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there was a way, after the General Plan had been approved, to look at ways of bringing El Charro Road in sooner rather than later. City Manager Fialho said yes, it is largely dependent upon development. The infrastructure would need to be funded and development entitlements need to be in place to assure that property owners can make an investment in the property to compensate them for the investment they are going to make in roadway improvements. Councilmember McGovern said the east side of town is the area where most growth could actually occur and she felt the city needs to move forward on the specific plan and try to get some infrastructure improvements that would help that area of town. Mr. Fialho agreed and indicated the frustration that staff and Council has is that the General Plan update needs to be completed first before they can prepare a specific plan for the east side. Once this is done, more clarity can be provided along with timelines as it relates to the infrastructure for that area. Regarding the second bridge, Mr. Fialho said it is supposed to be four lanes over the Arroyo. One bridge currently exists and through the CIP program staff is allocating an additional $2.7 million to complete that project. She said she wanted the community to have a timeline to look at and how this will get done. She said regarding the Valley Avenue and Santa Rita residents, safety of school children is extremely important and they have brought some ideas and plans of how to make that area safer. She asked if staff was looking at those items to move forward. Traffic Engineer Tassano advised that staff is working on safety improvements and is moving forward with several of them including the flashing beacons, additional signing, radar speed signs, curb cut locations and removal of crosswalks. Staff is addressing each one of those. He said staff is starting a bicycle and pedestrian master plan which will specifically look at school routes and specific improvements. The city received a grant and the Council would hopefully be approving a resolution to accept those funds. Councilmember McGovern said she asked Public Works Director Wilson when the last time Santa Rita had been resurfaced and he indicated it was 1988. She was trying to push for the highly traveled streets such as Santa Rita, Hopyard and others to move forward and get some of the noise attenuating surfaces on them. Mr. Wilson said they have looked at this already and in the next five year CIP program it added what they believe is the incremental cost for sound attenuating asphalt into the budget. Councilmember Sullivan disclosed he spoke with the applicant on the phone, met with representatives, Nancy Allen and residents about six months ago. Regarding traffic, we are projecting future traffic on a computer model and he believes that even with the Stoneridge extension any improvements or gains over time would evaporate based on demand. Regarding truck traffic, he felt it would be difficult to monitor and adding an additional 20-25 trucks per day would not yield success. He felt the real issue of traffic would be on weekends given the full build out of California Splash and a Home Depot. He felt accurate data was needed. Regarding the economic and fiscal picture, he was happy with what was presented by staff, but he felt the City’s long-term local economy should be reviewed as well as impacts to other small businesses that may be affected and hoped that the Economic Vitality Committee and Chamber would be interested in doing this. He also felt the Council needs to determine what it wants the City to look like from a quality of life standpoint. He felt there should be a balanced mix of small and large businesses to sustain the city’s economy over the long term because he felt Home Depot spreads risk over thousands of stores. City Council Minutes 13 May 15, 2007