RES 09265 - Laserfiche WebLink

considered viable options; however, the proposed project does not achieve the same level of community benefit as the Ice Center Alternative. The City has determined to approve the Ice Center Alternative. In preparing this statement of overriding considerations, the City has balanced the benefits of the Ice Center Alternative against its unavoidable environmental impacts. Although implementation of the Ice Center Alternative would result in significant and unavoidable impacts related to the loss of the rural character of the project, air emissions above the thresholds used by the BAAQMD, and increased traffic congestion at intersections outside Pleasanton, the City finds that the benefits of the project to the community are overriding considerations when weighed against the environmental impacts listed above. Adoption of the Ice Center Alternative will allow the following community goals to be achieved, and, thus, the City finds that the potential benefits outweigh the environmental risks of the Ice Center Alternative: 1. Retain existing auto sales businesses within the City of Pleasanton by providing a large, convenient and highly visible site for an auto mall that will facilitate newer and larger facilities necessary to meet automobile franchise requirements. 2. Provide a site for a senior continuing care community that will help meet Pleasanton's and the surrounding community's expanding need for elderly assisted living opportunities, while providing a buffer between the adjacent existing residential neighborhoods to the west and the planned auto mall to the east. 3. Provide a convenient, flexible, and efficient location for additional commercial development that can take advantage of excellent freeway access and the developing EI Charro Road commercial corridor. 4. Provide a 17-acre community park site to the City that may be used for a variety of active and/or passive recreational uses, may offer multiple potential access points, and takes advantage of the adjacent Arroyo Mocho, which offers opportunities for regional trail connections and passive nature-based recreation. 5. Provide a 5-acre neighborhood park that offers both recreational opportunities and on-site stormwater detention to meet State and local hydro-modification requirements. 6. Develop a circulation system that provides convenient vehicular, bicycle, and pedestrian access to and through the Staples Ranch site, in substantial conformance with the General Plan, without adversely affecting existing residential neighborhoods in the City. 7. Design landscaping to create an attractive eastern entrance to the City, enhance the pedestrian environment, provide buffers between potentially Stoneridge Drive Specific Plan Amendment and Staples Ranch Project Environmental Impact Repot Findings and Statement of Overriding Considerations Page 46 of 47