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parallel with this effort, establish a process to identify the necessary regional and other local improvements that need completion in concert with and as conditions for, the construction of the Stoneridge Drive extension. The goal of the process would be to create a circulation plan for Pleasanton that considers the interaction of local street networks with the regional system. He said the traffic model indicates that building the extension needs to be examined in context of the other improvements to mitigate the negative impacts that the failing freeways will have on the community. To him, building it now is a recipe for disaster without the pre-requisites in place. He felt the solution to these transportation problems is largely regional and should not be solved on the city streets. He also thinks this is a task that should not be left wholly to future City Councils. This circulation plan is a part of our work in developing our build out General Plan. We do need some flexibility in the future so that future councils can adapt to those conditions, whatever they are, so he wanted to explore how to balance this plan with that flexibility. Finally, he believes that approaching it in this way creates greater leverage for the Council in working with the region, especially on the State Route 84 question. Also, as part of the proposal, the Council would adopt the circulation plan as General Plan policy and then ask the voters to ratify the decision. He believes this will ensure the process and resulting plan developed is supported by the community as a whole. He agreed the City has a long history and heritage of citizen and community participation in democracy and decision- making processes and he thinks people have come to expect this on projects that have long term impacts on the entire community. And, people may take this to the ballot which may happen if it is not done right. He felt ratification would ensure the Council is doing the right thing. He feels the Council needs to show leadership, needs to try and bring the community together over the issues, needs to re-engage the region to develop improvements, State Route 84 needs to be high on that list, he was open to discussing the details and hopes we can work through this tonight. He was supportive of moving forward with the preferred land use option for the completion of the General Plan, but as these other things come forward, most specifically Hacienda TOD, we need the flexibility to examine this and decide if this makes sense for Pleasanton. Councilmember Cook-Kallio commended the Mayor and Councilmember Sullivan on their leadership, feels it is difficult to have campaigned over and over on an issue and then have to re-evaluate a position. It also characterizes what she has found being new to the Council; we don’t always agree, thinks we have shown leadership in the way we have dealt with one another in respect, things they have always acted in the communities best interest after voting, said she is astounded at the amount of work that has gone into this and thanked staff, knows how much Pleasanton cares about its community, feels everyone has an opinion and is able to provide input, noted the significant number of e- mails, thinks that the theme most important to her is being able to discuss things using civic value and principles, believes Stoneridge should be left in the General Plan and felt it is benign. She felt the Council still needed to talk about how that is going to look, she has opinions about things like the EVA and not being able to use it, understands the idea about child safety and schools, but these are conditions that exist all over Pleasanton and we are not going to change the fact that traffic is going to enter the city and it is going to continue to get worse for all of us. She felt the question that remains is how we are going to manage that traffic and circulation. Refusing to extend Stoneridge Drive will not stop the cars from coming. In addition, we are dependent upon getting people in and out of the city to work in order to fund the amenities we are used to. We are approaching build out, we need people to come shop and eat, businesses to feel this is an atmosphere in which City Council Minutes 19 May 1, 2007