PC 092513 - Laserfiche WebLink

information for the public and the Commission, and for the City Council as decision makers. Mr. Dolan stated that the Task Force has been exploring a number of alternatives, and at its last meeting, the Task Force was able to get a majority of its members to agree to one alternative which, for the purposes of CEQA, would be referred to as the Preferred Plan. He indicated that he would like to talk a little bit more about what that really means, but before doing that, he would like to go through the process and the immediate time line as the Task Force moves forward and how tonight fits into the overall process. Mr. Dolan then described the process: The Task Force started with Background Information - Gathering, gathering data to try and educate the Task Force about the site and the various issues that everyone involved in the planning for this planning area is faced with. The Task Force had an Opportunities and Constraints Analysis which really started to dig in at a fairly conceptual or broader level, exactly what are the things about this particular part of town that prevent opportunities for connectivity, view preservation, how much land is really being dealt with, and what are the potential connection points; all the things about the physical part of the land and the regulatory climate that limit those choices such as soil conditions, land ownership, property owner intentions, other regulatory things being some of the restrictions on the land because of its proximity to the airport and those kinds of things, and the railroad that is obviously a big constraint that the Commission considered the last time this was before the Commission. The Task Force went through a Visioning exercise and was asked to try and identify what is it that it really wants to see out there. The Task Force spent a number of meetings talking about that and trying to narrow that focus as much as it could, dealing in this broader dialogue that it had. The Task Force then dove into something that it has been dealing with for several meetings now: the evolution of a certain number of Plan Alternatives. This has really been an iterative process. It started with some alternatives, and each of them has evolved to a certain extent, some of them quite dramatically. The Task Force reached a point where, it felt for the most part like somewhere in these alternatives is the answer. The Task Force does not necessarily have the right one just yet, but every possibility of the outcome on a particular issue is probably represented within them. The people feel comfortable that the Task Force put some parentheses around the choices at least and they are on the table. The specific task right now is to Select One Alternative to be kind of a frontrunner in the evaluation provided in the Environmental Impact Report (EIR). An EIR PLANNING COMMISSION MINUTES, September 25, 2013 Page 18 of 45