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4.1 Aesthetics <br />This section analyzes the proposed Specific Plan’s impacts related to aesthetics, including the <br />existing visual character of and scenic views in the Specific Plan Area and whether development <br />associated with the proposed Specific Plan would adversely affect scenic resources or introduce new <br />sources of light or glare. <br />4.1.1 Setting <br />a. Visual Character <br />Most of San Leandro is developed. The City is bordered by Castro Valley on the east, San Francisco <br />Bay on the west, the City of Oakland to the north and the unincorporated Alameda County <br />communities of San Lorenzo and Ashland to the south. The City is situated along three major <br />freeways, the MacArthur (I-580) Freeway, Nimitz (I-880) Freeway, and Interstate 238 (I-238). The <br />predominant land use in San Leandro includes well-defined suburban neighborhoods. Residential, <br />recreational, and open space uses are located in proximity to the shoreline along the western side <br />of San Leandro, and residential uses also surround the industrial areas south of Marina Boulevard <br />and west of I-880 (City of San Leandro, 2016a). Building heights within residential, commercial, and <br />industrial areas generally range from one to two stories and are often surrounded by yards and wide <br />streets. In comparison, building heights in the major activity centers of San Leandro can be up to <br />five stories. Industrial and commercial areas are primarily visually occupied by parking and storage <br />uses, with industrial buildings as proximate visual landmarks (City of San Leandro, 2016a). <br />The Specific Plan Area encompasses 154 acres situated at the eastern edge of San Leandro, adjacent <br />to unincorporated Alameda County, and generally encompasses land within the City limits located <br />within one-half mile of the Bay Fair BART station. This area contains prominent retail facilities and <br />corridors including the Bayfair Center, East 14th Street and Hesperian Boulevard corridors, as well <br />as some residential neighborhoods. The Specific Plan Area is an urbanized area with a mix of <br />residential, commercial and public/semi-public development while the surrounding terrain is <br />relatively flat and characterized by single family neighborhoods. Development in this area currently <br />consists primarily of post-war era commercial development along East 14th Street, scattered single- <br />and multiple-family residences along Hesperian Boulevard, including a mobile home park, and <br />several 60-year-old shopping centers largely covered by surface parking lots and driveways. The <br />major corridors of East 14th Street, Hesperian Boulevard and Fairmont Drive contain a variety of <br />strip and one- to three-story stand-alone commercial buildings that bear little visual relationship to <br />one another. East 14th Street, Hesperian Boulevard and Fairmont Drive also have sidewalks that are <br />generally lined with street trees, and Fairmont Drive has planting strips along both the east- and <br />west-bound sides between its intersections with East 14th Street and Hesperian Boulevard. Views of <br />existing conditions within the Specific Plan Area are shown in Figure 8a-Figure 8h. <br />As discussed in Section 2, Project Description, the Specific Plan divides the Specific Plan Area into 13 <br />subareas: ten primarily commercial subareas, one transit subarea, and two subareas with a mix of <br />residential and commercial uses, as shown in the Plan Area Overview in Chapter 1 of the Specific <br />Plan. Detailed descriptions of the current land uses within the subareas are provided in Section 2, <br />Project Description, of this EIR. <br />122