Downtown Vallejo Specific Plan and Virginia Street Mixed-Use Project EIR
City of Vallejo
DC&E prepared an EIR that served both as a program-level review for a Specific Plan covering Vallejo's downtown area and as a project-level CEQA document for the first project to be developed under the Specific Plan, which is a seven-story mixed-use retail and residential building. The Downtown Vallejo Specific Plan represents an ambitious effort by the City to revitalize its historic core and the surrounding area, which has been in decline since the heyday of the nearby Mare Island Naval Shipyard in the 1940s and 1950s. DC&E prepared photorealistic visual simulations and 3-D shadow studies for the project, and oversaw preparation of an extensive parking analysis as well. Other topics addressed in the EIR were the policy impacts of the Specific Plan's proposed re-zoning to establish “place-based” rather than use-based zoning districts, potential impacts to historic structures located throughout the Specific Plan area, and cumulative impacts related to the City's simultaneous redevelopment projects along the nearby Vallejo Waterfront and on Mare Island. DC&E’s work on the project was acknowledged by both the City and the developer for its high quality and its contribution to project approval. In 2006, the Downtown Vallejo Specific Plan won the award for Best Comprehensive Planning in a Large Jurisdiction by the California Chapter of the American Planning Association.
Subsequent to certification of the EIR, the design of the mixed-use retail and residential building was modified. Based on the proposed modifications, DC&E prepared an Addendum to the Final EIR. The Addendum included a CEQA checklist which evaluated whether the proposed modifications would change the conclusions set forth in the previously certified Final EIR. DC&E conducted an urban design study as part of the Addendum to address potential aesthetic and visual impacts of the proposed modifications. The Addendum also included completion of a technical memorandum to address parking issues.
