Martinez Bay Trail Phase II Project

Martinez Bay Trail Phase II Project

The proposed San Francisco Bay Trail (Bay Trail) segment from Nejedly Staging Area to Berrellessa Street in Martinez is a ½-mile paved Class I trail that will connect to Carquinez Scenic Drive near the Nejedly Staging Area, traverse Park District property across an existing pedestrian bridge, then travel along Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR) tracks to Berrellessa Street. This trail project will allow the connection of existing Bay Trail segments through Carquinez Strait Regional Shoreline to existing Bay Trail segments along the Martinez Regional Shoreline, and to the Martinez Intermodal Rail Station. The Project will also include safety improvements to the at-grade railroad crossing of Berrellesa Street. An Initial Study / Mitigated Negative Declaration (IS/MND) was originally prepared and adopted by the City of Martinez (City) on May 7, 2003 for approval of the Martinez Bay Trail Phase II Project (Project) located in Martinez, CA. The City found that the project has no potential for an adverse effect on wildlife resources, either individually or cumulatively, and on May 8, 2003 adopted a De Minimis Impact Finding pursuant to Section 771.4 of the Fish and Game Code. A portion of the Project was constructed while construction of the rest of the Project was put on holduntil an easement could be obtained from Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR). In 2016, the East Bay Regional Park District (Park District) amended and restated the MOU with UPRR which approved a longitudinal easement along UPRR’s railroad tracks to allow the project to move forward. The Park District is now finalizing CEQA, and finalizing preliminary design for the remaining project, and design of new but non-substantial improvements to the existing railroad crossing at Berrellesa Street. On August 7, 2020, the City responded to the Park District’s request, dated July 31, 2020, for the Park District to act as Lead Agency for the Project. The Park District has prepared an Addendum to the 2003 IS/MND to evaluate whether the Project would result in any new or substantially greater significant effects or require any new mitigation measures not identified in the 2003 MND that project proponents would decline to adopt. The Addendum, together with the 2003 MND meet requirements pursuant to CEQA of the Proposed Project. Although the project was approved in 2003, substantial changes to the Original Project have not occurred that would result in previously unidentified significant impacts or require substantial revisions to the 2003 MND. In addition, the environmental setting surrounding has not changed in a manner that would lead to new or substantially different impacts; areas surrounding Segment 1 and 2 remain undeveloped property held by the Park District and a developed operational UPRR right-of-way and City right-of-way, respectively. The new improvements to bring existing railroad crossing facilities to current standards do not result in previously unidentified impacts nor result in substantial changes to the Original Project. The revised project would not result in any previously unidentified impacts or identify additional mitigation measures that project proponents would decline to adopt. A biological resources assessment and updated wetland delineation was completed in May 2020 to support the analysis in this Addendum. The biological resource assessment recommended general avoidance and minimization measures that were not typical in 2003 but are now common conditions of approval for projects. The Park District will adopt and implement these mitigation measures for the Project. The Addendum verifies the analyses and the conclusions in the 2003 MND remain valid for the purposes of CEQA review. The Project consists of minor changes to the Original Project; would not cause new significant effects nor increase the level of environmental effect to substantial or significant; and no new mitigation measures previously found to be infeasible or which are considerably different from those analyzed in the previous MND would be necessary to reduce impacts to less than significant, but that project proponents would decline to adopt.

Martinez

Contra Costa

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Contra Costa