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not afford to move. The company had painted and repainted its building dozens of times. There were not a lot of resources and they could not continue to use funds for that. The neighborhood was getting increasingly more menacing for its employees, so it "cut a deal" in self-defense. He does not like the graf~ti, but the company did what it could in the interests of the employees. It was struggling to get its product approved and now that it has been, the company wants to move to a better location. That has no bearing on whether the company is trustworthy. Mr. Hirst responded to the comment about 24 hour heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) noise. Sound studies have been done on the system. The original proposal was to have two 125 ton chillers which would emit 42 decibels. The City ordinance limits sound emissions to 60 decibels. A sound study was done on the south side of Stoneridge, across from the residences, and the lowest reading, at 3:00 a.m. was 52.7 decibels, which is higher than what would be emitted by the HVAC equipment. Thoratec has decided to use only one 125 ton chiller, a 90 ton and a 30 ton. The 30 ton is the unit that will operate 24 hours a day as required by the FDA in order to meet the Class H clean room standards. Mr. Hirst then referred to the comment about chemicals that might be used in explosives and stated no chemicals are used at Thoratec that are used in bombs or explosives and none of them are radioactive. Ms. Hopkins had expressed concerns about the floor area ratio (FAR) and Mr. Hirst indicated the Thoratec FAR is consistent with the FAR for the entire business park. The height of the building is intended to serve the purposes of the building and architecturally it would not look good to have a 62,000 sq. ~. building only 22 feet high. That would look like a warehouse and Thoratec wants this structure to look like an office building. He also indicated tours of the existing Thoratec site were made available to City staff and other interested parties. Mr. Garrett took the tour, however he did not make any comments on his observations at the plant. Mr. Hirst stated the proposed building is large (57,000 sq.ft. initially with an additional 4,500 sq. ft. in a shell for future expansion). All calculations have been made available now; the company is not saying it wants only 57,000 sq. ft. and will come back later for more space. Regarding the parking berm request, if that were built it would eliminate parking spaces. Ms. Hopkins requested sewer testing for five years instead of three years, and Thoratec agrees to that if Council wants that. In addition, if Council wants a public hearing when the City turns the self-monitoring testing over to Thoratec, that is agreeable. The company will cooperate with any testing the City or DSRSD wishes to have. Many other comments made by Ms. Hopkins are already addressed by conditions which Thoratec has agreed to. He stated Ms. Hopkins quoted several remarks from Planning Commissioner Geoff Cooper, however she did not cite the quotation from Mr. Cooper when he indicated he had toured the Berkeley operation and felt it was misleading to call it a manufacturing operation. It was more like a lab setup with some assembly. The polymer was well controlled and the facility neatly run. He did not feel the HVAC operation would be a nuisance to nearby homes. Mr. Hirst also quoted comments from Planning Commissioner Lutz. Mr. Hirst referred to the comments about hazardous materials and reiterated this is a Class 3 operation and is highly regulated by the EPA and FDA and there is no opportunity for 09/03/96 -17-