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whether the City Council felt such striping was then currently warranted. The preferred <br />project, by contrast, allows the City Council to gauge changing traffic conditions, the <br />efforts of the City's regional partners to support funding and construction timing of <br />regional improvements that benefit Pleasanton, and community concerns. The <br />preferred project therefore allows the City Council to make a determination to restripe <br />the Stoneridge Drive bridges to two lanes in each direction even if all the regional <br />improvements have not been completed, thereby vesting the City Council with the <br />freedom to exercise its discretion about how best to manage Pleasanton's roadways. <br />All impacts of the preferred project have been analyzed in the EIR/SEIR. The Four - <br />Lane Concurrent Extension Alternative analyzes all impacts associated with Stoneridge <br />Drive (including the Stoneridge Drive bridges) being striped with two lanes in each <br />direction. Although the SEIR also analyzes the Two -Lane Constrained Extension <br />Alternative (which, as a practical matter, the preferred project will mirror for some period <br />of time), the CEQA Findings, the Statement of Overriding Considerations and the <br />Mitigation Monitoring and Reporting Plan track the Four -Lane Concurrent Extension <br />Alternative because the preferred alternative anticipates the restriping of Stoneridge <br />Drive bridges to two lanes in each direction at some point in the future and therefore the <br />impacts and related mitigation associated with the Four -Lane Concurrent Extension <br />Alternative, rather than the Two -Lane Constrained Extension Alternative, reflect the <br />greatest impacts that will result from the preferred project (see SEIR at 123). <br />PUBLIC REVIEW PROCESS <br />The City distributed an initial Notice of Preparation (NOP) for the EIR on June 13, 2006, <br />for agency and public review. The purpose of the NOP was to announce the City's <br />intention to prepare and distribute a Draft EIR on the proposed project and to solicit <br />comments on the scope and issues that should be considered in preparing the EIR. <br />The initial NOP comment period closed on August 7, 2006. The NOP was subsequently <br />updated and redistributed on March 26, 2007. The updated NOP comment period <br />closed on April 30, 2007. <br />A public scoping meeting was also held by the City on April 11, 2007. The scoping <br />meeting provided the public with an opportunity to orally present their concerns about <br />the proposed project. Comments were received through the combined NOP and public <br />scoping process. <br />Based partially on the NOP and public scoping process, the City prepared a Draft EIR <br />(DEIR) that was published on April 16, 2008. The CEQA-mandated 45 -day public <br />review period began on April 16, 2008 and ended on June 4, 2008. In addition to the <br />comments received at a public hearing conducted by the City Planning Commission on <br />May 14, 2008, comment letters were submitted by various public agencies and <br />organizations. <br />Responses to all comments received were prepared and included in the Final EIR <br />(Responses to Comments document), published in August, 2008, which was prepared <br />in accordance with CEQA and the guidelines for implementation of CEQA. <br />Findings and Statement of Overriding Considerations <br />