RES 06035 - Laserfiche WebLink

CHAPTER 6 CUMULATIVE AND GROWTH-INDUCING IMPACTS AND OTHER ENVIRONMENTAL CONSIDERATIONS 1. CEQA Requirements The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires that EIRs contain an evaluation of a project's cumulative impacts. Cumulative impacts occur when the environmental effects of the proposed project, in conjunction with impacts resulting from other closely-related past, present, or reasonably foreseeable future projects, increase project impacts or combine to yield new impacts. Cumulative impact analysis is based on the recognition that the environmental impacts of a proposed project cannot be considered in a vacuum. Rather, changes in the environment could result from the incremental impact of what could be two or more individually minor but collectively significant projects taking place over a period of time. 2. Cumulative Context As described in the 1997/2000 EIR, the Bernal Property has been planned for development by the City of Pleasanton for many years. The development of this site has already been assumed in planning efforts undertaken by the City of Pleasanton and subregional agencies. When Pleasanton's General Plan was comprehensively updated in 1986 and again in 1996, those General Plans, which designated the Phase I and Phase II Plan area for preparation of a specific plan, took account of the development potential of Bernal Property in looking ahead to the City's overall future land use patterns, population, housing, and employment. The 1997 Draft EIR analyzed a series of development scenarios for the 516-acre Bernal Prop- erty consistent with Pleasanton's 1996 General Plan. The Phase I Specific Plan was approved with a much lower housing count (571 compared with 1,900 analyzed), much less retail space (5,000 sq. ft. as compared with 200,000 sq. ft. analyzed), and about twice the amount of office/commercial space (750,000 sq. ft. vs. 357,000 sq. ft. analyzed). This reduced land use program on the 198-acre Phase I site would be associated with far fewer average daily trips.54 Considering just traffic, the impact of the Phase I development would be less than half the estimate in the earlier EI R. Since the Phase II Specific Plan does not propose conventional 54 Total project peak period trips (AM+PM) for the residential, retail, and commercial/office uses are estimated at about 6,000 in the 1997/2000 EIR, which would translate conservatively to about 50,000 average daily trips (ADT). The Phase I approved development of 571 housing units, 5,000 sq. ft. of retail uses, and 750,000 sq. ft. of office/commercial uses would translate to roughly 15,500 ADT at (conservative) rates of 12 trips per housing unit, 100 trips per 1,000 sq. ft. of retail, and 10 trips per 1,000 sq. ft. of office/commercial space: a reduction of more than two-thirds. 181