Visual Impact. 3.33 The potential visual impacts would be loss of views of the existing green slope within the study area. The primary sources of visual impacts during the operation phase would include the following: • the existence of the check dam and the maintenance access path; and • the existence of boulder fence.
Visual Impact. Great care has been taken in the design of the farm to make it as visually unobtrusive as possible. The farm sits subsurface and only mooring buoys will normally be visible. It is of vital importance to GreenSea Solutions to limit the visual impact of the farm on visitors to and residents of the area and wider users of the sea. There are no houses or roads on the Isle of Oronsay, or the neighbouring island of Carna, overlooking the site. There is a pathway that runs over the hills on the nearby island of Carna which would allow sight of the proposed array. The image above is a hiker’s view of the proposed Oronsay East site from the neighbouring island of Carna, at a distance of 1.5km and at an altitude of over 140m. If you look carefully you can discern two yellow dots in the foreground area of water that have been added to the image to represent the Navigation marks required for the site. Due to the limitations of software editing these dots are approximately 3 times the actual size. The only view of the proposed Oronsay East site from a public highway is from the B8007 which at this point is 1.5km to the north. The vast majority of the B8007 route along the north shore of Loch Sunart road runs through woodland and no seascape is visible from it. At this near sea-level altitude and at this distance, the farm site will not be visible to the naked eye from this location. View towards Oronsay East site from the B8007 1.5km to the north. Admiralty charts show no suitable anchorage at Oronsay East site. There are safe overnight anchorages to the west at Sailean Mòr (see Pilot below) and in Carna Xxxx Xxxx to the south east of the farm site. The most popular and secure anchorage in this area is the opposite side of Oronsay in Loch Drumbuie. The proposed seaweed farm will use a proven design of sub-surface system that has been in use in Scotland since 2012 by XXXX and on more recent commercial installations in Argyll since 2018. Although similar to sub-surface systems used by the finfish industry, it is on a much smaller scale, requires significantly less buoyancy and has much less visual impact as a result. This system involves modular frames built of 50m x 50m squares (see farm boundary plans below) held in place by short scope moorings anchors. GreenSea Solutions plan on putting up to 3 such frames, the first in September 2020 and the added over the following couple of years. All seaweed lines will be attached to this sub-surface frame structure. The deployme...
Visual Impact. Visual corridors, controlled massing and building height, as well as extensive public spaces are provided would reinforce the visual corridors to the harbourfront. The refined MLP has proposed significant reduction of height and massing of building clusters to address the visual impact to the waterfront. Natural setting of the Study Area has been respected with the view of the Victoria Harbour enhanced and ridgeline of the Victoria Peak preserved. The extensive open spaces proposed are expected to improve greening provisions and improve the urban environment for better visual comfort. Landscaping strategies have also been proposed to mitigate any adverse visual impact of utility structures.
