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residential developments. The only effective mitigation would be if the Union Pacific Railroad and Ace Train were to not use their horns. The use of warning horns is regulated by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) of the Department of Transportation (DOT), which supersedes the City's authority. Vibration The vibration study indicates that the homes on Lot 6, Lot 7, and Lot 8 will need to have spread foundation footings or post/beam foundations, resulting in a raised first floor with a "crawl" space underneath the floor, instead of slab on-grade foundations in order to meet the FTA criteria. As discussed with the applicant, the foundation system design for these three lots will be determined with the building permit based on the analyses provided by the applicant's consultants including the architect, soils engineer, structural engineer, and noise consultant subject to City review and approval. Based on discussion with the architect, a raised foundation for the buildings on Lot 6, Lot 7, and Lot 8 may increase the height of the homes on these lots by 30-inches to 36-inches, or from 26-feet to 29 feet for Plan 1, 28-feet to 31-feet for Plan 2, and 28-feet to 31-feet for Plan 3, but only on these three lots. The draft conditions of approval allow for this flexibility. PUD FINDINGS Please refer to the attached, September 15, 2010, Planning Commission Staff Report, pages 22-25, for a discussion of the considerations needed to approve the proposed PUD development plan. PUBLIC NOTICE Notice regarding the proposed project and this City Council public hearing were mailed to property owners and tenants within 1,000 feet of the subject property and was also published in the local newspaper. At the time this report was written, staff had not received any additional verbal or written communications on the proposal. Public comments received after publication of the notice will be forwarded to the City Council as they are received. ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT A Final Environmental Impact Report (Final EIR) was approved by the City Council for the Downtown Specific Plan in conformance with the standards of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) specifies that residential development projects that are proposed pursuant to the requirements of an adopted specific plan for which an EIR has been prepared and certified are exempt from additional environmental review provided: 1. There are no substantial changes to the project or to the circumstances under which the project is being undertaken that involve new significant environmental effects or that substantially increase the severity of previously identified effects; or, 2. That new information of substantial importance which was not known at the time the previous EIR was certified shows the project will have one or more significant effects not discussed in the EIR. Page 9 of 11