While Napa Valley might be primarily known for its wine industry, it’s also home to the largest veterans’ home in the United States. The Veterans Home of California-Yountville offers a range of care to about to about 1,000 veterans who live on-site. It needed to build a new 240-bed skilled nursing facility nursing with memory care for long-term care of resident veterans.

Because the project involves federal grant funding via the State Homes Construction Program, MIG prepared a joint CEQA/NEPA document (EIR/EA) to address conceptual project plans. A primary client concern was evaluating the project in adequate detail, given the conceptual nature of the design-build contracting process. The solution was to identify worst-case scenario parameters for environmental analysis and identify broad-level mitigation measures to maximize flexibility for the future design-build contractor. 

The key environmental issues were potential impacts to the historic district, traffic generation from 100 new employees, loss of 0.5 acres of remnant oak woodland, building demolition hazards, storm drainage containment, construction noise proximity to the elderly, and utility upgrades to aging infrastructure. Technical reports include a tree inventory, biological surveys for foothill yellow-legged frog, historic resources report, traffic report and peer review of a geotechnical report.

The project included providing client support in their consultations with the State Historic Preservation Officer about potential impacts on historic resources, including a Findings of Effect report, HABS/HALS documentation and a Memorandum of Agreement.