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joined a committee to study the alternatives for removing the interchange. When he <br />___ joined the Planning Commission, he continued to urge removal of the interchange. He <br /> has been working for this for ten years and said his commitment toward removing the <br /> Stoneridge extension is no less firm. He wanted to make certain the City has a General <br /> Plan that can stand up to a legal challenge and did not want to take shortcuts that would <br /> jeopardize that. He supported the staff recommendation for several reasons. One was <br /> the defensibility of the General Plan. He also felt some of the information about traffic <br /> going to and frem the business park and what cut through traffic is doing would help in <br /> finding mitigations. It also would show regional impacts and could help in solving <br /> regional problems. He wanted to make these policy decisions as soon as possible. He <br /> wanted to get the alternatives, come to the next meeting and say take out West Las <br /> Positas and Stoneridge and concentrate on some combination of models 1 and 2. He <br /> did have some concerns about Rose Avenue. He wanted to start talking about land <br /> use, whether there would be houses in the hills, whether there should be transit oriented <br /> development, etc. He wanted to discuss if transit development could help with traffic <br /> preblems. The bottom line is quality of life and Council needs to make decisions in the <br /> best interest of the community. <br /> <br /> Mr. Brozosky felt many of Pleasanton's traffic preblems are the result of things <br /> that were not foreseen in 1996. It is unfortunate the city is in the middle of a triangle <br /> and is the optimal route to get through. He felt decisions had to be made for the benefit <br /> of Pleasanton even though they affect the region. The state has not kept up with <br /> solving regional traffic problems. There is no 580/680 flyover, Highway 84 has not been <br />.... improved, etc. It is possible the interchange and street extension could be removed <br /> from the General Plan and twenty years from now, the regional problems were fixed and <br /> we could reconsider these items. However, he did not believe that would ever happen. <br /> These models are based on logic, but people's decisions in traffic are not always based <br /> on logic. A route may not be the shortest or quickest, but at least the car is moving. He <br /> was uncertain the model could predict all that. There are observations frem the past <br /> that could be used and he trusted that more than a tool. He did not want to add freeway <br /> lanes in Pleasanton. Even though West Las Positas and Stoneridge could help <br /> regionally, it is adding traffic in the city. Quality of life is a main concern. He <br /> acknowledged Mr. Arkin's idea of an underpass was interesting, but traffic on Stanley is <br /> not moving and if there were an underpass, it would just have more cars that are not <br /> moving. He felt an underpass would be less expensive than a freeway interchange. He <br /> wanted to review models 1 and 2 with variations and not look at items 3 through 5 until <br /> the end of the process. He wanted to get through the Circulation Element and to the <br /> land use and other elements of the General Plan. He felt there would be time at the end <br /> of the process to review models in the EIR process. He wanted the Stoneridge <br /> extension and West Las Positas interchange reviewed at the end of the process in order <br /> to get more variations. Even if a model were run early on, it would still have to be done <br /> again at the end of the process. <br /> <br /> Ms. McGovern asked if the assumptions counted on El Charre going to Stanley <br /> Boulevard? <br /> <br /> Mr. Knowles said that was built into roadway network alternatives 3 and 5. <br /> <br /> Joint Workshop <br /> City Council and Planning Commission16 05/24/05 <br /> <br /> <br />