Summary

The Metcalf Energy Center was developed on a 20-acre site located west of Monterey Road, just north of Blanchard Road and the community of Coyote. The southern half of the site is open land used for field crops. Prior to construction, the northern half of the site contained old vehicles, piles of wooden pallets and construction debris, and sheds and pens used for raising poultry.

To assure that MEC/Metcalf Energy Center will have an attractive appearance and will relate well to its surroundings and planned campus industrial development, Calpine used the services of a specialized architectural firm to develop a customized design treatment for the facility. In addition, the site has been landscaped in order to provide maximum screening of the project and to integrate the facility into the existing and future landscape of the area.

Location

The Metcalf Energy Center (MEC) is proposed for development on a 20-acre site located west of Monterey Road, just north of Blanchard Road and the community of Coyote. The site consists of an area of flat valley land located adjacent to Fisher Creek and at southern base of Tulare Hill, the 565-foot-high ridge that defines the north end of the Coyote Valley. The site lies 0.25 miles west of PG&E's Metcalf Substation and immediately south of a set of five 230- and 500-kv transmission lines that travel along the ridgeline of Tulare Hill. The southern half of the site is open land used for field crops. Prior to construction, the northern half of the site contained old vehicles, piles of wooden pallets and construction debris, and sheds and pens used for raising poultry.

Project Features

MEC is a modern, state-of-the-art electric generation facility. Its major features include one steam turbine, two combustion turbines and two heat recovery steam generation (HRSG) units. The HRSG's are 40 feet wide, 125 feet long and will extend up to 105 feet in height. Each of the HRSG's has an exhaust stack that is 18 feet in diameter and 145 feet high. The 10-cell cooling tower is 54 feet wide and 480 feet long. The height to the top of the cooling tower deck is 65 feet and the cooling tower cones extend an additional 10 feet above the deck. The switchyard on the north side of the facility contains switch and bus structures from 18 to 26 feet in height. Two 70--foot high H-frame pole structures serve as the take-offs for the conductors (wires) that connect the switchyard to the existing transmission lines that lie 200 feet north of the site. The natural gas, water and sewer lines serving the facility are buried and will not create any long-term visual effects.

Project Design

To assure that MEC will have an attractive appearance and will relate well to its surroundings and planned campus industrial development, Calpine used the services of a specialized architectural firm to develop a customized design treatment for the power generation facility. Features of the facility's design intended to increase its attractiveness and its consistency with the industrial campus planned for the lands to the south of the site include:

· Use of wall structures with alternating horizontal bands of surface materials for the administration building and other smaller buildings' low-rise office buildings.

· Enclosure of the turbines by 44- to 75-foot high walls which, like the ancillary buildings, will have alternating bands of surface materials. These walls will simulate the appearance of a six-story mid--rise office building that will be similar in scale and form to the six- to nine-story office buildings that may be developed on the industrial park lands to the south.

· Placement of the administration building and other smaller structures on the south edge of the facility to create a transition in scale between the future industrial campus buildings to the south and the facilities' taller features.

Landscaping Plan

The project site will be landscaped in accordance with a landscape scheme that has been developed with the objectives of:

· Integrating the facility into both the existing landscape and the landscape that will be created by the development of the future industrial campus.

· Providing mitigation for existing biological resources affected by the project's development.

The tree species specified in the plan were selected for their ability to provide good screening in a short period of time, for their consistency with the project lists included in the City's design guidelines for the North Coyote Industrial Campus and for their appropriateness in providing mitigation for biological resources.

Additional Mitigation

In addition to the design measures described in the discussion of project features and design, additional measures that have been included in the project design to reduce MEC's impacts include:

· All structures, stacks, buildings, and tanks have been constructed of materials that will restrict glare and will be finished with flat tones intended to blend with the surrounding environment.

· All fencing has been constructed of non-reflective materials and will be treated or painted to blend with the surrounding environment.

· Signs at the site will be constructed of materials that are non-glare and will be painted using colors that are unobtrusive.

· Lighting is limited to areas required for safety and will be shielded from public view to the extent possible. Highly directional, high-pressure sodium vapor fixtures has been used.

· The transmission structures were finished with flat, neutral gray tones that will relate to the colors of the structures in the existing transmission corridor and that will blend with the surrounding environment.

· The conductors (wires) used for the transmission line have a non-reflective finish and the insulators are a type that does not cause light reflection or refraction.

· After construction of the pipelines serving the facility, ground surfaces are being restored to their original condition and any vegetation that had been removed during the construction process will be replaced.