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BACKGROUND Project Location The Downtown Specific Plan (DSP) planning area (planning area) is generally situated in the central portion of the city. The planning area covers approximately 319 acres, or about 2 percent of the area within Pleasanton city limits. The planning area is approximately bounded by the Alameda County Fairgrounds to the west; the Arroyo del Valle and Union Pacific Railroad tracks to the north; a generally straight-line projection of Second and Third Streets to the east; and Bernal Avenue to the south. Project Description The project analyzed in the Draft EIR is the Downtown Specific Plan (Proposed Plan), which is a Specific Plan that will guide development of downtown Pleasanton. The Proposed Plan is both a policy document and an implementation tool for the General Plan. It contains strategies, regulations, goals and policies to guide future development within the downtown, or planning area, related to land use, circulation, infrastructure, historic preservation, urban design, economic development, and the environment. The Proposed Plan provides a policy framework applicable to new development and redevelopment in the entire planning area; however, the most significant physical changes are expected to occur primarily in only a few geographic areas. Under the Proposed Plan, Main Street, Division Street between Main Street and Railroad Avenue, First Street, and Peters Avenue, would undergo streetscape changes that could alter the visual character and transportation patterns of these streets. The proposed Town Square District, which comprises the nine-acre existing civic center and the City-owned four-acre site adjacent to the ACE station, would potentially undergo the most significant changes. Approval of the proposed relocation of the civic center and library is subject to a vote by the people of Pleasanton and is therefore not yet final. In the event that relocation of the civic center is approved, the Proposed Plan provides a vision and a conceptual land use plan for the redevelopment of the proposed Town Square District, developed with input from the community. The Proposed Plan assumes the site (with the exception of the existing Pleasanton Public Library Building, which would be repurposed) would develop with a combination of residential, retail, office, live/work, and hotel uses, as well as a new approximately 0.75-acre city park, known as the Town Square. The construction and operation of civic uses on the 318-acre, City-owned Bernal Property, including a cultural arts center, fire station, community center and environmental education center, was considered in the Bernal Property Phase II Specific Plan and Bernal Community Park Master Plan EIR (SCH# 2002052132), certified by the City in 2006. The DSP EIR evaluates at a programmatic level the potential environmental impacts that could result from the construction and operation of civic uses comparable to those analyzed in the Bernal Property Phase II EIR, including the relocated civic center and library described above. Other parts of the planning area, including the existing and largely built-out residential neighborhoods, and most of the area north of the Arroyo del Valle, are not anticipated to experience substantial change as a result of Proposed Plan implementation. Similarly, the Proposed Plan does not envision changes to existing downtown parks, planning for which has been completed under separate master plans, including the Downtown Parks and Trails System (2002) and the Master Plan for Lions Wayside and Delucchi Parks (2014), although the Plan anticipates adding one park in the new Town Square District. The Proposed Plan Downtown Specific Plan: Draft EIR Planning Commission 2 of 5 eral Plan identifies land use compatibility standards for different land uses. For instance, noise levels between 60 and 75 decibels on the day-night equivalent level (Ldn) are considered conditionally acceptable in single-family residential