfill currently operating as an auto dismantling and salvage yard) across Pendleton Street to the northwest, Bradley Landfill to the west (west of Pick Your Part), Vulcan Processing Facility (rock crushing/gravel processing) located approximately 0.5 miles to the southwest of the site, Yellow Freight and Vulcan Inert Community Recycling and Resource Recovery Facility Draft Environmental Impact Report III. Environmental Setting Page III-2
Glenoaks Boulevard Boulevard PROJECT SITE Randall Street Randall Street 0 125 250 375 500 Scale (Feet) Source: Google Earth Pro; Christopher A. Joseph & Associates, 2007. Figure III-1 Aerial View of Project Site
City of Los Angeles April 2009 Fill Pit to the north on the north side of Glenoaks, small-scale heavy industrial uses along both sides of De Garmo Avenue to the southeast, and a construction debris material recycling facility to the south. The nearest residence is located to the southeast approximately 1,800 feet from the portion of the project site where construction will occur (refer to Figure III-2, Surrounding Land Uses). B. RELATED PROJECTS Sections 15126 and 15130 of the State CEQA Guidelines provide that EIRs consider the significant environmental effects of a proposed project as well as cumulative impacts. Cumulative impacts refer to two or more individual effects which, when considered together, are considerable or which compound or increase other environmental impacts (CEQA Guidelines Section 15355). Cumulative impacts may be analyzed by considering a list of past, present, and probable future projects producing related or cumulative impacts (CEQA Guidelines Section 15130 (b)(1)(a)). All proposed (those with pending applications), recently approved, under construction, or reasonably foreseeable projects that could produce a related or cumulative impact on the local environment when considered in conjunction with the proposed project are included in the EIR. For an analysis of the cumulative impacts associated with these related projects and the proposed project, cumulative impact discussions are provided under each individual environmental impact category in Chapter IV of this EIR. The list of related projects consists of 16 projects (see Table III-1). Sources for the list include the City of Los Angeles Planning Department, Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) and the City of Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT). This list includes all approved, proposed, or potential projects within an approximately 2.5 mile radius of the project site that are expected to be completed by project opening. Since this list was compiled, some of the listed projects have opened or have been reduced in scope. For purposes of the traffic analysis, these projects continue to be shown on the related projects list because they were not generating traffic at the time the traffic counts were taken, but will be generating traffic at the time the proposed project opens. The locations of the related projects are shown in Figure III-3. Community Recycling and Resource Recovery Facility Draft Environmental Impact Report III. Environmental Setting Page III-4
DWP Valley Generation Station DWP Right of Way Bradley Landfill Vulcan Inert Fill Pit PEORIA STREET Yellow Freight Pick Your Part PROJECT SITE Vulcan Processing Facility Residential Uses Source: The Thomas Guide Digital Edition, 2001. 1 inch represents 2400 feet Figure III-2 Surrounding Land Uses
City of Los Angeles April 2009 Table III-1 Related Projects No. Location Land Use Size 1 11051 Pendleton St Open Air Market 29,000 sq. ft. 2 9000 Sunland Bl Mixed-Use n/a 3 8652 Sunland Bl Commercial Center with Offices 17,000 sq. ft 4 8612 Glenoaks Bl Multi-Family Housing 70 du 5 9171 Telfair Ave LAUSD High School 1,620 seats 6 7660 Lankershim Bl Multi-Family Housing 120 du 7 12455 Wicks St Park n/a 8 9350 Laurel Canyon Bl Condominium 79 du 9 9582 Haddon Ave Condominium 125 du 10 8401 Arleta Ave High School, Middle School, and Student Day Care 2,673 seats 11 7401 Lankershim Bl Multi Family Housing and Retail 106 du 12 12953 Branford St Charter School n/a 13 9112 Sunland Bl Montague Academy (school) 400 seats 14 9989 Laurel Canyon Bl Charter school 400 seats 15 11121 Pendleton St Mixed Waste Facility 1,500 TPD 16 9081 Tujunga Avenue Bradley Transfer Station 7,500 TPD Source: Fehr & Peers/Kaku Associates, January 2008. du=dwelling units; TPD=tons per day. Community Recycling and Resource Recovery Facility Draft Environmental Impact Report III. Environmental Setting Page III-6
14 9 12 8 15 1 5 16 13 2 7 3 4 10 6 Source: Fehr & Peers, November 2007; Google Earth Pro, 2008. 11 Figure III-3 Location of Related Projects