The Streets of Brentwood is a 460,000 square foot lifestyle retail shopping center completed on a 53.7-acre site situated on the north side of Sand Creek Road, between the State Route 4 Bypass and Shady Willow Lane in the City of Brentwood. Loewke Planning was retained to lead a team of consultants in conducting an environmental analysis of the proposed project based on consistency with impacts thresholds identified in the Brentwood General Plan EIR, and land use and development standards previously adopted for the City’s PD-6 Zone. A Design Review application was filed by the owner/developer as the only discretionary entitlement for this major retail project. The application included detailed plans which served as the basis for evaluation of potential environmental effects pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), and the development of specific mitigation measures to reduce all identified effects to a less-than-significant level.

Key issues addressed and resolved through the environmental analysis included:

1. Verification and mitigation for on-site habitat usage by burrowing owls;

2. Analysis of peak traffic demands from a broad mix of restaurant, theater and retail uses, in relation to current, near-term and long-term capacity conditions;

3. Focused examination of local traffic, circulation and parking effects on adjoining residential neighborhoods;

4. Focused analysis of potential noise effects on the adjoining residential uses from parking, truck loading and mechanical equipment usage;

5. Analysis and mitigation of viewshed impacts associated with long-range views of Mt. Diablo; and

6. Analysis of other project-specific land use, aesthetics, air quality, related biological resources, public safety, public services and other cumulative issues in relation to General Plan EIR thresholds. Additional tasks included conducting of community workshops and completion of a detailed Mitigation Monitoring and Reporting Plan (MMRP) for the project.