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The City's 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 <br /> Intersections5 where the LOS D or better standard may be exceeded. <br /> A traffic study was prepared by Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc., acting as the City's <br /> traffic consultant, to analyze the traffic and circulation for this project. The traffic study <br /> documents the traffic projected to result from the housing projects included in the 2012 <br /> Housing Element (including the project), the recently constructed Workday office <br /> building, and the approved (and under construction) 10x Genomics building and <br /> compares them to the General Plan LOS D standard. Details of the methodology and <br /> the analysis can be found in Attachment 4. The conclusion of the traffic study indicated <br /> 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 <br /> project is proposing only 360 of the 400 residential units analyzed for the project site at <br /> that time, it was determined the project would not result in any new road capacity issues <br /> beyond those previously identified in Housing Element and all impacts would be less <br /> than significant. <br /> The City Traffic Engineer has reviewed the project and determined that no additional <br /> traffic analysis would be required. The Housing Element Mitigation Measures would be <br /> applied to the project and would be implemented through conditions of approval. <br /> Additionally, the project would be required to provide the design and installation of all <br /> required traffic signal/intersection modifications. Finally, the project has been <br /> conditioned to pay the applicable City and Tri-Valley Regional traffic impact fees, as well <br /> as local roadway noise pro-rata share costs, to help fund future improvements to local <br /> and regional roadways. <br /> Holiday Shopping Traffic <br /> While not analyzed in the project traffic study, the traffic study prepared for the 10x <br /> Genomics project across the street to the south noted that because the project is <br /> located near a regional shopping mall, there are periods in late November and <br /> December when traffic conditions would be different than described in the traffic study. <br /> Generally, vehicle trips increase during the PM commute hour for some traffic <br /> movements around retail centers beginning at Thanksgiving and peaking just before the <br /> late-December holidays. However, holiday season travel patterns occur for a relatively <br /> few numbers of days each year and are considered atypical. The traffic engineering <br /> profession generally discourages data collection during atypical periods because it is <br /> uneconomical to construct physical improvements to accommodate seasonal traffic <br /> increases. For this reason, as well as changing in-person retail patterns, the <br /> transportation infrastructure and land use impacts of new projects are commonly <br /> 5 Per the General Plan, consideration may be given to traffic improvements at Gateway Intersections <br /> when it is determined that such improvements are necessary and are consistent with maintaining visual <br /> character, landscaping, and pedestrian amenities. <br /> Page 33 of 41 <br />