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580. She urged Council to look at the cost of the traffic model and include the acquisition of land for the right of way, widening existing overloaded streets, improving intersections, and reducing the traffic generated noise to acceptable levels. In addition, there are intangible costs affecting the quality of life, including risks to pedestrian safety, removal of landscaping, etc. She encouraged performing a model of the Stoneridge Drive extension. Mayor Hosterman asked staff for an explanation of the constrained gateway, given the fact that there is a nice urban forest in Pleasanton that she wanted to protect. Planner Stern explained that the level of service for downtown is lower than the citywide standard of LOS D. The idea is that area is not to be used as a through route and more focus is given to pedestrian movement. On the other hand, gateway intersections are entrances to the city from freeway interchanges. The constrained approach is to allow greater congestion in those areas rather than making some mitigation, which could include wider streets or elimination of median or sidewalk landscaping. As someone mentioned community character, it would be deemed more important to preserve the community character than to get more traffic through a particular interchange and there could be an exemption or low LOS standard for those gateway intersections. She noted that it doesn't include Santa Rita and Valley because those streets are not gateways or downtown intersections. Mayor Hosterman summarized that there are intersections that could be improved to work much better, but that would mean the loss of landscaping and addition of asphalt, which means Pleasanton would lose some of its character. Jereen Gilbert said she originally came to Council last spring due to concerns about the safety of school children at intersections surrounding Santa Rita and Valley Avenue. She has spent hours collecting data to help find a solution. She believed the data in the traffic model is outdated and inaccurate. She felt poor planning and modeling are the reason for the traffic crisis and the reason the citizens don't trust the process. She noted that if Stoneridge Drive were opened, it would probably solve the problems created by the impulsive town planning. She believed there is a need for a focused leadership effort that recognizes the problems created by this model and questions the results that have been presented. She requested a correction of the current traffic problems before moving forward with new development. She disagreed with dropping Stoneridge Drive extension from the General Plan while moving forward with a Home Depot at Valley and Stanley. She urged cooperation between the two opposing groups and urged them to continue to find more information and solutions. George Withers asked if the traffic model included the impact of emergency response vehicles and traffic light preemption. He asked if there was recovery time for the signals whenever a fire engine or ambulance goes through an intersection. He indicated the closest fire stations for response to various areas and noted that the closest secondary station to Stoneridge east is station 10 at the Livermore airport and vehicles from there have to get onto a congested freeway. If Stoneridge Drive was extended and the frontage road were complete, then that would improve response times. He suggested installing signage that says local traffic only (those who work or live in Pleasanton or Livermore) and noted Livermore residents need to get to businesses or the mall in Pleasanton without having to get onto the freeway or using Stanley Boulevard to go through downtown. He felt there were other options for extending Stoneridge than to City Council Minutes 10 January 30, 2007 Joint Workshop