AGENDA REPORT - Laserfiche WebLink

ENVIRONMENTAL DOCUMENTATION An initial study and a Draft Mitigated Negative Declaration (Attachment 2) was prepared and published /posted on January 26, 2011. The 20 -day public review period will end on February 14, 2011. The Initial Study identified five impacts that could be significant without mitigation. These are: Air Quality (which may require preparation of a Health Risk Assessment for projects that locate residents within 1,000 feet of the freeway or Hacienda Drive), Greenhouse Gas Emissions (which will require the implementation of General Plan Best Management Practices to reduce greenhouse gas emissions), Noise (which will require acoustical analysis and mitigation to reduce interior noise levels to City standards, and analysis of vibration impacts from BART), Traffic (which will require payment of Traffic Development Fees, and the mitigations for left -turns at Willow Road and Gibraltar Drive, and Gibraltar Drive and Hacienda Drive, as described in the Traffic Impacts section, below), and Utilities and Service Systems (which will require moving up the planned repair to an existing sewer trunk main, and the construction of a new sewer pump station). Based on the initial study, staff believes that the project impacts, as they are known at this time, are less than significant with mitigation. Staff, therefore, believes that the Mitigated Negative Declaration can be adopted in conformance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). TRAFFIC IMPACTS A Traffic Analysis of the Hacienda Transit Oriented Development (Attachment 5) prepared in conjunction with the Initial Study concluded that eight intersections operated below the Level of Service (LOS) D standard, but could be mitigated to LOS D or better. The Traffic Analysis found that the identified improvements would be required with or without the project construction and these improvements are already included in either the General Plan or the Traffic Development Fee Program. While the project's vehicle trips add to the traffic volume on the roadways, the development does not substantially increase traffic and does not induce the need for roadway improvements and the traffic generation is a less than significant impact. The project developer will be required to fund its share of the improvements through the Traffic Development Fee Program. Development of the sites may incorporate changes to the design of the existing collector and arterial road system. To implement the Transit Oriented Design, the project may (as an option) narrow two arterial roadways and one collector roadway (Owens Drive and Willow Road, and Hacienda Drive). The narrowing of the roadways promotes pedestrian circulation, but reduces the storage capacity and operational viability at two project intersections. While these two intersections maintain an acceptable LOS, the approach delay and storage capacity that result from the roadway narrowing (if implemented) requires mitigation, as follows: • Willow Road at Gibraltar Drive: Provide 150 foot left -turn storage for the northbound and southbound left turns on Willow Road. Page 5 of 6 \A /ill Floiccin nrniort rnncmdtant is rnrrantly ravinwinn nrn fnrma Hata nrnvirinrl by RRF