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BACKGROUND By State law, the Circulation Element is required to include the location and extent of existing and proposed major thoroughfares, transportation routes, terminals, any military airports and ports, and other local public utilities and facilities, all correlated with the Land Use Element of the General Plan. In Pleasanton's General Plan update, the focus of the Circulation Element is on auto, bicycle, and pedestrian circulation and the provision of public transportation. Public utilities and facilities, and such subjects as water and sewer transmission are dealt with in the Draft Public Facilities and Community Programs Element; electrical and energy pipeline transmission is dealt with in the Draft Energy Element. Some goals, policies and programs in the Draft General Plan Circulation Element are carried forward from the 1996 General Plan; others are based on discussions which have taken place with both the Planning Commission and City Council in over 20 Joint Workshops and other meetings since the inception of the General Plan update. Out of those meetings came an agreement on a "working draft" circulation system, which is the circulation network represented by the "build-out" scenario in the Draft Element. There was agreement to keep the Stoneridge Drive extension in the Element, as well as agreement on principals included in the Draft Circulation Element, such as the gateway constraint policy, discussed below. The Draft Circulation Element reflects the overarching theme of the General Plan update which is to move towards a more sustainable community. The Draft Circulation Element is provided as both a clean and red-lined text (Attachments 2 and 3, respectively). DISCUSSION The text of the Draft General Plan Circulation Element incorporates multiple changes from the 1996 General Plan. (See Attachment 1 for a summary of these changes.) Many of these changes are updates of information to reflect existing conditions as of 2006 and anticipated build-out conditions with development of the updated General Plan. Other changes reflect new policies or new concepts introduced in the Draft Circulation Element since the adoption of the 1996 General Plan. These changes include: circulation network changes; new policies and programs that move the Circulation Element towards a more sustainable circulation system; a new section addressing neighborhood traffic and parking; the introduction of the "gateway constraint" concept; and policy changes related to developers' obligation to pay Traffic Impact Fees. These are discussed below. Circulation Network Changes The Draft Circulation Element includes abuild-out traffic circulation network (see Figure 3-7) with some significant changes from that in the 1996 General Plan. These changes are consistent with the direction provided by the City Council at several points during the traffic modeling process, culminating in the direction regarding the Stoneridge Drive extension which was provided on May 1, 2007. The major changes are: the elimination of the interchange at I-680 and West Las Positas Boulevard; the elimination of the connection of Rose Avenue to Valley Avenue; and the new Happy Valley bypass Page2of7