PC 051408 - Laserfiche WebLink

property; and Mr. Mike Tassano, City Deputy Director of Public Works Transportation, who will answer any questions related to traffic. Mr. Bocian stated that the purpose of the meeting is to provide a forum to receive comments from the public and the Planning Commission regarding the completeness and adequacy of the Draft EIR. He noted that within the context of this process, the goal and interest is to take comments, analyze them, and respond to them in the Final EIR. He added that people who were unable to attend the meeting and have questions may submit their comments to staff through June 4, 2008. Mr. Bocian stated that the Draft EIR references the Stoneridge Drive Specific Plan which is being proposed to be amended as part of this project. He then displayed a PowerPoint presentation which highlighted the Specific Plan area, the undeveloped 124-acre Staples Ranch site that the Draft EIR is primarily concerned with, and the 169-acre project area which extends all the way to the Arroyo, to the other side of El Charro Road, and to I-580. He noted that the City is proposing to annex the entire project area, which is slightly larger than the project site. He next presented the surrounding land uses and provided information on some of the developments around the site, including the 250-acre El Charro Specific Plan project in Livermore, the 1.5 million acres of retail plan, the over 1,000-acre 3,100-residential unit Dublin Fallon Village project which includes 2.5 million acres of commercial uses, and the 1,700-acre 1,500-residential unit Dublin Ranch area. He pointed out that the Draft EIR frequently references the changing nature of the area and the fact that there has been development planned for the area for some time. Mr. Bocian presented the site area, showing the land use plan in the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that the City entered into with Alameda County Surplus Property Commission in 2006. He showed the current site plan and noted that the City Council approved the reconfiguration of the City park by Stoneridge Drive. He pointed out the locations of the proposed automall, the Continuing Life Communities assisted living facility, and the neighborhood park, indicating the access to and from the project sites and noting that Stoneridge Drive does not go through. Mr. Bocian stated that the MOU requires that the proposed projects go through the normal development review process. He indicated that there will be public meetings on all the Planned Unit Development (PUD) projects and that the Final EIR will come back to the Commission for review and recommendation to the City Council. He then turned over the floor to Mr. Brian Dolan, Director of Planning and Community Development, who will explain the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) process. Mr. Dolan stated that he was aware that the Commission has just gone through the EIR process with the Oak Grove process and noted that it would be useful to revisit the purpose of CEQA prior to the review of the Draft EIR for the Staples Ranch project. He indicated that CEQA basically has two primary purposes, the first of which is to provide a public disclosure document to give as much information as possible to the public as well as to the decision makers so they can understand the project as they consider all issues and make their decision. He then explained PLANNING COMMISSION MINUTES, May 14, 2008 Page 4 of 14