PROPOSED STIPULATION NO. 10: AESTHETICS AND VISUAL RESOURCES

1. The Application to be submitted will include a visual impact assessment (VIA) to determine the extent and assess the significance of Project visibility. The components of the VIA will include: photo-documentation of current visibility of the Bayside Oil Facility, confirmatory visual assessment fieldwork, visual and aesthetic impact analysis, artist renderings of the Project, and proposed impact mitigation. To the extent consistent with, and applicable to, the substantive terms in the following paragraphs contained in this stipulation, the evaluation shall be performed in accordance with the substantive terms of the documents listed below:

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, Assessing and Mitigating Visual Impacts, Policy Memorandum DEP-00-2, dated July 31, 2000.

New York City, Mayor's Office of Environmental Coordination, City Environmental Quality Review Technical Manual (December 1993), Chapter 3, Section G.

2. The VIA will address the following issues:

(a) the visual character and quality of the existing landscape, including the identification of significant visual resources such as unique or important public visual corridors, vistas, natural or built features, and resources listed in the NYSDEC Program Policy; (b) visibility of the Project from the surrounding communities in Brooklyn and Manhattan; (c) potential of the Project to block unique or important views of the waterfront, public parks, landmark structures or natural resources from public or publicly accessible locations; (d) appearance of the Project upon completion, including height, bulk, setbacks, facade colors and texture and the relationship of the project to key urban design elements in the surrounding area; (e) lighting (including general location and direction of lights for facility area, operational lighting, and/or task use and safety lighting including stack requirements), and similar features; (f) renderings of the Project to illustrate location, scale and appearance of the proposed facility; (g) nature and degree of change resulting from construction of the Project; (h) nature and degree of change resulting from operation of the Project including expected visible stack plume in both the cold and warm seasons based on the studies set forth in the Air Quality and Meteorology Stipulation (Stipulation No. 1); (i) proposed mitigation and mitigation alternatives, including landscaping, lighting options for work areas and safety requirements, lighting options for stack lighting as required by the FAA, alternative technologies, and all other types of mitigations described in the NYSDEC Program Policy; and (j) cumulative impact analysis, if applicable, including any article X or MPA plants under construction that have received an Article X compliance determination for its filed application.

3. The Application will identify whether the Project complies with applicable visual policies of the coastal management program as follows: (a) The Application will include a demonstration of whether the proposed Project would protect, restore, or enhance overall scenic quality of the coastal area; and (b) The Application will include a demonstration of how the Project design guidelines for either significant or non-significant scenic resources take into consideration the following: i. Clustering or orienting structures to retain views; ii. Maintaining or adding vegetation; and iii. Using appropriate scale, forms, and materials.

4. The viewshed analysis component of the Application will be conducted as follows:

(a) A viewshed map of the Project study area will be prepared and presented on a 1:24,000 scale recent edition topographic base map. The viewshed study area is defined as the area within a 1-mile radius of the center of the Project site. The 1-mile radius viewshed map(s) will provide an indication of public street or open space areas with potential visibility based on topography and representative structures and the top of the Project stacks. Visually-sensitive sites, cultural and historical resources, representative viewpoints, photograph locations, and public vantage points within the viewshed study area will be included on the map(s). (b) Representative visually sensitive resources will be evaluated in the field to determine if the proposed Project will be visible and to assess the relative importance of the views. The field investigations will make note of viewer context, existing landscape quality, and the extent of potential Project visibility (i.e. partial or full view). Photographs from representative viewpoints will be taken to document the existing views toward the proposed Project. Visually sensitive resources will be identified for further evaluation and elements will be identified that can be changed to minimize or modify visual impacts.

5. To select viewpoints for the use in preparation of visual simulation locations, the Applicant will confer with its cultural and historic resources consultants and as many of the following agencies that choose to participate; NYSDPS, NYSDEC, Office of Parks Recreation and Historic Preservation (OPRHP), New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, New York City Planning, and New York State Department of State, Division of Coastal Resources.

6. The determination of whether potential visual impacts are significant and adverse will include consideration of the following: (a) compatibility of the project with surrounding and nearby development in terms of bulk, building type, setbacks, building arrangement and street patterns; (b) alteration of streetscape elements, street hierarchy or land uses that define the urban design or visual characteristics of the area; (c) significant and permanent obstruction of important view or vistas, including seasonality, number and type of viewers, and uniqueness of the view or vista; (d) changes to or the permanent elimination of natural features or interference with the public's enjoyment of natural features (by blocking views or access); (e) interference with the visual enjoyment of an historic resource either through impairment of the public's ability to view the historic resource or the alteration of the visual context in which the resource is understood; and (f) obstruction or interference with the public's enjoyment of waterfront views.

7. The Application will include a summary of the nature of the probable impact on aesthetic, scenic, historic, and recreational resources due to the Project, and a description of the mitigation to minimize adverse impacts on those resources. Additional revised photographic overlays illustrating mitigation will be prepared for those observation points for which mitigation is proposed in the Application.

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