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PUD-136, Mall Residential Project Planning Commission <br />27 of 34 <br />Traffic and Circulation <br />As mentioned, vehicular access to the subject site would be provided from two existing <br />driveways and drive aisles (one off the east side of Stoneridge Mall Road, and one off the <br />internal loop of Stoneridge Mall Road). <br /> <br />The Pleasanton General Plan requires site-specific traffic studies for all major developments <br />which have the potential to exceed Level of Service (LOS) D at major intersections and <br />requires developers to implement the mitigation measures identified in these studies to <br />maintain LOS D or better. Exceptions are made for the Downtown and Gateway Intersections 3 <br />where the LOS D or better standard may be exceeded. <br /> <br />A traffic study was prepared by Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc., acting as the City’s traffic <br />consultant, to analyze the traffic and circulation for this project. The traffic study documents the <br />traffic projected to result from the housing projects included in the 2012 Housing Element <br />(including the project), the recently constructed Workday office building, and the approved 10x <br />Genomics building, and compares them to the General Plan LOS D standard. Details of the <br />methodology and the analysis can be found in Exhibit B. The conclusion of the traffic study <br />indicated the project is consistent with the residential development studied in the 2012 Housing <br />Element, where 400 residential units were assumed on the project site. Since the project is <br />proposing only 360 of the 400 residential units analyzed for the project site at that time, it was <br />determined the project would not result in any new road capacity issues beyond those <br />previously identified in Housing Element and all impacts would be less than significant. <br /> <br />The City Traffic Engineer has reviewed the project and determined that no additional traffic <br />analysis would be required. The Housing Element Mitigation Measures would be applied to the <br />project and would be implemented through conditions of approval. Additionally, the project <br />would be required to provide the design and installation of all required traffic signal/intersection <br />modifications. Finally, the project has been conditioned to pay the applicable City and <br />Tri-Valley Regional traffic impact fees, as well as local roadway noise pro-rata share costs, to <br />help fund future improvements to local and regional roadways. <br /> <br />Holiday Shopping Traffic <br />While not analyzed in the project traffic study, the traffic study prepared for the 10x Genomics <br />project across the street to the south noted that because the project is located near a regional <br />shopping mall, there are periods in late November and December when traffic conditions <br />would be different than described in the traffic study. Generally, vehicle trips increase during <br />the PM commute hour for some traffic movements around retail centers beginning in <br />Thanksgiving and peaking just before Christmas. However, holiday season travel patterns <br />occur for a relatively few numbers of days each year and are considered atypical. The traffic <br />engineering profession generally discourages data collection during atypical periods because it <br />is uneconomical to construct physical improvements to accommodate seasonal traffic <br />increases. For this reason, as well as changing in-person retail patterns, the transportation <br />infrastructure and land use impacts of new projects are commonly analyzed during the <br />non-holiday period, when travel conditions are more representative of the entire year. <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />3 Per the General Plan, consideration may be given to traffic improvements at Gateway Intersections when it is <br />determined that such improvements are necessary and are consistent wit h maintaining visual character, <br />landscaping, and pedestrian amenities.