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Vehicle Miles Traveled Analysis <br /> In response to Senate Bill 743 in 2013 (SB 743), the Office of Planning and Research (OPR) <br /> updated the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) guidelines to include new <br /> transportation-related evaluation metrics. Those updated guidelines identified vehicle miles of <br /> travel or VMT as the most appropriate metric to evaluate the environmental effects of a project <br /> from a transportation perspective and prohibited the use of delay-based metrics (such as level <br /> of service (LOS)) for the purposes of identifying transportation impacts under CEQA. <br /> The updated guidelines were finalized in December 2018, including a new Section 15064.3 in <br /> the CEQA Guidelines on VMT analysis for land use developments. The new guidelines took <br /> effect July 1, 2020. The City of Pleasanton has not yet formally adopted VMT analysis <br /> guidelines or thresholds to apply to land use projects for which it serves as the CEQA lead <br /> agency. Similarly, the Alameda County Transportation Commission (Alameda CTC) has not <br /> made any recommendations regarding VMT thresholds. In the absence of more specific local <br /> guidance, Governor's Office of Planning and Research (OPR) guidance, as documented in the <br /> December 2018 Technical Advisory 6, has been reviewed and concepts presented in the <br /> Technical Advisory have been applied to the proposed project, considering the intent of SB <br /> 743 which is to "promote the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, the development of <br /> multimodal transportation networks, and a diversity of land uses." <br /> The OPR Technical Advisory suggests certain numerical VMT thresholds for common land use <br /> categories, including residential, office, industrial, and retail. Generally, residential, office and <br /> industrial developments where the resulting VMT per capita is 15 percent below the regional <br /> average can be considered less-than-significant. The CEQA significance criteria presented in <br /> Chapter 1 of the Traffic Study (Appendix J of Exhibit D) prepared for the proposed project <br /> related to VMT were developed based on this guidance. <br /> The OPR guidance also suggests the use of screening criteria to assess whether land use <br /> development projects can be presumed to have a less-than-significant impact on VMT. Three <br /> of these screening criteria are relevant to the proposed project: <br /> 1 . Small Projects: Projects that generate fewer than 110 vehicle trips per day may be <br /> presumed to have a less-than-significant impact on VMT. <br /> 2. Map-Based Screening: Residential and office projects located in areas with low VMT <br /> based on maps created with existing VMT data may be presumed to have a less-than- <br /> significant impact on VMT. <br /> 3. Near Transit Stations: Projects within a half-mile of an existing major transit stop5 or an <br /> existing stop along a high-quality transit corridor6 may be presumed to have a less-than- <br /> significant impact on VMT, except in cases where the project: <br /> 5 A major transit stop is a site containing an existing rail transit station, a ferry terminal served by either a bus or <br /> rail transit service, or the intersection of two or more major bus routes with a frequency of service interval of 15 <br /> minutes or less during the morning and afternoon peak commute periods. <br /> 6 A high-quality transit corridor is a corridor with fixed route bus service with service intervals no longer than 15 <br /> minutes during peak commute hours. <br /> PUD-139 and P20-0973, 10x Genomics, Inc. Planning Commission <br /> 24 of 32 <br /> Vehicular access to the subject site would be provided from three existing driveways (one on <br /> Stoneridge Mall Road (Phases 2/3), one on Stoneridge Mall Road (ring road) (Phase I), and <br /> one on Springdale Avenue (Phase I and primary)). <br /> PUD-139 and P20-0973, 10x Genomics, Inc. Planning Commission <br /> 19 of 32 <br /><br />