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Mr. Pretzel looked at the enrollment of the schools. <br /> <br /> Ms. Dennis said she was not familiar with the NEPA process, but she was familiar with <br />the CEQA process. That is the city's process and it could provide any scope of work it wanted <br />to. If he wanted to insure documentation of public testimony, she thought the CEQA process <br />was very good to make sure that the things the community wants accomplished do get done. <br />There was a major CEQA process regarding the ridge issues as well as a fiscal analysis and the <br />community was able to effectively use those documents to support their arguments. She <br />believed CEQA was one of the most citizen-friendly processes and also provides access to the <br />court system if something is overlooked. There is more protection for the participants in that <br />process. She believed that would address all his concerns and would provide the opportunity to <br />comment on the draft and provide answers to all the questions. If people are not satisfied with <br />the answers, they can take all the documents to the court and challenge the adequacy of the <br />study. <br /> <br /> Mr. Pretzel said his main focus was on the CalTrans PR/ED. He did not have experience <br />with the CEQA process, only with the CalTrans process. <br /> <br />Mr. Campbell asked why minutes were not taken at the committee meetings. <br /> <br /> Mr. Lum said in the later couple of years, the committee worked on a very informal <br />process. In the early days of the committee, efforts were made to keep minutes and to record <br />comments. In later years, as the committee was working on fine tuning the recommendations <br />and the wording of the final report, the committee's work was less formal and there were no <br />minutes kept. <br /> <br /> Ms. Dennis again felt the CEQA documents were much more valuable that any tapes or <br />minutes from committee meetings. <br /> <br /> Mr. Pretzel referred to his experience on the Bernal Property Task Force and it has a <br />posted agenda, formal reports and minutes. That is the way a committee should be run. <br /> <br /> Judith Fox, formerly of 3645 Virgin Island Court, and member of the West Las Positas <br />Committee, agreed with the concern about undocumented comments. At the Planning <br />Commission, a City staff member made a statement that the committee did not ask for studies on <br />safety issues. She disagreed strongly. At the Planning Commission meeting, it was noted that <br />there will be a safety study involving pedestrians, bicycles, etc. and traffic to the various schools. <br />She felt part of the problem was that this interchange is so close to four school exits and <br />entrances. There will be kindergarteners crossing Donlon less than 400 feet from the freeway <br />offramp. She was told that CalTrans didn't care about the school kids; it only cares about what <br />happens on the onramps. Unless the City directs that a study be done which involves those <br />pedestrians (children) they would be in harm's way. She referred to a traffic count and said the <br />date was a Saturday before school started. Another study at West Las Positas was during spring <br />break. Those are not accurate. She believed that if the West Las Positas interchange is <br /> <br />Pleasanton City Council 20 05/07/02 <br />Minutes <br /> <br /> <br />